Without much competition close to campus, Basil Thai is pretty much the only viable lunch-time option for students craving a bit of southeast Asia. The setup of the restaurant is obviously catered towards students; much like other campus restaurants, there is no wait staff and customers are expected to clean up their own dishes when finished.
I've sampled a broad range of dishes at Basil Thai, and my favorites are the tom yum noodle soup and egg noodle/BBQ pork soup (particularly comforting in winter). While the pad thai and pad see ewe are good enough to sate a noodle craving, they are somewhat mediocre. I also dislike the tofu used in their curry dishes as it is plain cubed tofu (soft-ish and flavorless), whereas many places often choose a hearty, smokey bean curd instead.
I attend student lunch meetings that are frequently catered by Basil Thai. The employees are very familiar with our group and the protocols associated with the university (including tax-exemption policies), and they now throw in free appetizers (usually fried spring rolls) when we order.
Many of the complaints from other reviewers seem to be primarily associated with food poisoning and (strangely) the basil chicken. I've eaten at Basil Thai well over 50 times in the past 3 years, and I've never personally encountered food poisoning (fingers crossed?). As for the basil chicken, I am sure that there are all sorts of regional variations of this dish, but I am mostly familiar with the ground chicken version that seems so revolting to my fellow reviewers. Google a recipe for the dish and you'll see that Basil Thai isn't using ground chicken just to be offensive.