FROM the outside, the red brick rectangular building looks as exotic as a fish and chip shop. Which is perhaps not surprising because in a previous life, Sweet Basil, the new Thai and Cantonese restaurant at Kirk Hammerton, was once a fish and fries stop-off.

Bang next to a petrol station, it was the ideal place to fill up and then fuel up.

Two months ago it was reborn as Sweet Basil, an 80-seat restaurant with perhaps one of the most extensive menus I have seen.

We booked a table for two for 8pm and when we arrived it seemed everyone else had had the same idea. The restaurant was almost full and the staff, while pleasant, were plainly rushed.

My sister Yvonne and I settled down with a cold and full-flavoured Tiger beer and pondered the menu.

The Cantonese and Thai dishes are in separate sections - so anyone expecting a fusion of two cuisines would be disappointed. There's no Chow Mein Red Curry here.

Finally, we chose Cantonese Crispy Aromatic Duck with pancakes (£8 for a quarter) and Thai Spicy Fishcakes (£4) for starters.

There was a bit of a wait, but when the duck arrived it was worth it. It was moist and meaty and utterly delicious when wrapped in the paper-light pancakes alongside threads of spring onion and cucumber and lashings of sweet plum sauce.

However, it was just as well we were sharing, because our second starter, the fish cakes, didn't arrive for quite some time. Thai fishcakes tend to have a foam-like quality: like padded cushions with a bit of a give. These were no exception and were ideal for soaking up the accompanying sweet and spicy chilli dip.

As we waited for our main courses, Thai Green Chicken Curry (£7.50) and Cantonese Satay Sauce with sizzling filet steak (£9.50), I studied the decor. It was a plain, rectangular room, bar the Chinese artworks on the walls. There was no music to dull the loud chatter from surrounding tables. And also nothing to distract us from the fact we were waiting a very long time for our main dishes.

When nearby diners who had arrived after us began to receive their meals, we inquired about the delay.

"Just one minute," said one waitress running past our table.

It was 9.30pm when two male waiters rushed to our table, informed me there was no more fillet steak and held the menu open for me to choose something else.

My heart sank. It was clear our dinner was more than a mere minute away. By now, I'd lost the will to study the menu for anything else. The waiters were pressurising me to make a decision, so I took the easiest option and swapped the fillet steak for plain old chicken. But I felt robbed.

It was 9.45pm when our meals arrived and the problems weren't over.

My sister's Thai Green Chicken Curry was knock-out. The thinly-sliced chicken had been poached in a light and delicate broth infused with lime leaf and coriander.

Unfortunately, my dish was not such a success. The menu described the satay sauce as "mildy hot" and as a "yellowish spicy coconut and peanut tropical flavoured sauce with shredded onion and green pepper".

It was yellow right enough, but all I could taste was chilli. And celery.

Then I had a brainwave. Perhaps I had been given the wrong dish? I looked at the menu again. Ah-hah! Had I found the culprit in the Thai Stir Fried Yellow Curry, which was listed as 'hot' and 'with celery and chilli'?

I summoned a waitress and put my case. She whisked my dish away and then had a quick confab with three colleagues before returning it, confident it was the dish I'd ordered.

I wasn't convinced. So she took it to the chef and returned again insisting it was the right dish.

By this point my meal was not only devoid of the flavours it had promised, it was also cold.

Luckily, we saw the funny side of it all and we struck up a good-natured conversation with one of the young waiters who made the concession that "perhaps the chef forgot to put the coconut in the sauce." And perhaps the peanuts and tropical flavourings too?

He asked us if we wanted desserts. We replied: "Will they arrive before midnight?"

He laughed: "You'll have them in one minute". We knew why. The dessert menu only listed frozen ice creams.

Would they do a banana fritter with ice cream, we inquired?

Minutes later, our waiter brought out two fat and crispy fritters with bright-yellow ice cream. They were delicious and quickly devoured by us.

It was almost 10.30pm when we settled our bill of £34.

On parting, we asked if it was always so busy.

"Yes," smiled our by now very apologetic waiter. "Everybody wants to come at 8 o'clock."

Hopefully, they will sort out this over-booking problem and pace diners over the evening. Otherwise, they might find hungry folks taking leave to make a fuel stop at the petrol station next door.

Sweet Basil, A59 York Road, Kirk Hammerton, York.

TEL: 01423 330992

Maxine visited on Saturday, July 3, 2004

Updated: 10:31 Saturday, July 17, 2004