Monday, January 09, 2006

Banana Leaf for Lunch

I've gushed about Banana Leaf before, but I didn't know that they were open for lunch! All three Banana Leaf locations, including the new one that replaces Sausi's on Broadway (3005 Broadway, at Carnarvon St., near MacDonald St.) serve lunch daily, usually starting at 11:30 a.m. Bac'n Girl and I had a great meal at the Denman location, choosing dishes from their lunch specials and their regular dinner menu. I was particularly impressed with the substantial Vegetarian Curry Puff appetizer off the lunch menu, which included two pockets of pastry filled with curry vegetables, with accompanying papaya salad for only $4! These are available at dinner time too for $5. I thought I didn't like papaya, but with a little chili, lime juice, and pineapples, I absolutely loved it. We started with the requisite (to me) roti canai ($3 each). We also had the Rendang Beef and Sayur Lemak with Rice ($7), a lean beef stew in curry coconut milk sauce. This was nice, but I will probably order something else next time, as I really like my stewed beef to be falling apart and tender. We also ordered the Sambal Fried Okra, Eggplant, and Green Bean vegetable dish ($12) from the regular menu. This Denman restaurant was just a perfect spot for a tasty, filling, and quiet lunch downtown during the week. And we didn't have to wait for a table!

4 comments:

Tai said...

Love the Banana Leaf!
I was there for dinner on Thursday night.
Though, to be honest, I didn't care at all for the pepper/garlic prawns.

Now, I love pepper, but it was WAY over the top.
Ah well, their hot and sour soup more than makes up for it!

kickpleat said...

i was at the banana leaf for dinner on wednesday night and we had the rendang beef curry and it was very tender and totally fell apart. i wasn't too keen on the rice & seafood dish served in a pinepple boat, tho. it's too bad the denman location doesn't serve the coconut rice in banana leaves either. sigh.

Dumpling-girl said...

Oh thanks for the comment, Kickpleat. That's good to hear, because I was wondering if perhaps it wasn't tender because it just didn't have a lot of time to simmer, since it was lunch time.

LotusRapper said...

At the Broadway and Willow location I once had the braised lamb shank. It was a huge dish but the meat was sooooo tender it was incredibly tasty (cumin/star anise flavors), not to mention a tremendous deal that can easily be shared by two. Kind of like Greek slow-braised lamb shank that's gone fusion.