Banana Leaf: Malaysian Cuisine — Restaurant in Philadelphia

Edit: We have given this place another chance within the last few years since the original review was posted 10 years ago, and the service has improved. We haven't another bad experience here, and have now been there a few times. People were very hospitable and nice, food is very delicious. Highly recommend.

I gave it 2 stars, couldve been higher, if the waitress serving our food wouldve been nicer, like the guy that was our main waiter. He was polite, friendly, helpful, patient, and gave us a few nice smiles. The waitress, even though I can understand her being busy and all with as crowded as the place was that night, was impatient and a bit rude when she brought out our appetizer and soup. Excuse me if I couldnt hear what she said over the loud voices in there from all the customers talking (I had loads of trouble just hearing my husband from across the table), but because she had to ask me what soup I ordered a few times (not loud enough for me to make out, obviously), she got very short with me, slammed the menu down in front of me. I started to flip to the soup section, but she reached down abruptly and did it for me, located the soup on the menu, and slammed her finger on it. How rude, I thought, then asked my husband (quite loudly, so he could hear me well) what he thought. He wholeheartedly agreed about the noise and the waitresss attitude.

Maybe its just me, but when I shop or eat anywhere, I expect to be treated nice and with some respect and dignity given me, esp when Im generally nice to people myself. Everyone expects some good customer service so they feel happy, comfortable, and relaxed where they eat, right? That did not sit well with me at all. If it wasnt for the regular waiter being so nice, I mightve decided to forget the meal, got up and left right then and there, and taken my money somewhere else. She really should take lessons on courtesy from the nice guy waiting us.

The saving grace of the place (besides our friendly guy waiter) was the food. It was very good, and I loved every bit. But since it was my birthday dinner, and my husband gave me the choice of where to go, I wonder if I shouldve picked a different place. From all the restaurants we looked at walking around china town that night, and some sounded very good from their window/door posted menus, I feel I shouldve picked a different place to eat. Maybe next...

Ok, real talk: the staff's friendliness levels vary wildly from day to day, and for no obvious reason that I can tell. They never write down orders and regularly forget to bring my side order of coconut rice. The first few times I went there, I only had experience with Thai menus, and based on those flavor expectations, ordered things that did not suit me. But I knew enough to get the Roti Canai, which is a little puffy-crunchy bit of heaven, and that kept me coming back enough that gradually over the years I was able to find my favorite dishes. In my opinion, their soups are the best part of the menu, with the Prawn Mee and the Bitter Melon with Tofu soups tied for first place as Chinatown's best possible thing to eat on a cold, rainy night. They're open late, which is another point in their favor, and cavernous enough that even if they have a late crowd of noisily cheerful drunk college students, you can usually find a table far away. It's a legitimately weird place, ambiance-wise, but somehow it adds to the charm, and I would be beyond heartbroken if they ever went out of business.

Not recommended for romantic dates (as I said, it can get loud-- and the portions are so huge, you will feel completely un-amorous afterwards) or out-of-towners with kids who don't know what they're getting into (as I said before, it takes some familiarity with the menu/cuisine to know for certain what you're going to like-- if you order some basic-sounding chicken dish because you think it sounds like that Chinese thing your kid likes to eat, you may end up with a meltdown on your hands.) Also not recommended for anyone who lives too close to it-- the only thing that saves me from eating there LITERALLY every day is the fact that I live and work...

Went here on a Saturday night with a party of 4. Original plan was to Penang but didn't want to wait 20 minutes. We were seated right away here and to my surprise they were not crowded at all. It used to get packed at dinner time, especially during the weekends I remember (note that I've been going here when I was in high school and college). I haven't been back here for couple of years.

The appetizer: As usual we got the Indian pancake. Definitely recommend it if you go.

Entre: Deep fried stripe bass with Thai sauce. For $30 I did not think this was worth it. The fish was overly fried and it was rather hard and dense. The sauce was good I'd say.

Hainan Chicken - this was alright, nothing out of the ordinary.

Oyster in egg - this was okay too, there was couple oysters and I think it was cooked a bit too long for the egg.

Side: Coconut rice - I always get coconut rice when I can. Gotta say this never disappoints! *Note that they charge rice separately!

The service was great, the servers were very attentive and food came out super quick.

All in all - I think this place is good but comparing to couple years back its not how I expected it to be.

Note: although I didn't order the pineapple fried rice I think I should have, I use to really like that dish here, looks...