The Banana Leaf Restaurant

The food was good. Especially the dish that comes steamed in a banana leaf (because if you’re gonna go for it, you should go for it). Some of the other dishes were not very flavorful – I think they saw our pale skin and went easy on the spices. The service was extraordinarily slow. It took about an hour and a half for lunch. So don’t go if you’re on a schedule. If you have time to kill and a good conversation partner it won’t be so bad.

beautiful food. just go with what your server suggests if the food sounds too exotic. you won’t be disappointed.

I enjoyed every dish I tried and I tried quite a few. I split the #18 with three other lucky people which is a sampling which includes smaller portions of several things they serve. Each dish was way tasty.
The Aloe Vera juice was also delicious and tasted something like a sweet lemonade with delicious bits of pulp in it. I will definitely be going back.

A thorough disappointment. Rice was in small proportions. The food was lukewarm at best. The pa’an tasted like it was just sprinkled with garlic powder and that’s it. And then I got home and felt sick for an hour.

I absolutely loved this place the first time we met, and then fell out of love with it a bit on our second encounter.
The food is pretty good and has great spices and flavors of Singapore… a bit comparable to Indian food, but also very different in its own way. Service was great our first visit and slower our second time. It is on the pricier side for what you get in my opinion.
If you want to try something new, i’d still suggest trying it out.

The family that owns/​runs the restaurant is from Sri Lanka, and having served my mission there, it’s the only place to go for genuine southern Indian food. Great flavors, wonderful service, this place rocks!

Ordered the Shrimp Kothu. The dish was quite good; excellent flavor balance, heaping portion. Though, it seems the cook was in a hurry and left the tails on about a quarter of the shrimp.

Three of us came for dinner. None of us were very impressed by the quality of the food especially relative to the price. Also the presentation was fairly different from the picture and description in the menu.
Tasted pretty good but not what we expected and not worth the price.

The curry was really good, especially when you add the extra (sauces?) to the curry and eat it with the paan. I like it more than Indian. Will be back. They could lose all the extra things they are trying to sell: bracelets, teas, etc.

I’ve never eaten here before but have walked past many times. The incredible aromas were always very enticing. Stopped in for lunch today with my fellow coworkers and was very pleasantly surprised. The restaurant is in an old reclaimed home and the décor is very nice.
Our waiter took the time to explain the menu and give us advice. I started out with an avocado shake, and it was outstanding.
My meal was the Sri Lankan chicken kothu roti which is a delicious mixture of melted cheese, egg, vegetables, masala curry spices, and shredded roti. The chicken was outstanding!
All four of us agreed that is was a great lunch and will be visiting again soon.

Ive never tried this style of food before. It’s very good and extremely filling just not sure about the price tag. Overall I would try this place again. Food was delicious and the service was excellent. Me and my husband both ordered the same dish just had diff proteins. Not sure what the plate is called but it’s the minced naan like bread mixed with veggies, shrimp for me and chicken for my husband, and I think cheese. Couldn’t really taste the cheese but that’s okay the dish was still just as good. We also had the samosas… prob my fav part of dinner. So fresh and crispy on the outside, deliciousness on the inside. A must try if in the area and you want something out of the norm.

We went there for Valentine’s Day and it truly was a great experience all around! A cute family run restaurant in a beautiful house setting. I asked for recommendations and ended up getting the national Sri Lankan dish with shrimp and my wife got the coconut curry. We were both very impressed with the robust Indian flavors. The service was great, the food came out quick, the portions were good, and best of all it was delicious! I would definitely go back and recommend this Provo hidden gem to everyone.

This place was pretty good!!! I had seen it a thousand times on my drive to and from work, so I decided to finally give it a shot. The lunch special seemed enticing, and I like curry. So why not.
I’ll get to the actual food in a minute, but first I want to explain the reason for 4 stars and not 5. The lunch special starts at 11:00 Am, which is exactly when I showed up. The front door was locked and they didn’t answer either number. My friend and I knocked on the door and waited for about 15 minutes before walking back to the car. But I was really hungry, so I went around to the back and found the back door to the kitchen open. I knocked on that and asked if they were open. The lady inside was super nice, but there was a language barrier, so all I understood was that she would go and unlock the front door and serve us.
Aside from that, my experience was GREAT. The food is very well done and tastes homemade (in a good way). I tried the avocado shake. It was refreshing and different from your standard American milkshake. I actually really like it. Portions are generous; I was full all day, and the price for the lunch special is more than fair.

Nice atmosphere with a Southeast Asian feel. The menu is small with limited options, but each with a different focus and way to showcase elements of Sri Lankan and Indonesian foods. The curries are not too spicy but they bring some special sauces to add to your meal if you like more heat.
All in all I felt is was good food, but it didn’t wow me in a way that I will be excited to come back.

Love this place. I’m sad I don’t live there anymore — mainly because of this place haha. I love trying different types of cuisines and this place was awesome!
It is authentic and family owned. They are so friendly and so helpful. Good people. Plus, the food is so delicious.
I’ve ordered the kothu and a curry dish for me entrees before. Both were so good, I’m craving the Kothu now! haha.
The Roti and Seafood Roti are both delicious as well.
You also need to order the Avocado Drink… so yummy. I’m craving that now as well haha.
Just. come here already!

My family really liked this. The dishes WE ordered were quite flavorful (I note that other reviewers have not had such luck), and the bread was amazing.
Service was friendly, helpful, & prompt (again I note not everyone had this experience — maybe they had a trainee?)
The only off-​note was the air conditioning sucked. I’m from Dallas and we always have top-​notch climate control (it’s a necessity here).

Pros: neat old house, great bread (pa’an), good prices (but I don’t live inn Utah so I could be wrong.)
Cons: super uninterested waitress– «is this one or this one better?» «They’re good.» «But what is the difference?» «One is Malay and one is Singaporean.» Yes thank you those words are in the title of the dish. One the food was delivered the waitress disappeared never to check on us it refill our beverages. At the end someone else walks up with a ipad mini and has you pay and tip with her standing their watching. Awkward.
Lastly the food… the best dish was a chicken curry. Nothing to write home about but not horrible. Just not memorable. The other two were bad. One tasted strongly of ketchup. The other was flavorless/​spiceless/​saltless. It was actually incredibly shocking how bland it was.
So no I don’t recommend the place accept for the bread.

I had a great experience there. I went with two other friends and all split numbers 3, 5, 8. We had very good service. The avocado shake was interestingly good. The bread they served along with the mango sauce was money. We all agreed that we
will be returning and telling friends about this place.

Four to five stars for the Tikka, the paan, and the other curries. 2 stars for the rice, the chicken, shrimp, and beef.
The beef (malay?) wasn’t tender at all; nor was the chicken. Usually chicken chunks in a curry have been marinated, or at least brined (if served in a more-​than-​casual restaurant). For some reason, the chicken I had wasn’t very flavorful or juicy.
I did, however, love the Tikka masala, the paan bread (I ordered extra), the coconut curry, and the chutney /​sambols.
Overall, I’d go back, but I wouldn’t spend as much ($ 40) as I did this time.

I’ve got fond memories of a restaurant I used to frequent in San Jose called the Banana Leaf. They served Malaysian food and it was always delicious. I guess I had that on my mind when visiting this Banana Leaf, even though the food they serve here is not Malaysian, but Singaporean and Sri Lankan.
I tried two items: the Sri Lankan Lamprice and the Sri Lankan Beef Kothu. Of the two, I enjoyed the Lamprice more. It had a nice assortment of items (seasoned rice, egg, curried chicken, potatoes) wrapped in a banana leaf and steamed. The dish had an assortment of wonderful, unique flavors, but lacked any spice whatsoever. I didn’t enjoy the second dish nearly as much as the first. I’d say the Kothu was just all right and perhaps more of an acquired taste. The dish consisted of beef and melted cheese, and that’s pretty much all I could decipher. I don’t think I’d order it again.
Not taking anything away from the Lamprice, but perhaps the highlight of the meal was the Pa’an flatbread. That stuff was downright amazing — so good that I ordered another round after polishing off the first. I’m definitely a huge fan of good breads, no matter the type, and the Pa’an at this place is absolutely fantastic. A definite must if you’re going to take the time to eat here. On the whole, it was an enjoyable experience, but I wouldn’t say it’s my favorite Banana Leaf restaurant — that title belongs to the place in California.