I went to Star Anise last night before catching a movie with a friend and I can't say that I'd ever go back.
The staff was very friendly and the restaurant atmosphere was nice, but the food wasn't great. The soups (coconut chicken and lemongrass shrimp) we're overly salty, the lemongrass chicken vermicelli was flavorless and the vermicelli looked more like thick rice spaghetti noodles, and the basil beef was basically inedible. The beef had such a strange texture, that I took two bites and left the rest untouched.
Perhaps we just ordered the wrong dishes or they were having an off night but I for one ordered a large popcorn at the movies to stop my stomach from rumbling.