Basil's Pizza

Okay, admittedly, Basil's Pizza is NOT in Myrtle Beach but instead resides in its northern neighbor North Myrtle Beach. I don't want to say this will be a trend, but if I'm out of town and have an opportunity to dig into something I can write about, I'm not going to look that gift horse in the mouth. More likely, I'll just end up shoveling a calzone into my OWN mouth which is what happened in this particular case.

Full disclosure - I actually live closer to North Myrtle Beach than I do Myrtle Beach. That being said, I didn't have any earthly clue Basil's existed until feeling hungry and adventurous at work, I did a simple search for pizza and lo and behold one of the highest rated pizza joints in the area is one that hadn't even been on my radar - Basil's. At the time, this simply wouldn't do: Basil's Pizza is located a good 30 minutes from where I work. Never one to forget a potentially pretty slice, I stowed my find away in the dark recesses of my brain until I could get a better opportunity to pounce.

I didn't have to wait long. Over the weekend I convinced my girlfriend, roommate, and my roommate's girlfriend to journey with me to Basil's to see (eat) what we could see (eat). The location is great - smack dab at the end of Sea Mountain Highway, Basil's first noticeable feature is an outdoor roofed-over patio with a view of the ocean. For ambiance, you can do worse in a pizza joint.

We'll eat after the jump, I promise.


The weather wasn't great, so we headed inside. Basil's isn't big inside, but it's far from cramped. Someone's a sports fan. University of South Carolina paraphernalia festoon the walls as you might expect. Perhaps the most dominant allegiance on display was in the form of Washington Redskins merch including a signed Art Monk piece.

Basil's clientele, at least at noon on a Sunday outside of tourist season, seems to run the gamut. Older teenagers abounded but there were also a couple families I observed purchasing merch who were probably of the tourist persuasion. The place was steadily busy, but not overworked.

As for the staff, they were friendly and attentive, and I never wanted for a refill or had any doubt about whether I'd be getting served anytime soon. Basil's devotes a lot of signage to hyping the fact that they make their dough fresh daily...a good sign in a region not typically known for pumping out high-quality pizza. My companions ordered garlic cheese bread for an appetizer, a medium pie with pineapple, bacon, and pepperoni, and a large pie with pepperoni and heaps of mushrooms. For myself, I ordered a calzone with onions, spinach, and broccoli.

The garlic cheese bread came out first served with Basil's Sauce with a capital BS. That's not a dig at the quality - it's another item Basil's hyped, capitalizing it for branding purposes I assume. The bread itself is exactly what it said on the tin - garlic bread with melted cheese on top that tasted far better than it looked. The Basil's Sauce itself was on the saltier side and not very complex - a simple marinara with what looked like spices thrown in to taste. That sounds harsher than is intended - combined, the cheesy garlic bread and sauce played well-together and was the perfect portion to share amongst four (five, including the roommate's girlfriend's little one)...no one got too full and it only primed us for the main event.

The pizza came out piping hot and looked appetizing. My fellow gustatory adventurers confirmed that it tasted as good as it looked and all were in agreement that, as the aforementioned signage implied, the crust was the star. It managed all at once to be light and supremely thin while the edges maintained a heft strong enough to support each slice. My calzone was great. The dough was stretched around it thin enough that it was transparent in places yet there was no unintentional tearing to be seen. These guys know their dough. The toppings were bodaciously fresh and rounded things out nicely.

Basil's offers up beer of the utterly domestic variety. Not to get all beer snobby up in here (though I will in future offerings, I promise), but Bud-Miller-Coors is not our cup of tea. The soda fountain selection is standard fare but Basil's keeps a great mix of glass-bottled soda on hand including Stewart's and Sun Drop that I found as surprising and awesome as everyone should.

Menu prices are affordable and in line with most pizza joints.

All in all, it was just about as good an experience as I was expecting and hoping and I was expecting and hoping for a lot. Whether a local or a visitor to the area, I wholeheartedly endorse a trip out to Basil's Pizza.

Basil's Pizza
219 Sea Mountain Highway
North Myrtle Beach, SC 29582
basilspizzacherrygrove.com
(843)249-0748

Review Score on this issue's super arbitrary 10-point scale: 8 out of 10 totally radical pizza slices - cowabunga, you know?