Banana Leaf

The seafood Gulai was incredible, the perfect amount of spice, and the perfect variety of seafood. Would definitely recommend having the roti canai as a starter !

I went there with some girlfriends where we enjoyed the Dineout Vancouver meal. There were 7 set dishes for the amazing lice of $ 20 per person. Excellent meal with terrific company. Good service.

It’s dine out round 2 for me! Went to Banana Leaf on W Broadway (close to VGH) to try out their Malaysian food. Their dine out menu is different from other restaurants in that it’s 7 courses to share family-​style at $ 20 per person.
Since there were 7 of us in the group, we decided that we would only order 2 dine out sets and the rest from the regular menu to share. I’ll start my review with the dine out set. Note that each dish is meant to be shared between 2 people (except for the salads, which are individually served).
The appetizers for dine out consisted of Asian Salad with Papaya & Pineapple, Nyonya Calamari, and Lettuce Wraps. The salad was quite refreshing and definitely had a Southeast Asian flair. It was dressed with a sort of sweet chilli fish sauce, making it sweet, spicy, and salty/​sour at the same time. The calamari wasn’t bad. It could’ve been crispier but it tasted pretty good with the sweet and sour chilli sauce that it came with. For the wraps, they give you fresh lettuce with some sautéed shredded meat, mushrooms, and veggies for the filling and you wrap it yourself. There’s also hoisin sauce to give it some flavour.

The 3 entrees were Gulai Fish Fillet, Sambal Green Beans, and 10 Veggie & Spices with Boneless Chicken. I was surprised how the Gulai Fish was actually quite spicy. It was good though! It was in a curry-​like sauce and it had lots of delicious lemongrass flavour. It was good though! I thought the Sambal Green Beans were just okay. They were in a dry shrimp paste. The beans were cooked nicely — still had a nice crunch but I just thought it was a bit bland. Definitely could’ve used some more of that shrimp paste. Thirdly, nothing special about the chicken. It was in a red curry type of sauce.
Dessert for the dine out menu was the Pandan Coconut Panna Cotta with Gula Melaka. This is meant to be for 2 people but it’s really quite small. Tasted quite good though. The panna cotta was like a jelly with both pandan (green) and coconut flavours (white) and the gula melaka is like a sweet syrup with hints of coconut.
For $ 20 per person, I would say the dine out menu is well worth it. You get to sample various Malaysian dishes which is great if you just want to try it out or if you’re not too familiar with the cuisine. I highly recommend it for dine out! As for our à la carte orders from the regular menu, read on to find out what we got!
I love Roti Canai. It’s a type of flatbread that’s soft and a bit buttery served with curry sauce. The roti had nice texture. It was still a bit flaky and had a hint of sweetness.
Another appetizer we ordered was the Eggplant Fries. It was our first time having these and it was a delight among the table! They were served very hot, they had a thin yet crispy batter, and the eggplant was soft and silky inside. Also, they were seasoned well with salt and drizzled with Thai chilli sauce.
The Caramelized Ginger Black Cod was by far my favourite dish. It came out very hot which is great and the fish was cooked perfectly. Soft inside and the skin was crispy without any scales (yay!). It had a nice, sweet, caramelized flavour.
The Gulai Seafood had green beans, scallops, prawns, fish, mussels, clams, and squid in the same spicy Gulai sauce from the fish fillet in the dine out menu. We didn’t know it was the same thing just with more seafood but it’s okay we liked it anyways!
I don’t really like lamb but the Braised Lamb Shank Halal was not bad. The meat was fall-​off-​the-​bone tender.
The Fried Hokkien Mee wasn’t the best. It came out as soon as we ordered it so the noodles must’ve been pre-​cooked already. They were a bit limp too.
Overall, a solid experience here at Banana Leaf on Broadway. The service was good — waiters were quick to clear our dishes and refill our waters. However, they do charge a 15% gratuity on parties of 6 or more so just be aware of that. Quite satisfied with the food, especially the caramelized black cod. Meals can be quite pricy though. Our bill came to around $ 160 after tax and tip. However, I’ll definitely be back for their late night happy hour from 9−11pm. :)
Food — ⁸⁄₁₀
Service — ⁸⁄₁₀
Ambience — ⁸⁄₁₀
Value — 7.5÷10

Went with family to try banana leaf for the first time. There were 7 of us so we thought it would be too much if all of us got the dine out menu. So we decided to just order 2 dine out menus and did the a la carte. We got the roti, eggplant fries, seafood gulai, black cod, hokkien mee and lamb shank. The rest were from the dine out menu. The dishes were good but can’t help but think that they were premade as they came really fast. The pana cotta dessert that came with dine out was good but the portion was quite small. My fave were the gulai seafood and the ginger black cod. The hokkien mee was meh. I think they premade that dish as it came out really fast.
The restaurant was very busy being dine out and all. Service was good. They kept refilling our water and cleared the plates quickly. The tables were mostly for 4 people. There’s only 2 big tables that can accommodate 8 people.
I think the dine out menu was good value for $ 20. I would come back again and try their after 9pm dishes.

TLDR– I’m vegetarian and I asked for my rice with out chicken and got chicken. Sent back and instead of remaking they tried to pick out all the chicken, missed some and I got sick
My boyfriend and I went here for our anniversary dinner the other night. We have been to the other location on Robson street for their late night happy hour and it was awesome! So that is what we decided to do for our dinner. We walk in just past 9 (when their happy hour starts) and they tell us they are about to do last call, we tell them no problem we will order quickly. We ordered a few dishes and asked for our pineapple rice without chicken as I am a vegetarian, our waiter assured us it was not an issue. Before our rice had arrived another waiter came around asking if we would like anything else as they were about to do last call. Once our food arrived I noticed immediately that my rice had chicken in it. I caught the attention on one of the waiter and let him know and he took it back to the kitchen. When he told the kitchen of the mistake we could hear the chef scream as he didn’t want to remake it. The waiter came back and apologized and said it would be out in a few minutes. They brought out my rice and there didn’t seem to be any chicken in it. With the happy special you get one rice for dine in and a second to go (there portions are significantly smaller then the other location). I ate my to go rice for lunch the next day and started to not feel well, then went to have the remainder for dinner and that’s when I noticed there were traces of small pieces of chicken in my to go rice. It’s as if they picked through my rice trying to remove the most of it. After we discovered this my boyfriend called them and the waiter remembered us and apologized for our experience and offered us a free rice. Unsure if we will go back to get that rice, we will probably stick to the other location

Came by on NYE for dinner to ring in the new year. They had a new Christmas 10 course tasting menu for $ 33 and also an 8 course one for $ 25. We opted for the 10 course as it had a better selection of sea food and also included roti and chicken satay. The beef rendang was cooked perfectly this time around and our favourite dish was the ginger cod… it was so good.

Moving here from Singapore, I always missed Singapore food. I am always in search of good Singapore/​Malaysian digs. Their satay is decent except served with too little peanut sauce. Loved their sambal green beans, beef rendang, chow-​kway-​teow, Hokkien prawn noodles and deep fried egg plant. Their chicken curry is not too bad too. Oh, love how they served the coconut rice. They were wrapped in banana leaves. Great presentation and rice was really good with all the food we ordered.

I like this location more than the other one in Kits. Quieter and the service is really friendly and attentive. Dinner is fancy and pricey here, but the food has beautiful presentation.
I finally tried the pineapple fried rice (it comes in a real pineapple!) and it tasted pretty good, although it was quite overpriced. The eggplant fries were interesting but very oily. And the (Thai?) iced coffee was very tasty.
Although I won’t be returning because of the price and my personal taste (I like other foods more…), banana leaf is definitely worth a try!

I’ve been to this place at least 8 times, and every time I leave with my stomach satiated and my taste buds buzzing. There hasn’t been a menu item I don’t like – even the papaya salad and green beans are delicious!
If I had to pick my favourites, it would have to be the roti canai, the laksa and the banana fritters with ice cream.
The people here are great at accommodating group dinners, as well. The only down side is that parking can be a pain.

Haven’t been here in at least 5 years. Came here for lunch today. Service is ok but the food isn’t as good as it use to be. Ordered the Roti which is a good portion. Also ordered the mee goreng and beef rendang. The mee goreng was pretty wet and not very flavourful. The beef rendang was ok but talk about chintzy on the meat. Got like 5 pieces of beef. Veggies were ok but a little over cooked. Not sure we will be back here again. Very average which is disappointing.

Tried to order a lemongrass cocktail, the drink special of the day, but was told they had run out of lemongrass. And it was only 7 pm. Okaaay, how about some satays then? Chicken was alright but the beef satays were too chewy and almost jerky-​like. The lowlight of the evening was the pineapple fried rice though, it had more raisins than pineapples, and not much of anything else. So my question is, where did all that pineapple meat go? Actually, the real question is, what happened to the Banana Leaf we used to love?

Great food and service. Happy hour chicken wings is 50 cents. Worth to try if your are near by Vancouver General Hospital (VGH).

We were staying at the H I and were looking for a restaurant nearby. Banana Leaf was perfect! We had the 9 course tasting menu and everything was delicious. Service was quick and friendly. Décor is simple but quite pleasant.
I had the mango mojito and loved it.
We highly recommend this restaurant.

Went here on Tuesday (July 14^th) for my birthday dinner. My family and I enjoyed it here. Service was quick and friendly and the food was good although my parents didn’t quite like the Singaporean laksa. (We asked to make it vegetarian). My mom had been to Singapore some years back and comparing the laksa she had here to the one she had in Singapore, she said the laksa here lacked something she couldn’t pin down. Odd, though, since I’m reading reviews here raving about the laksa. Maybe we got the odd one out.
We all loved the rest of the dishes we ordered, though, and I have to say the pineapple fried rice is amazing! It had just the right sweetness and crunch from the pineapple chunks. We asked for a vegetarian version and were gladly accommodated. The roti canai was delicious as was the tofu goreng. We had to order two dishes of tofu goreng as it was just too good. Perfectly crisp on the outside and silky on the inside while the sauce was very flavourful.
Will be back again especially for the tofu goreng and the (vegetarian) pineapple fried rice.

This was my first experience with Malaysian/​Singaporean cuisine so my opinion can’t speak to the authenticity of the dishes here, but as a newcomer I can say I’m hooked!
We started with an appetizer that reminded me a lot of crepes, then for entrees we got the laksa and this other noodle dish.
While the seasoning on the laksa fell slightly flat, I enjoyed how thin and chewy the noodles were.
We also got mango margaritas and the lychee martini, which were weak but fruity and delicious.
The service was impeccable, the restaurant is clean and spacious, and the surrounding area (Broadway Street) has a ton of shops to walk around after you eat!

Another good malaysian restaurant… decors are so nice, server uniforms looks very asian it looks like they are about to join a dance competetion… presentation of foods very appetizing, tasted good aswell… cash credit ok… small parking at the rear or pay parking nearby or meter at the street… noise level moderate… neat place to enjoy spicy malaysian cuisine…

I come here a lot because I really do think it’s the best Malaysian/​Singaporean food in town, but last night was a huge disappointment unlike any experience I’ve had here before.
The service was great as usual. This review is not about the service. If it were, it’d get 4 – 5 stars. This is a review solely on the food.
— The hot and sour soup was not as good as usual. It didn’t taste as good as it usually does. Also maybe someone cooks it differently each time because sometimes there’s 6 shrimp and sometimes there’s 8. Also it’s always inconsistent. Last time we had one in the restaurant and ordered one to go. The one in the restaurant was delicious but the one we took home was not on par with the taste of the other one.
— The roti was delicious. No complaints. Love it. 8 more. Please and thank you!
— The tiger prawns with mango was interesting but didn’t stand out.
— The caramelized black cod was oversauced. I love black cod. It’s one of my favorite fish out there, and I felt the sauce here didn’t complement the fish but just drowned it out.
Wish I got some of my regulars because they’re what I used to. Maybe I’m a creature of habit, or maybe these two last dishes weren’t my cup of tea. Who knows? All I can say is I left unsatisfied and disappointed.

The salad was nice and refreshing. I especially liked the sweet and sour fish sauce as a salad dressing. The different nuts on the salad gave it a nice crunchy texture. Only thing that has room for improvement is the tossing of the salad. Some bits were overly dry and unseasoned… but I’m just being nit picky here.
The roti canai doesn’t taste as good as when I had it here a couple of years ago. It’s not flakey enough and it lacks a bit of sweetness that it used to have. The calamari is not crispy enough. The dough batter is a bit dense. And it’s sort of flavourless. It simply lacks seasoning.
The flavour of the string beans was good… but I think there’s something about the way it’s cooked, that it’s not to my personal liking. There’s just something about the texture. But it’s not a bad dish. I really enjoyed the beef goreng. The spice level was just right for me. I like food a tad spicier than usual. For the most part the beef was cooked really well, but there’s this odd piece that was just a tad dry. The sauce covers this up really well though. I’m not a big fan of fish, but the fish curry was done really well. I like how they added okrah to it.
The Pisang Goreng was the highlight of my meal. My sister thought it was too greasy/​oily. However, I thought every bite was perfect with the ice cream. Absolutely delicious!
Service was stellar. They kept refilling our water without us even asking. And at one point, they even changed our plates and utensils even though it wasn’t necessary.

We tried the Dine Out Vancouver menu for this location. We were a large group of 15 and had made a reservation. Once we arrived, we were told we would be seated at two different tables! I was not informed of that when I made reservations over the phone. This made conversations a bit difficult as you can imagine.
For the food, the restaurant had ran out of cumin mussels and substituted calamari and spring rolls in its place. Good job for the restaurant to substitute food. Bad job for the restaurant to not plan ahead on inventory especially when I made reservations 2 weeks in advance. Food overall was good. It was a good opportunity to try a little bit of everything. Is it the best Malaysian food out there? Not really. I consider it more fusion to cater to the Canadian palette. This restaurant is a good introduction for those who are not familiar with the cuisine. Food was served family style.
Service was great. Food arrived to our table really fast. Staff cleared dirty places quickly and attended to our requests for drink menus, extra napkins, etc quickly.
We were charged the 18% gratuity for being a large group of 10 or more people. We were also told that there was a minimum charge of $ 25 per person as a large group. We were okay with that as the dine out menu was $ 28 a person. It was not a big issue although some of the people in the group mentioned we should not be charged the 18% gratuity automatically because we were essentially split into two groups. Minus one star for the bad seating arrangement.

It is always dangerous to go in with high expectations, and mine were set by my friend Bridget who loves love loves this place. Yay for her.
I grew up in Singapore, so from the get-​go I have a different approach to Malaysian /​Singaporean food. Something I always aim to try is roti canai, which many places advertise and typically ends up looking like the roti prata I remember from my youth, including that specific flavoured curry you get when you order roti prata /​roti canai on its own.
The roti prata I had in Singapore and which my mom makes occasionally is never sweetened. Nevertheless I have had roti canai with sweet dough in Canada — but nothing as sweet as what I got from Banana Leaf. You can eat this on its own as dessert except it comes steaming hot.
The curry was quite thick (easy to dip, therefore) and also very sweet. I think this really killed it for me – a curry that was more sweet than curry flavoured, and with basically no spicy heat to it. Taste was coconutty, and maybe in an effort to make it vegetarian they took out the meat broth, which double-​killed it for me – there is a curry specific to roti prata when ordered on its own, and this wasn’t it.
Maybe they have carefully adjusted this menu item based on years of customer feedback, but I will never order it again from Banana Leaf: It is just too alien compared to the roti prata I remember fondly from my childhood and which is replicated more closely as «roti canai» at other places like Spoon Kitchen and Bo Laksa King’s Bubbles and Bits (now just «Laksa King»).
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Malaysia Laksa Curry Mee ($ 13) was passable. Just don’t count the toppings like I did. You get about 1 cup’s worth of the «toppings» listed (egg, shrimp, etcetera). If that is good enough value for you, then don’t look and just mix it all in. Otherwise, you might think, «what? only 3 shrimps?»
Despite the chili symbol, it is on the mild side of spicy — and that was also disappointing to me.
I suppose to streamline things and cater to a Canadian demographic in a city with vegetarian-​consciousness they have adjusted how they cook things into a winning formula that has seen them expand into a chain with many outlets. But if you’re looking for a very authentic Malaysian /​Singaporean food experience, go elsewhere.
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Bring a bag WITH HANDLES if you are going to take anything home, such as the young coconut (to get at the coconut meat after you are done drinking the coconut water). They have large, sturdy paper bags for takeout, but no plastic bags and no bags with handles, apparently.