Reviews for Banana Leaf in Kitsilano in Vancouver, BC
Walking distance from my friend's home, it should be the best Malaysian restaurant in the neighbourhood. Very authentic food and... nice service. Read more
The vibe of this place is not bad. First issue is that I used the online QR code menu and after a lot of choosing selected the... smallest sampler menu. Then upon ordering they say all sampler menus are available in the evening EXCEPT the smallest one whichis only available at lunch time. Apparently this is marked on the printed menu but not on the online menu. Wasted my time, leftme feeling disappointed, and made no sense why the smaller sampling menus are excluded but not the bigger ones. Second issue ishow the food was dished up. We were a party of 4 and 3 dishes came at the same time. The 4th dish arrived when everybody elsehad nearly finished. The restaurant wasn't that busy at the time when we ordered. Third issue is that we were left alone quitea lot. A couple of times we had to get the attention of the waiter as they went past us. I don't live close to the restaurantand so cannot go back for the lunch menu. Also, after the experience I'm not keen to go back either... Read more
One of the most authentic Malaysian restaurants I?ve been to in Vancouver. The texture of their Roti Canai is unmatched by any... other Malaysian restaurant within a similar price range, and it tastes great even without the sauce. Their Satay Chicken is soprecisely seasoned that it reminds me of some of the most popular bistros in Singapore. The Laksa has a variety of ingredientsand is packed with flavour thanks to the broth. The service is mostly fine and on time, but we did have to wave quite a fewtimes to get the staff?s attention. Overall, fantastic experience. Read more
Banana Leaf is virtually an institution in Vancouver... Serving up tasty Malaysian dishes in a number of locations for... years. Something that we always enjoy here is their tasting menus since it lets you try a variety of items. We picked their 12course tasting menu (primarily because we had a craving for their Singapore style chili lobster tails). The meal did notdisappoint and all of their dishes were hits... from the refreshing and tart papaya salad to the tender chicken satay and flakyroti. So many good dishes and a good value for the amount of food and quality. Other dishes included the crispy oysters, assamcurry scallops, plump cumin coconut mussels, beef rendang curry, green beans with okra and eggplant, peppercorn garlic prawns,sablefish with caramelized ginger sauce, coconut rice, and those tasty chili lobster tails. Topped off with fried bananas andice cream. Mmm. Read more
Good food. The Assam Curry is good flavoured curry. Lamb shank is really good, well cooked. The fried banana dessert is awesome.
Friendly staff. They have a small patio available for those who like to dine outside. We tried the tom yam soup. It was tasty... but a little disappointed as the soup came with only 2 small prawns. For mains we tried the beef rendang, nasi goreng and thekungpao cauliflower. The beef was tender. Again it had only 4 small pieces of beef. There was honestly nothing good or bad tosay about the flavour of the dish. It tasted okay. The rice was tasty but would have liked it more if it had more flavour. Weasked for their sambal sauce. I got to say the sauce was the best part of our dinner. It was spicy and delicious. This was verysimilar to what I've tried in Malaysia. The kungpao cauliflower was really tasty. This is the stir fried version. Each floret ofcauliflower was evenly coated in the sauce and I think this was reasonably priced as well. I tried their mango margarita... itwas tasty. We wanted to try the hainan ginger rice and the coconut rice but they had run out of those two sides. All the thedishes we ordered was shared between two people. Overall the experience was good. We enjoyed the food and would recommend foranyone who wants to try Malaysian dishes. Read more
Amazing tasting menu! Stopped in last night and our server was able to fit us in the private room in the back which was quite... nice. We ordered the 11 course tasting menu and it was more food then we could finish. I found the tasting menu to be a goodvalue given the number of items and the seafood included. All of the food was fresh and fragrant, my favorite dish was thesablefish. I tried to get photos of all courses but, the service was faster then the camera. I have been to many other BananaLeaf locations and this was the nicest I have seen. I would recommend checking them out. Read more
Excellent food, authentic and delicious malaysian food, generous servings that we were able to share and enjoy a variety. Our... server was patient and provided excellent recommendations. We especially felt relaxed, and not rushed as we celebrated aspecial event and ordered appetizers, then 2 or 3 main courses in sequence and a shared dessert. A new favorite that we willdefinitely be back to enjoy, Excellent vegetarian / vegan options as well as willing to adapt existing dishes. Our veganfriend had a great noodle dish. Thank you for a delightful evening and stunning meal Read more