Banana Leaves Asian Restaurant & Sushi Bar — Restaurant in Madison

I decided I'd give this restaurant a try a few weeks ago after seeing all the positive reviews.

As others have mentioned, this restaurant is attached to a Best Western hotel. To be honest, I usually have very low expectations of "hotel restaurants," but I will say Banana Leaves exceeded those. If I were staying at a hotel and this was my option for dining, I wouldn't be mad.

However, I also don't think this would be my first choice for an Asian-influenced dining experience.

They have dishes from a lot of different Asian countries on the menu, though I'd say it leans most heavily Thai or Malaysian, with room for Japanese sushi. The menu isn't overwhelmingly large but it is quite varied.

It was fairly quiet when I visited in the middle of the day on March 4. A few other diners trickled in while I ate.

Service was suuuuper sweet. Kind, respectful, and diligent. I did go a little while between finishing my meal and getting a check, but I think she was trying to be respectful of me finishing up my food. I wasn't finishing it because I didn't really care for it, but that wasn't my waitress' fault. She even brought out a few small pieces of fruit for dessert as well as a box for my meal. Very thoughtful.

I decided to order one of their lunch specials as that was the most cost effective option. I selected the Thai Basil Chicken. It comes with white rice, a salad, a spring roll, and a cup of soup. I also got a Thai iced tea to drink because I can never resist those.

The Thai tea was very pretty. It was not particularly sweet and had a fairly strong almost vanilla-like flavor. I do prefer mine on the sweeter side personally, but it wasn't bad.

I was warned that the Thai Basil chicken would be spicy but I really didn't find it spicy at all except when I ate an actual piece of chili. Then, it was pleasantly warming but nothing crazy. The vegetables still had a nice snap but for me I thought the chicken was rubbery and I really didn't like the texture of it. I mostly ate veggies and rolled my nicely cooked white rice around in the sauce. Disappointed in the chicken.

The spring roll was fine -- exactly as you'd expect. I didn't realize there was a small divot in the dish that held the sweet and sour dipping sauce until it was basically too late. Oh well.

The salad was plain but I enjoyed the typical Japanese style gingery dressing.

I was somewhat pleasantly surprised to see the soup was a wonton soup. That was nice and I enjoyed trying it though I ultimately found the wontons to be rather bland.

Idk, 3 stars sounds a little harsh but 4 is too generous. I think that the idea is really there but just a few too things missed the mark for me on the execution level. If I were to return, I'd like to try some of their Malaysian dishes, as there aren't a ton of places around Huntsville that serves that cuisine.

I appreciate the kind and polite service and...

I noticed this restaurant tucked away near the Best Western Plus. They have a mixture of cuisine from Southeast Asia with a generous vegetarian and vegan selection (clearly marked). I was greeted pleasantly when I entered and offered a choice of seating (booth or table), and informed that today was the 3rd day that they had been open for. They have some tables outside that are presently not open for service, but plan to be in the future. Menus are already at each table and staff are willing to give you additional as well. Prices are fairly standard when compared to similar restaurants. Portions are good as well.

I sampled several different items here. The Thai tea wasn’t excessively sweet and had a good flavor profile. There was a large amount of ice that I wasn’t fond of. I received 5 crab rangoons, which had a good layer of cream cheese and real crab meat. Most restaurants, if not all, I’ve been to have a sweet cream cheese layer. I liked that it was more savory than sweet, and the real crab meat also stood out. It pairs extremely well with the sauce. The chicken satay is out of this world. It’s good enough to eat by itself, and pairs really well with the peanut sauce. The chicken karaage is juicy and has some crunch as well from the breading. The sauce is also a nice touch.

For the main entree, I ordered a Baba Malay Curry Chicken. It had a good amount of spice for the standard customer, and suggested to staff that they have an option to increase spice level for fellow spice lovers. The curry itself was delectable, the chicken, tofu, and vegetable blend was hearty, and I could eat that all day. There was a significant portion of curry compared to rice. I would have wanted the option for brown rice, if possible. For dessert, I ordered an ice jelly. This was totally new for me. It was a gelatinous dessert garnished with mango, pineapple, and a brown sugar syrup. It was not overtly sweet, and the fruit/syrup went well with the jelly.

I plan to come back here for dinner to try the sushi and some of the other items. It seems like a great date night spot. This restaurant introduces a lot of dishes that the Huntsville/Madison area...

Stopped in on a whim. It was a chilly, rainy day, so we ate inside. They do have a covered patio area, but because of the rain we could not sit outside under the covered patio because the patio awning appears to leak pretty badly. The restaurant is attached to the hotel and the restroom is in the lobby area of the hotel.

The server was quick to seat us and bring drinks and menus. She seemed to be working the entire area by herself and was quite efficient. They got busier after we sat down, and even had a party of 10 show up, but the server was on top of her game.

I ordered the Pad Thai. I’m a Pad Thai snob I guess you could say lol. This was just okay for me. I have only ever found one Pad Thai that I think is perfection and all of the others haven’t come close. This one wasn’t bad, just not perfection. We also ordered the Crab Rangoon and it was ehhh…. They weren’t folded the typical way, they were folding into triangles. Not sure that affects how it tastes, just pointing that out. The wonton wrapper to crab mixture ratio was off, so there was too much wrapper and left it flat for us. They also served the Rangoon with a spicy mayo (I think) and it wasn’t good. We asked for sweet and sour sauce (which is what we are used to getting with Rangoon) and all she had was a sweet chili sauce which was better, but still not great.

We asked for two to-go boxes and she promptly brought them to us with a bag to put them in, which I appreciate.

The restaurant was nice, clean and I’m sure the patio area is great on days with nice weather.

I would potentially go back, but not somewhere that I’m dying to go and would probably just pick...