BananaBro • Wangsa Walk Mall • Halal Certified — Restaurant in Kuala Lumpur

I have eaten at many banana bros, eg Berjaya Times Square and Sunway Putra Mall. I had guests from overseas and brought them to Wangsa Walk branch, for our first time. There was only 3 tables occupied at the time we were there. Service was extremely slow, the servers were instructed to give very small scoops by the Indian lady manager, and the dhall, usually very thick at all the other branches, was watery and devoid of lentils so much so that it was truly unrecognisable as dhall. The topping up of our craving set was at a snail's pace and reluctantly by the 2 servers, definitely on the manager's instructions. Rasam at other branches are served in 4 inch tall metal cups. The rasam here was served in a 1 inch tall metal crucible. Needless to say, no one entertained the thought of requesting rasam 30 ml at a time (rasam portions at other branches are 120 ml) At one point, it got so bad, as I was so embarassed that my guests were waiting hungrily for so long, I got up to help give them some fried chillies, then the Indian lady restaurant manager came up to me, glowered & scowled angrily and grabbed the tupperware/tongs from me, saying loudly, "Mam, you cant do that ", embarassing me and my guests, when I was trying to save a very bad situation where our food was not being topped up as a buffet should be. I told her I had no choice but to do that bcos we were just waiting expectantly for a very long time everytime anyone needed a top up. When I told her nicely and jokingly that "I wanted to help the staff" (and take matters as quietly and unobtrusively as possible into my own hands, in order to not leave my guests a very bad impression of their first time trying banana bro and sharing with their friends their experience internationally ) she raised her voice and claimed she was short staffed. There was just my table of 6, and another 2 tables with couples at Wednesday 1-2pm. We saw 2 servers, a cashier, the manager and another 1-2 staff hanging around near the till. The restaurant was perhaps 1/5 capacity full, and had 5-6 non-kitchen staff for 10 guests at 3 tables. Only 2 poor servers were attending to patrons. The manager and 3-4 other staff were just standing at till area. No one was paying nor any tables were needing to be cleared at that time.

I am posting my honest review here, and if anyone needs to corroborate my story, you are free to contact any of my other 5 guests (just pm me for their contacts) , one of whom who had a recent good experience at the newly opened IOI mall branch with his family of 6 just last week.

I am trying to be as kind as possible to give a constructive feedback in the hope this Indian lady manager at Wangsa Walk mall improves the way guests are willingly served food which we paid $173 for the 4+2 set. Please keep her at this branch only, as I believe the entire bad experience was due to the way she runs the branch. Perhaps higher management can come and retrain her in running this branch the way it should be managed. As for us, we will never patronise this particular branch again. If we decide to have banana bro again after our poor experience, we will go to Sunway Putra and Berjaya Times Square for better dhall and a genuine craving set buffet experience. Thank you for teaching me patience, restraint and grace. I can only hope my guests overlook my seeming lack of hospitality by bringing them to a buffet restaurant that is stingy with their food.

PS Just realised so many other patrons had the same experience, just by reading the other reviews. Should have done due diligence prior...

Food is ok, but service is extremely bad and horrible, very disappointed. Come during peak hours and you would most probably (if not 100%) experience the horror. I am someone who cannot stand to see other people suffer, in this shop I always see that and I cannot take it- 1. Customers are waiting for VERY long but no staff entertains them; 2. Customers are queuing outside for VERY long (long queue) but staff entertains them; 3. Customers keep showing hands or asking for help or to take orders but no one entertains them.

Been to this place around 5 times since opening, whenever I encounter such situations I always try to help those patrons/ customers who need help (such as when they are raising their hands or when they are giving some cues) but get ignored by telling the staff to go help them. On my latest visit, I was sitting looking out to the shop, and I could not take it seeing the long queue and customers getting ignored without any assistance from the staff, I changed my place facing inside the shop instead. Come during peak hours you would see this phenomenon, it's a CHAOS and HUGE MESS. One must have huge patience (as huge as buddha) for the extremely slow service and constant ignorance especially during peak hours.

On the other hand, the teh tarik is rubbish, so awful for the price of RM 3++/ cup, failed 4 out of 5 times, tasteless and awful but very pricey. There was one time, I asked the staff to change my teh tarik to a new one, still it tasted so bad.

Lastly, opening promotion was a scam. On Day-1, nobody in the shop knew about the promotion at all even though it was promoted on social media, so in a way it’s cheating to the general public. Then the following days, the portion of RM0.99 Chicken 65 Promotion (which ori-price is RM7.50) was actually served in small portion, not the original portion of RM7.50, so it was misleading.

I would say the Management of BananaBro is very pathetic and has failed miserably, at least for this outlet. I do not intend to be harsh, I hope the outlet could improve too. Yet, after coming to this place for so many times, even my another friend who came here after my last visit, has also experienced bad service and said to me "No more next time", sorry to say, this outlet is hopeless, very slow and bad service, pricey,...

Had lunch at BananaBro Wangsa Walk Mall. The ambience is nice & welcoming, the theme & color suits its restaurant name. The staff were very informative. We ordered the Craving Set which is served on the banana leaf (sealed with their restaurant logo) & comes with white rice, 3 types of vege dish of the day (mashy pumpkin, yogurt cucumber & fried snake gourd) & papadom (unfortunately the papadom is not available today). All comes with unlimited refill! They also provide 4 types of gravy of the day (chicken curry, fish curry, crab gravy & dhal). For the side we ordered spiced fried chicken (ayam goreng berempah). As for the drink we ordered fruit lychee & sunset lime. What is classic here is they dont serve you fork & spoon (we can request for it though). You suppose to enjoy the meal with your hand. When you mix the rice with all the gravy & all the vegetables plus the chicken & feed them into your mouth, owh its soooo mouth watering, & i bet you will crave for more! Seriously currylicious! The fried snake gourd is so crispy & delicious. The fried chicken is well marinated, crispy & juicy. Last but not least, the lime drink, with touch of mint leaves, is so refreshing. Overall so satisfying, love them all.

PS: we came here for the second time with our kid. This time we got the papadom as well which completes the meal. We also ordered bananakid set which is served with rice, mashed potato masala, fried snake gourd, chicken tenders, dhal gravy, papadom (all refillable except the chicken) & ribena (you can also choose milo). My kid loves it to the fullest. One more thing, their chicken 65 is also a hit - it tasted so good that you...