Banana Leaf II

Man, the food here is delicious! There are two Banana Leaf restaurants, but there is more parking at the one near HMart.
The menu is overwhelming because they have 6 pages! My friend who has been there many times helped me order. We got the Roti (plain with no filling). There is 2 in an order and they are flakey like croissants and taste might good! The sizzling bean curd is top notch! There is an egg under the tofu and that tofu is topped with meat sauce (and peas and carrots)!!! Yum yum! The curry clams are also tasty! It had okra, Japanese eggplant, and green beans along side the clams. The Malaysian flat noodles were a disappointment. The noodles were very broken up and it was dry and tastless, even with the little sauce that comes with the dish.
They kept refilling my water but it didn’t have ice in it. The décor is cute and it seems like a clean place. The service staff was very nice.

Very nice food, big portions and good flavor, staff is nice and alert of your needs.
The complicadet part is to choose, is a very big menu so may take some time to choose.

When I was thinking of Malaysian food, I was thinking okay… it’s just another Chinese restaurant in China town. I was definitely wrong. This restaurant has great tasting dishes and I like coming here with a big group so we can share them as a family.
There are so many items to choose from. I will recommend the roti canai as an appetizer. I would describe this as a soft and thin tortilla with a curry dip. My go to dish here is the Pineapple fried rice. It’s literally pineapple in fried rice, but the flavor is so delicious! Next, I would say get those spare ribs. It is brought out in foil and it’s own stand. The waiter will light up the flame and toss this huge foil filled with spare ribs inside over the fire. I’m not sure what exactly that does, but great light show! Lol. I’ll post a video for you to see.
Other recommended dishes are: sizzling tofu, curry chicken, stir-​fried flat noodles, spinach with shrimp paste, and soft-​shelled crab.
Next time I’m there, I’m going to try more dishes. Especially that beef satay skewer. It looks very tasty.
On a side note, when they hand you that tortilla box, it’s actually rice in there LOL.

I was in the mood for seafood soup and i ordered the spicy seafood vermicelli noodle soup and it was too sour. I came on a Saturday evening, around 6pm. They only had one waitress serving everyone so never came back latter she took out order to ask if we needed more water or anything else. We had to ask this bus boy that was passing by to please bring more water. The rest of our food was great but I just wouldn’t go back on a weekend and I’m def not ordering that soup again.

Been here many times with friends and family. Fav is Roti canai, skewers, tofu special dish that sizzle, balacan fried rice. Would highly recommend this please to anyone craving maylasian food.

It’s always a treat whenever my husband and I eat at Banana Leaf. Food is great, service is fast, and restaurant is clean. Their Singaporean stir-​fried noodles and beef rendang are our favorites. I highly recommend this place.

Awesome restaurant, the food is great and the staff is friendly. There is another Banana Leaf right across the street but its difficult to find parking over there especially during the weekend. This one is right next to Hmart and has a ton more places to park and the restaurant is bigger.
Love their Malaysian milk tea, one of my favorite drinks. It tastes like regular milk teas but with a kick of something else (not sure how else to describe it lol).
Dont remember what i ordered but it had coconut rice and some meat. It was good.

It was my first time trying Malaysian food. Goodness it was so yummy. When I went the first time it was quite peaceful and not that many people. However, I went back after just couple of days because my experience was so great, and there were a lot of people but the food was even greater. I highly recommend trying the indian pancake as well! I usually don’t get appetizers but I plan to get this as an appetizer everytime I come here.

I don’t recommend this place, The coconut shrimp and the Eggplant dish with green peppers, shrimp, etc, good.
There was this dish was a fried beef dish. The bone was black! We think they fried it first and then fried it again.
There was another dish my family got, We smelled something terrible! We think they used old oil to fry it.
If you don’t want to get sick from the food we talked about, Don’t go to this place

I love the sambal dried fish it’s a must order. The big head crap is a new dish that I try this time. This is a spicy fish dish, have lots of meat love it love it

Great food and service. Expansive menu makes it hard to narrow down if you’ve never been to a Malay restaurant.
Missing out on a few classic dishes and finger foods that I would eat regularly in Malaysia. So a little bit of a let down.
What they did bring was good, family style with more than enough to share.

Usually love this place and would have given it 5 stars but my noodles were molded and disgusting with black dots on them. So gross!!! I’m disappointed.

I love Houston for its diverse Asian culture. Malaysian cuisine is one of my favorites. If you come into town and don’t have the opportunity to try Malaysian, you should try this place and others .
I loved the roti canai – warm and soft with that great sauce
I also enjoyed the soft shell crab. The okra and shrimp was just okay. Overall a good meal though.

Not as good as the other banana leaf. Won’t come here again. Seats very uncomfortable.

Rude. That’s all. Go to the other Banana Leaf cross street in the shopping plaza, that is the original one. I’ve been twice in this and many times to the original one, good service will make the food tastes better.

The atmosphere is very Malaysian-​like! The little tiki huts, along with tables and the ambiance matches everything around the food.
The food is a little expensive, but very good! LivingSocial usually has a deal on this place, you may have to check their website periodically to get good deals on their food.
We get the Sizzling Bean Curd with Brown Sauce, and it’s really good! We also get the Beef Chow Fun (or flat noodles, not sure if I’m quoting the menu correctly) but it’s not that oily and very good!
Definitely worth coming back, our family personally likes this Banana Leaf II rather than the original Banana Leaf for some reason!

It pains me to give a poor review to Banana Leaf. We’ve been there many times in the past, and even held a big party there in a private room a few years ago. But after maybe a year of not going, we recently returned in a group of eight patrons and were disappointed. Even the Assam Laksa, which always comes with a warning in case the orderer doesn’t know what it is (sour and strong fishy flavor) was very bland. It tasted more of pineapples than anything else! The beef rendang was swimming in grease. The other dishes we ordered (BBQ sting ray, pea tips, a couple of noodle dishes) ranged from mediocre to, at best, nothing special.

Don’t know why there’s two Banana Leaf restaurants in the same area, but chose this one over the one located in Dun Huang Plaza, mainly because of parking.
Ordered the Indian style fried noodles, salted fish and chicken fried rice, snow peas, coconut jumbo shrimp, and house special calamari.
Indian style fried noodles and salted fish and chicken fried rice portions are small for the price (about $ 9 each). Liked the texture and taste of the noodles. The menu said it had potatoes, but I didn’t taste any potatoes. My parents said the salted fish and chicken fried rice was not that salty, so it was a little disappointing for them.
Coconut shrimp was really good though, I was craving it. They were huge also. I think there were 8 – 10 pieces? The fried coconut flakes were yummy. I would definitely order this again. For some reason I thought the house special calamari was fried calamari, but it was stir fried in a sauce, but that’s my fault. It was still good.

Upon walking in, I didn’t expect the décor to be the way it is. It was cute. They make the booths and tables along the side look like, I want to say, huts?
The food quality and taste is about the same. The sizzling plate of tofu came out sans sizzle. Where is the sizzle?!
The service was so-​so. I felt like only our waiter could wait on us. Several workers saw us looking around for our server and sped along before we could spot to ask a question.
This location is also in a large shopping center, so parking is not an issue. The only thing I want to mention is that they allowed a group of 3 come in to sing carols to patrons per table to raise money for some charity or natural disaster. The singing was beautiful, but it was a little awkward having them roll up on us mid-​chew literally a few minutes after we got our entrees out to sing for a couple minutes. Based off how they left and spoke to a worker, they’re either friends or have done it before/​regularly.
Overall, I’d choose the other location (in the center with Fufu and Café 101) over this one.

Pros: roti is deep fried goodness. Curry dipping sauce is extra flavorful. I like the tofu. My sister gets the hainese chicken.
Cons: my problem is I confuse the 1 &2 locations. It’s easy to do, they’re across the a treat from each other. Is this the one with the difficult parking lot or is that banana leaf 1? Also, my sister told me that prices at one of them is slightly more than the other.

Have you had stingray? Have you? This is a good place to try it even if you decide mr flappies aren’t your fishy fix. Banana Leaf lists stingray at least 2 – 3 times on the menu, so you can try it in different styles.
Other than stingray, there are other delicious dishes here. As you sit in cute huts/​booths, you can enjoy pad thai, tom yum soup, roti, and other things. Banana Leaf puts Yum in tom yum soup.
For those playing it safe (cough boring) there’s basil fried rice, noodles, and other not super garlicky, spiced options. Live a little!

In my opinion, this restaurant is the worst one in Chinatown. I thought the food was overly oily (even for Chinese food) and way over-​priced. Don’t spend your money here! The waitress that served my table was, in my opinion, very rude and had a bad attitude…
I only came by because of a coupon, but I will personally not be coming back here nor will I be recommending this place to anyone.

The service once we got drinks was excellent. Before that we sat for a while (10 minutes) and it was not busy at all. Maybe 3 tables besides us in the entire place.
We had the banana leaf pineapple fried rice and it was damn good. Chicken and shrimp and pineapple and peas and the rice itself was very flavorful. Even the shrimp in it was cooked perfectly. The pineapple pieces cooked just right, hot but not cooked to mushy.
The roti with egg and beef was really tasty. The sauce you dip it into is the laksa soup ‘broth’. Very delicious overall. It takes 10 minutes to prepare the beef version they said, so order it fast.
We also had the coconut fried jumbo shrimp and it was really delicious. Not an everyday thing as its sweeter. But pretty damn good. The coconut crumbles were fantastic on it. As was the dipping sauce. I have no idea what it was. Almost a spicy sweet and sour sauce and soy sauce.
The batter on it has egg and coconut. So it was fluffy and sweet. The batter kept the shrimp hot as hell so that was awesome. It’s not spicy at all as the menu hot icon depicts.
I had the all out laksa that has everything in it. Also pretty damn tasty. Enough for 2 or more. The shrimp on it was cooked perfectly. Chicken and pork in it as well. The fish balls were eh.
Everything we had was damn good including the coconut milkshake. Wow that’s delicious and $ 3. Not like the fake coconut flavor you get in American places. Watch out for the brain freeze.
5% discount for cash applied and everything was less than fifty.
Dinged one star for the long wait at the start. No reason to sit that long without drinks in a restaurant that isn’t busy at all.
Overall though. The menu is huge. There is lots to try. It was affordable but far for us coming from NW Houston. We will return. Often.

The food was great and came out fast, but the service was nonexistent. We came for a late lunch with a
special. The waitress seated us and we sat with our menus and waited a long time before she came back to take our drink order. The restaurant wasn’t very busy; only 4 other tables were occupied. By the time she took our drink order, we ordered our entire meal since we had waited so long. Our entrée came out first, then our appetizer, then our drinks, but they came out quickly.
There were no condiments on the table, so I had to flag down someone to get soy sauce. After that, no one ever came back to our table the entire time we were there. The waitress walked past us several times and ignored us. When we were ready to pay, I had to wave the waitress down again to ask for the check and to-​go boxes. We doubt we’ll return, even though we really enjoyed the food.

So many choices — the chicken curry and the flat noodles were skillfully and flavorfully made. Only a fool doesn’t start with a roti canai appetizer — don’t share; order your own. Each entrée dish is enough for two. Take some home. I’m not even from Malaysia, but these dishes taste like home.

I got my bf hooked coming here and he dosnt eat much Asian food. This location is just as good as the 1^st location across the street except more roomy! Our usual order is two roti Cani (one for each person bc we would fight), hainanese chicken and don’t forget the yellow rice! Sizzling tofu and flaming spare ribs! Those are our favorite go to dishes and never disappointing! And the waiters and waitresses are extremely nice and friendly! Don’t forget your groupon! Lol

I love coming here with my family for dinner! Their food is consistently good– really good. My favorites would be the sizzling Malaysian tofu casserole and their jumbo shrimp curry casserole. Very healthy yet tasty cuisine. They could improve on their customer service though. Some servers are nice and helpful, then there are some that don’t care about you at all. But, they cook so fast that after you place your order, within a couple minutes there will be food on your table!

What I like to order:
Roti canai — gotta start with this! So good it doesn’t even need the sauce!
Clay pot pearl noodle soup — love the pearl noodles. Great soup especially for a winter day or when you’re sick.
Honey roasted pork chop — sweet just like I like it! Sometimes it’s boneless; other times it’s not; just depends on the cook.
Pineapple fried rice — served in a pineapple and delicious!
Sweet and sour pork — light breading and not overly filling like the rest of the Chinese American places
Shrimp with eggplant– v3 — a new favorite! A decent amount of shrimp and good pieces eggplant cooked perfectly! Delicious!

Came here tonight because my friend had a $ 30 gift voucher!
Solid food, tastes pretty authentic, and the restaurant is pretty clean, always a great plus!
Our party of six ordered 6 dishes, the Roti Canai, Fried Fish with Garlic sauce, Curry Chicken, Seafood with Crispy Noodle, Jumbo Coconut Shrimp, and the Sizzling Tofu.
The Roti was REALLY good and flaky, and it came with a sauce that was buttery and oily, but tasted oh so good. The coconut shrimp came out as a mass of deep fried coconut flakes that hid shrimps, overall the flavor was solid, but too much frying. The crispy noodle had pretty nice texture, but portion size wasn’t that big. Curry chicken was alright, again not too much meat. Sizzling tofu was very good however, really on point, a mixture of egg custard infused inside bean curd, a very unique dish.
Customer service was average, they seem to have only 2 waiters who seem to overloaded, making service rather slow. They also gave two of our dishes to the wrong table which slowed our trip to Banana Leaf down.
Overall, solid place, but customer service was aight, and the portions are a little pricey for the amount of food you get.

Always delicious food! I come here just for the roti canai and the A1 stir fry noodle dish with wide rice noodle and calamari, green onions, scallions, etc. the brown sauce they give with it enhances the flavors and makes it spectacular! The whole coconut juice is delish as well! The calamari with mango is fresh and has great flavors!

I LOVE this place! I always get curry chicken, sizzling tofu, satay beef, and coconut drink when im there. It’s soooo good. I tend to over eat lol I love their satay beef and the sauce. It’s not like other satay beef I’ve had in the past. It’s so much better. I usually don’t like coconut water but their coconut drink is soooo good lol
Also, they offered a groupon for like 15 $ I think for 22 $ so it’s a pretty sweet deal since I love this place already. Definitely coming here when I’m in Houston next time!

Don’t worry, the bench/​chairs are not broken! They swing.
I came here for dinner with a party of 6 on a Saturday evening around 8pm. A sign at the hostess station noted that «incomplete parties will not be seated,» but we were seated with just 4 out of 6 people present, not bad. Let me just preface the fact that the food/​flavors were excellent, but hot damn! The service was absolutely horrendous (even for Chinatown standards).
There was only one waitress serving (what seemed to be) all of the remaining parties around 8pm. We did not get our drink orders taken until much later in the evening (after she had already taken our food order)… and then we didn’t receive our beverages until about 20 minutes after she had taken our drink order. So for a good 40 minutes were were sitting there with no drinks, and no food, pretty ridiculous. Not to mention, our food did not all arrive at the same time (some people even ordered the same entrees and one came out 30 minutes later than the other). I was already halfway finished with my meal before my friend’s identical entrée came out a good 30 minutes after mine.
Onto the food… The Laksa Noodles were tasty, hot, and full of meat, vegetables and noodles. The broth is savory and spicy (just how I like it), and the shrimp, chicken and vegetables were all tender. The noodles were not overdone and the portion size is large. I would highly recommend this Laksa soup noodle. The eggplant with shrimp paste + shrimp is really good too. The dish is pretty greasy but the flavors of that salty fermented shrimp paste mixed with the tender, piping hot eggplant is spot. on. righteous. I would come back just for this eggplant dish and some rice if I didn’t have to wait an hour for my food and another 30 minutes for my beverage. When service picks up, I will consider coming back… for now, I will have to fulfill my Banana Leaf cravings at the other location or at other Malaysian/​Indonesian restaurants in Chinatown.

We ate at Banana Leaf II on a Sunday evening for a family dinner. The restaurant is clean and cute with a tiki-​esque island feel. While we were seated, our waitress brought us menus, and boy, this menu is *exhaustive*. There are TONS of dishes to choose from!
We ordered the following dishes to share:
— Banana Leaf Nasi Lemak
— Banana Leaf Crispy Golden Fried Calamari
— 2 lobsters cooked in Malaysian sauce
— Pattaya Chicken
Nasi lemak is a coconut rice dish served with hard-​boiled egg wedges, sweet and sour pickled carrots and onions, baby fish, cucumbers, and curried chicken. This was super tasty, definitely a traditional 1-​person dish. I wasn’t crazy about the sweet and sour conconction since I found it too sweet, but the curried chicken and baby fish condiment were excellent. The curry had excellent flavors, and the chicken was tender.
We love fried squid — LOVE! — and Banana Leaf makes a pretty good fried calamari. The calamari came to our table piping hot, and the batter was well-​seasoned with the right amount of salt.
The 2 lobster for $ 20 deal is rampant in Chinatown (Confucius does this one the best, tho!). We ordered the Malaysian sauce, which has mango and shrimp paste in it. It was very delicious with the perfect amount of sweet, salty, and savory. The shrimp paste gave it a more pronounced flavor. One complaint: the kitchen uses way too much cornstarch. While it keeps the lobster juicy, there were more gooey/​doughy bits than preferred.
The Pattaya chicken (a cold dish, from what I can gather) was a complete and utter disappointment. The menu says «crispy chicken served with shredded mango cooked in spicy sweet and sour sauce and onion.» The chicken was fried to oblivion: burned to a crisp, difficult to chew and eat. The sauce tasted like sweet and sour sauce from a bottle, and a pile of raw onions were thrown on top. The waitress recommended another dish, which I should’ve taken as a cue to order something else, but I wanted some fried chicken… REGRETS. Don’t order this dish.
Service was superb. We’ve eaten at numerous Chinese restaurants in Chinatown, and service typically takes a backseat to the food. The waitress, owner, and busboy were all extremely attentive. My water glass was perpetually topped off, and the lobster shells were disposed of once the shell plate was full. We were also showered with moist towelettes for our hands.
Despite a misstep, we’re a huge fan of Banana Leaf and would come back again in the future!

Back here after a month with thomas bui and ordered our routine dishes. Roti canai and hainanian chicken rice. Needless to say roti canai is the USP of this place. Soft. buttery and crisp. This is basically the exact same thing as the south Indian flat bread porotta. The Hainanese chicken as always is lightly flavored and cut. the rice made in the master chicken stock is the hi light of the dish. The chicken skin has a fine texture and soaks itself in the sauce which gives this dish its unique great taste. Must try
Pros
1.quiet place. Good ambience
2.roti canai
3. Authentic
4.excellent deco
5. No fuss or sweet talk in service. Pretty straight forward.
6. Lunch specials are great
Cons
1.Location
2. Service can be slow even with moderate crowd.