Shovelling Food At Banana Leaf

So the mogwai show was at the trocadero. So where does one eat before a show at the troc? Why banana leaf of course, since it's conveniently next door. I would come up with any excuse to eat here though, if I'm going to be honest. It was a busy and hopping saturday night, as usual.

E got the pearl noodles. One of my favorite dishes there. What isn't a favorite dish of mine here?
P got the pad thai. I was puzzled by why there was a heap of separate sprouts on his plate. I hadn't seen this particular plating style before. I don't remember him asking for his sprouts to be separate either. Seems random.

J got the beef chow fun. Looks like a giant portion, but he wolfed this down in seconds flat. He was really freakin hungry though. So maybe he's just a pig.
I got the seafood scramble egg chow fun. I had gotten this once before, but I totally forgot that this is how it shows up, in a shallow pool of eggy gravy. I really like this, it's just very dangerous on this flat plate. You can't move it once it's placed on the table. And you need to stick a tiny bit of hot sauce on it to give it a teensy bit more flavor.

Everything is good here. We had roti canai as well. The food came out quickly, as usual. And they kept filling our water glasses with practically every sip. You do feel a little rushed though. E especially felt this since she was the slowest eater of the bunch. Or maybe she eats normally, and the rest of us just open our mouths and shovel. After they had taken our plates away, and she was still eating, every time she took a bite, someone came over to see if she was done. It was hilarious. They do try to get you in and out of here quickly though, even though there are usually a couple of empty tables. I don't think it's out of rudeness or anything, they're just efficient at getting people in and out. The servers always look to be itching to do something.

More Bananas! Or Banana Leaf, At Least...

The great thing about going to Skeletor Karaoke Gong Show at the Trocadero is that it's practically next door to Banana Leaf. And y'all know how much I love me some damn Banana Leaf.
So along with the regular menu, they also serve sushi. But I've never been compelled to get it. I figure if I want sushi, I would go to a sushi restaurant. Why eat sushi at a malaysian restaurant? Apparently, H/A doesn't have these thoughts, and he gets sushi here all the time. He got a roll (forget the name), which was actually quite expensive, but quite tasty. I believe it had white tuna involved. I really liked this and would totally order it again, if I ever find out what this is called.
He also ordered the chili chicken, indian style. It was hilarious watching him try to eat this, as it was so damn spicy, that it was very hard for him to actually eat it, and he got totally sweaty in the face in the process. Eventually, he had to give up. If it isn't fun to eat, then it's just too damn spicy.
E likes pad thai so she went with that. She also got the tofu satay, which I love. But I do have to say that on that night, the tofu satay looked awful. Hence, no photo.
T showed up a bit late, and ordered the fried squid. Fried squid is more of an appetizer in my eyes, but but it seemed to make a good entree as well.
I tend to get a noodle dish here, so I did this time too. I got a chow fun with seafood and egg. The gravy itself was fairly bland so I got some chili oil and once I put a little of that on everything, it was great.

Yes, I Go to Banana Leaf A Lot

During these trying economic times, it's good to find free stuff to do. I'm good at it. Before attending a free comedy special taping at the Trocadero, we ate next door at Banana Leaf. Yes, again! I know, I've been here like 17 times in the past 2 weeks, but really, it is good and always convenient. I didn't pick it either! Everybody likes it!
R got wonton soup again, and lo mein. T, our resident vegetarian, asked for a recommendation from our server. He wanted a noodle dish with vegetables. And with all the options, the server suggested pad thai. Pad thai! Are we in a thai restaurant? I found it strange. I'm not the hugest fan of pad thai, it's too sweet for me. Which seems strange, as I love sweet foods.I went with the captains noodles, which was a wide flat rice noodle with some chicken and shrimp and veggies in a brown gravy. Nice and savory and something everyone can like. Something I noticed on my last trip to Banana Leaf - it is immensely difficult to understand what the servers there are saying. Man, I'm not sure why I didn't notice before, but seriously, their english and their accents are just plain bad.

More Banana Leaf

Met up with P for dinner the other night to celebrate my early retirement. We met up in chinatown and let P pick the place. He went with Penang, but there was a bunch of people waiting outside. None of us enjoy waiting. So we went to Banana Leaf instead. We all know I prefer it to Penang anyway. I got chicken satay, J got mee goreng, and P got this crazy ginger duck noodle dish. Weird, isn't it? None of us expected such a deep brown gravy to be all over it. How did it taste? Weird. Not bad weird, but just weird, and very different to anything I'd ever eaten.Can't they make duck dishes without the little bones in them? If only...

Pre-show Banana Leaf

The other night, I went to see one of my favorite newer bands - Fleet Foxes. I love, love, love them! I saw them a few months ago, but they came through Philly again, playing the Starlight this time. Last time at the FU I almost died from heat exhaustion. This time, it was just plain heavenly.

For some pre-music food, we went to Banana Leaf. Even though B had just eaten there the night before, he picked it again! Yes, it's that good. I got the seafood lo mein soup and B got the thai basil noodle. As usual, the food came out super fast and it was super cheap and super good. I could go here every night. For real.

Too Much Food at Banana Leaf

I don't know why it was so late, but we ended having an extremely late dinner at Banana Leaf on Saturday night. All I know is, I was starving by the time we got there. And even so late, the place was still hopping. You know I love this place. I could eat here every day for a year and not ever eat the same thing, and probably not ever have a bad meal. The menu is extensive and everything I've ever had has been good.


R got a thing of wonton soup. She's a girl with simple soup tastes. Instead of the typical big thick skinned type wontons, these had little shu mei like dumplings. She liked this soup a lot, and it pretty much filled her stomach. Poor planning.

We started off with the chicken satay. This was an appetizer and I was expecting maybe 3 skewers or so, but out came 6. Kind of a lot for an appetizer, no? These are so good. So damn good. It seems like it should just be a meal on its own.
R picked the malaysian style spare ribs. Ok, so these weren't spare ribs, first of all. They were more like little teeny rib tips. They were coated in some seasoning, so that when you ate them, they left a lot of gunk on your teeth. Not bad at all, but just forces you to floss and brush extremely thoroughly afterwards. These were good, but we barely ate these.

I picked the seafood lo mein. These were supposed to come with a heavily flavored egg sauce, but there was nothing of the kind. It was pretty much your regular lo mein, but with skinnier noodles. Good, but nothing unique.

Service here is always pretty good. It took much longer than normal for our food to come out, but I blame that on the chicken satay, which had to be grilled by the dude in the front, and the spare ribs, which probably required a bit of prep. We ended up leaving so much food, that when the waiter asked if we wanted to take it home, and we said no, he kept questioning us. As if we were crazy. If I had been going home directly after, I would have seriously doggy bagged it, but because I wasn't, it would have only ended up stinking up my car. I felt pretty bad about it though.

Birthday Dinner - Banana Leaf

You all know I'm crazy about Banana Leaf. Are you surprised I chose to go there for one of my birthday dinners? I knew you wouldn't be. I'm rarely there when it's so busy, so at prime time on a weekend evening, we had to wait. How unfamiliar. So while waiting, I watched them make the roti for the appetizers. It started out as a big ball of dough, and he magically stretched and fwacked it until it became all thinned out and huge. It was fascinating.




After watching the roti acrobatics, we had to get the roti canai. I think our appetites had been whetted by this season's premiere episode of No Reservations, with my favorite eater, Anthony Bourdain. He had gone to Singapore and eaten all this great food, so I'd been hankering for Banana Leaf for weeks.

I've had the roti canai before and liked it, but it had been awhile since I last tasted this. I enjoyed it very much this time round. The bread is thin and chewy, and when accompanied with the side of curry with chicken and potatoes, it's a perfect little appetizer. It looks like a small thing of bread, but remember, it's huge and has been folded over many times. It is plenty of food for two people.

I chose Hokkien Char Mee as one of the dishes to get. It comes with really thick yellow noodles in a soy sauce with pork, shrimp, squid, and veggies. This is a great and flavorful dish. Not mild at all. I would totally order this again. You know I'm in love with most kinds of noodles.

Like I said, Tony had eaten all this great food during the Singapore episode, and one of the dishes was Prawn Mee. I've been thinking about it ever since. I'm a fan of many of the noodle soup dishes at Banana Leaf, but I hadn't tried this one yet. It has thick egg noodles, sliced pork, shrimp, veggies, and bean sprouts in a spicy shrimp broth. It's weird because the broth is red from the top (yes it's spicy), but when you actually scoop it up in a spoon, it's actually much more grey. Strange, but truly tasty. I could have done without the pork, it was a bit too porky for me, and would have preferred more shrimp instead.

The service was fairly good, as usual. With it being so busy, it was probably not as good as other times. The hokkien char mee took too long to come out though. The appertizer and prawn mee came out at the same time, and we were wondering where the hokkien was. We had to ask about it once before it eventually came out. Otherwise, everything was great as usual. Great food, cheap prices, good service.

Banana Leaf, again!

A came into town from California to spend thanksgiving with her husband's family. She stayed with me for a few nights, and we ate up a storm. Her first night we were supposed to have a quick bite in Chinatown and then catch a free movie at the international house. Unfortunately, I was stupid and drove in by the art museum, and they had closed roads in preparation for the parade. Der. We never made it to the movie.

We did make it to chinatown and went to Banana Leaf. I still love this place. We got the Satay Tofu as an appetizer. I liked it from the first time I was here. I love that it has cucumber and bean sprouts in it. Two of my favorite things. It looks slightly gross in the photo, but I swear this stuff is good.



A ordered the Captain's Noodles, which has flat noodles in a malaysian soy sauce with shrimp, chicken, and pork. I loved it. It had a strong and sweet flavor and I love the greens in this, which I believe is chinese broccoli. And the wide flat noodles are a favorite as well.



I knew I wanted a noodle soup dish, so I went with Seafood Lo Mein Soup. It comes with thick yellow noodles and shrimp, scallop, squid, and veggies. It was a fairly mild tasting soup, with an eggy and thick texture. I dug it.


As usual, service was good and fast. They are pretty nuts about filling up your water. You take one sip and they fill it up! They also give you a complimentary dessert, whatever this stuff is. It has tapioca and barley in some kind of green porridge. I wasn't too crazy about it and it was pretty bland. But I love that they just give it to you. It's very korean restaurant-esque.

Malaysian, Take 3? HELLZ NO!

I was really excited, extremely excited, to try Aqua, the third and final (that I know of) Malaysian restaurant in Philadelphia. Unfortunately, it was not meant to be. It's a damn shame because I was so looking forward to it, and because it is small and cute and stylish.

We were going to catch a movie at the Film Fest, so I specifically planned to go there since I could walk there from the Ritz. Did I mention how excited I was? When we arrived, it was a bit crowded, with some people already waiting. Right in front of us a group of 3 got seated right away. I was thinking optimistically at this point. I told the hostess there were two of us, she looked around, and she said can you wait 10 minutes? Sure, I said. So then we waited. A big group of 6 came in right after us, and then another group of 3. We waited some more.

It's very sparsely decorated, but has a spectacular waterfall/water display towards the back. Really, it is quite cool and stylish. Did I mention we kept on waiting? Then they sat the group of 3. I was getting peeved. Meanwhile, for the past 15 minutes, an empty but unbussed table sat unbussed. I was willing to bus it myself. They moved some tables around. We waited some more. 20 minutes after initially talking to the server, we went over again and said we'd been waiting for longer than people she had just sat. She said "oh, I did not know about you."

That was the end for me. And we were out of there. If we weren't in a time crunch, I might have stayed and tried it anyway, if for nothing else than the food. But because of the time, we bolted. And I was pissed. I'd read some reviews online that the service was not very good and could be very spotty. If my experience is any indication, I'm never going back there. It is such a sharp contrast to Penang and Banana Leaf since the service there is so fast and attentive. The fact that Aqua made me wait 20 minutes after saying 10 minutes and then "forgot" about me, is a deal-breaker. I realize it was a busy Friday night, but you can't just forget about people. If it's that easy for them to screw that up, then how easy can they screw up everything else? Sorry Aqua, I guess you'll have to feed someone else with your bad service instead of me. Thanks anyway. To the public - don't bother! Stick with Penang and Banana Leaf!

Aqua Malaysian & Thai Restaurant
you don't want to know where it is...

Malaysian, Take 2

Sunday was day 2 for me for the film festival, and also Easter. Nothing wrong with Easter folks, but it can be quite irritating when one is trying to eat that day. Most everything is closed, except for chinese restaurants and the movies. So I guess for me, it all worked out. I had to trek from 2nd to 16th, and had to stop at Chinatown again. This time, not only because I wanted to, but also because pretty much every other food establishment was closed. Since I had been to Penang, I'd been thinking about Banana Leaf, a competitor around the corner. I decided to give it a shot.

From the outside, Penang and Banana Leaf actually look quite similar. They both have really long skinny industrial-like windows. But once you get inside Banana Leaf, it's a whole other story. The place is not industrial at all. It's very island-y, slightly Swiss Family Robinson, with some quite crudely painted drawings on the wall. And an awful lot of fake rocks everywhere. There's also a sushi bar, which is the other big difference. But aside from decor and the sushi, the menu at Penang at Banana Leaf are essentially the same. And when I say essentially, I actually mean exactly. Down to the order of the sections of the menu, and the order of the dishes themselves. I found out after a bit of reading that Banana Leaf was started by "refugees" from Penang. I didn't know that refugee meant carbon copy the menu. One would think that maybe some of the menu items would be switched, you take some out, you add some in, you move it about. But no, not here. The menu is crazy identical, down to where it says "Please ask server for advice before you order!"

I ordered the tofu satay for an appetizer. It is tofu that is cut on the diagonal and fried. Then they stuff it with blanched or steamed (not sure which) sprouts and julienned cucumbers. It's all toped with a peanut-based satay sauce. It was great. I love tofu, cucumbers, sprouts, and satay sauce, so no surprise there. It was the first time ever eating this so I couldn't say how it compares to the Penang version.

For the main dish I ordered the prawn mee. It was also freakin cold on Sunday, so after all that walking, I wanted something hot and steamy. I was torn between that and the asam laksa, both spicy noodle soups which I'd never had before. I asked the waiter for advice and he recommended the prawn mee. I think maybe he thought that was the "safer" choice and assumed that I wanted the "safer" dish. I actually just wanted to know which one he would have eaten. Oh well. So prawn mee is a "Banana Leaf's favorite!" I bet on the Penang menu it says prawn mee is a "Penang's favorite!" It has egg noodles, sliced pork, shrimp, a few bits of a mysterious green veggie, and bean sprouts and comes in a spicy shrimp broth. When I first started eating it, it seemed a little bland. But as I ate more, it took on a much stronger flavor with each bite. And it has a very strong and pungent taste and smell, that's very shrimp-y. The soup also has a strange gritty texture, as I think it is shrimp paste based, and that must be the dissolved shrimp paste. I liked it, but I wasn't crazy about it. The pork tasted weird so I stopped eating the pork after a few tries. The shrimp were good though. I wouldn't get it again though, not because it was bad, but because there are so many other things to try on the Banana Leaf menu.

The staff and service is good. They're very attentive and are quick to fill your water glass. The food also comes out quickly. Since I've been to Penang so many times, I think I'll just have to try Banana Leaf a bunch more times! Considering that the menu, pricing, and location are essentially the same, and the decor really doesn't sway me one way or the other, I'll just have two Malaysian places to choose from when I'm in Chinatown. Nothing like a little friendly competition.

Banana Leaf
1009 Arch Street
215-592-8288