Banana Tree Salford Quays — Restaurant in Salford

Had never been to this restaurant before. Was torn between it and 2 others who are actually on either side of it, a Carribean restaurant and another A la carte Asian cuisine. Decided to go for it as wanted the South East Asian/ Thai experience. We had a reservation, arrived bang on time. Were welcomed and seated fairly quickly.....however, sat for an uncomfortably long time while wait staff glided past us serving it seemed every diner except for us. Even catching the eye of any of the wait staff seemed impossible. Finally, my husband called loudly "excuse me!" and a lovely lady came to take our order. We were concerned about how long it took to get their attention, we decided to order drinks, starters and mains all at once. I ordered a mocktail, my husband ordered a cocktail version of the same type of drink, we were pleasantly surprised to find you get 2 for 1. ......However, when the drinks arrived, my husband tasted his, my cousin (who was visiting UK first time ever from South Africa...so we wanted him to have a good time) tasted his drink...and both wondered the same thing, "where's the rum?" I tasted my mocktail, then my husband's cocktail, and could hardly tell the difference! My cousin physically got up with the drinks to find the lady who'd brought the drinks to enquire as to whether or not an error had been made as the cocktails tasted of hardly any alcohol at all yet the description promised 3 parts rum. She explained the process, that the cocktails are all mixed in the correct proportions into a large container then poured out. I don't know about mixology, but is it possible the alcohol settled at the bottom and they merely got the flavoured drink off the top? She took the drinks away, they returned and tasted much better. We were happy with this. The starters arrived soon after which was pleasantly surprising, things were looking up..until they weren't. In his excitement, my husband knocked over the drink he'd just received! A member of staff swiftly appeared to clean it all up. We apologised profusely, they were OK about it, encouraged us to move us to another table. But that was it. No offer to bring another drink for my husband. Sure, it was a mistake he never meant to knock the drink over after literally one sip! A more discerning manager would have offered a guest a complimentary drink on the house to say, these things do happen, don't let it spoil your time here especially since we'd never been there before! The rest of the evening passed without incident but the inhospitable way in which we were essentially ignored when we first arrived, then given drinks that were sub par then not offered any drink to replace the one that spilled made me feel like I probably won't return again. Will try their neighbours, the Carribean restaurant next door instead next time I have an overseas guest to impress. I really wanted to love this place, but just didn't have a...

Quite disappointing really considering we spent £117 and only got a couple of cocktails (which we later learned were on 2 for one but never received the deal despite us ordering the same cocktails, and the table next to us got the other cocktails I ordered!), a starter, a kids meal and 2 mains and 2 desserts. The vegetarian menu seems nowhere near as extensive as it used to be, I’ve ordered delivery from here many times which was what influenced us to finally eat in, especially because I had vouchers that Banana Tree had sent me! I had ordered a few things that also never turned up, (thankfully these weren’t added to the final bill!) when I asked about them the waiter told us the mains were coming now, but did I want the starters after my mains, which I definitely didn’t. Obviously I can’t comment on the starter as mine never arrived, but my husband ordered the chicken satay skewers which were very small and quite tough, not nearly enough sauce with it. The mains were just microwaved basic meals which was disappointing when paying £16-£18 for a veggie katsu and a beef rendang, but my youngest daughter was still eating some of my main and the waiter took it away, and ignored us when we called after him! Desserts were actually really nice (and the only reason why any stars have been given at all) but our daughter’s ice cream was advertised as being with sauce and sprinkles, of which they apparently had none despite the waiter asking her which sauce she’d like, so she just had to have a small bowl of plain ice cream. I also work in hospitality so am usually very understanding when it comes to the stresses of working under pressure in a busy restaurant, and I understand things can get missed at times, but it was a very quiet week night and there were only a handful of other tables in, so it was very frustrating when we were trying to get the attention of staff who were nowhere to be seen 95% of the time. We also had a service charge added on which I didn’t realise until after I paid and left the waiter a cash tip, as it’s put in very small writing on your bill. I had a £10 off voucher and free birthday cocktails voucher, which I mentioned at the start of the meal as I figured only one would be redeemable during a visit, but it was only halfway through the meal we were told we apparently couldn’t use either of them because we were a walk in and hadn’t booked a table, since checking the t&c this isn’t specified so this needs to be made clearer to your customers or at least relayed right after being mentioned, as we would’ve gone elsewhere knowing this. All in all, not a great experience for my birthday, wish we’d have spent our...

First visit to this chain. And last. The waiting staff were pleasant enough and did their best (considering the two nearest tables to me both royally complained). I ordered the Lemak and was surprised to see on the menu the comment that 'if you love korma you'll love this'. And that the dish had zero chili sign warnings next to the name (as did other dishes). I lived in SE Asia (Indonesia/Singapore and Malaysia) so I know that Lemak is NOT a non-spicy dish. Which is fine for me. But I feel bad for korma/mild-curry lovers that order this. The dish description DOES say the dish it topped with sambal (which it was, and was as hot as normal) but if you are not familiar with this kind of food and don't know/ask what sambal is then you are in for a shock when your absolutely nothing like korma curry arrives. On that... the sauce is described as creamy but it was just coloured water. The coconut rice tasted plain (I queried it but was told I'd been given coconut). My food turned up about five minutes after I ordered it. Which is explained when you look at the kitchen: fully open from my seat. I didn't see a single dish being freshly cooked but instead 3 microwaves were on the go. My heart sank when I saw tupperware dishes of sauce being put in there. In fact everything seemed to come out of the microwaves whether it was sauce, dips or others. At one point a chef took a small bowl out and poked his finger in to check the temperature (no gloves on) which was a delight to watch. Nearly as lovely as hearing the chefs at the pass complaining about head office during the entire course of my meal. I ate my dish and left as I was hungry and needed to get to the theatre. If I'd had more time I would have sent it back and gone elsewhere. I can see from other reviews that people did enjoy their meal, but my advice to anyone who likes this kind of food is to lower your expectation. And be prepared to pay £17.50 for a watery curry with about 5 tiny chunks of meat in it, with very plain rice and everything at nuclear temperatures as just out of...