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    Banana Leaf

    3.7 (806 reviews)
    Open 11:00 am - 10:00 pm

    Order Banana Leaf Takeout or Delivery

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    Business Info

    BANANA LEAF ATMOSPHERE

    What's the vibe?
    Moderate noise
    Casual
    Good for kids
    Good for groups

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    Recommended Reviews - Banana Leaf

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    Reviews With Photos

    Lanre M.

    The family loved their meals. Me, not so much. Presentation of the food was good, but the taste wasn't mouth-watering. I'll give it a 4 out of 5 simply because my family loved what they had. Service was good, and the restaurant looked decently kept. I'll try this spot again because of the vast choices they have on the menu.

    Spicy boiled fish
    Jenny N.

    I used to love coming to this place with my family, but they recently changed their menu and seems to be more Chinese focused than Malaysian and I was disappointed. We shared a flat noodle dish and I felt like there was barely any noodles in it. The golden fried crispy calamari was kind of bland, not that crispy, and not nearly as good how it used to be. Spicy boiled fish was good, but hella oil in it. Idk I've been to other restaurants and have had the same dishes and I felt like these fell short here at Banana Leaf. Don't get me wrong, it's still pretty good, but not my favorite place anymore.

    Singapore Stir Fried Rice Noodle
    Jennifer V.

    I stopped by last night because I've wanted to give it another shot & love Malaysian food. Imagine my surprise when I see their menu has changed and features only Chinese dishes. The beef rendang, Hainanese chicken, Nasi lemak, and roti canai are gone and replaced with mapo tofu, braised pork, cumin beef and lamb, etc. Don't get me wrong, I love Chinese food but I eat it too often and wanted variety by coming here. I settled for the Sizzling Malay Tofu (luckily the only thing I was craving stayed on the menu) but the price was $18. I found the price a bit steep considering the ingredients are very cheap and the portion was okay. The dish itself tasted the same (except they replaced the seafood with minced meat) & the texture of the tofu was perfect. The waiter was hovering quite a bit which made my meal less enjoyable. Very sad that I came when they were testing out their Chinese menu. I don't think the pivot is good since people come here for Malaysian food.

    Malaysian Sizzling Bean Curd with seafood
    Patrick L.

    We went on separate occasions to Banana Leaf which was our go to Malaysian restaurant. We ordered pretty much the same dishes but there was definitely a difference on our last visit. Not sure if they change owners or chefs. There were a number of red flags. We ordered our usual... seaweed seafood soup, kangkong belachan, Malaysian beancurd and beef rendang. The Malaysian beancurd was about the same. First red flag was the seaweed seafood soup... it was sweet. Understand you may put sugar but definitely sweeter than previous. Second red flag... beef rendang had potatoes in it. They never put potatoes in it before and had a much strong star anise taste. Last but not least is the kangkong belachan. Mt wife used to love it. It was the first time she didn't finish it. Something different on the taste. When we placed our order, staff keep on confirming we are having the shrimp paste with the kangkong. Belachan is the Malaysian shrimp paste... maybe that's where it was off... not sure if they actually used belachan or just shrimp paste. Staff was nice. They shoud just be honest though. We overheard the staff saying she was Malaysian but when one of the guest said "Selamat", she did not understood what it meant. It meant "Thank you". Pretty basic even if you have not spoke the language. Good thing another Malaysian restaurant opened close by. Not sure I'll come back as it looks like the previous owners and chefs are gone. Let me know if that's not the case and will give it another chance.

    Roti and Curry Chicken with Rice, but where is the rice???
    Helene S.

    Where's the rice???? So surprised that only four tables were filled, so it was easy to walk in and find a table on a Saturday night around 7 PM. This used to be a family favorite and we were prepared for a long wait. At one point, they were so busy that they built a second location across the street in the H-Mart shopping center. That was not the case on our most recent visit. Considering how empty they were, we were surprised at how slow and how disorganized they were with not only our order, but other people dining. As we waited and waited and waited for them to take our order, they brought the wrong order to almost every table that was near us. Beef instead of chicken, roti to the wrong table, forget an order completely. This should have been a clue to our meal that followed, but we remembered our family dinners in the past so fondly. So we stayed and we waited. Just as we were about to leave, our waiter finally took our order. Roti, chicken curry and a sizzling tofu with veggies with glasses of water. Not too complicated. The chicken curry came out first. We asked about the plain rice. The waiter said, oops I forget it. I'll bring it right out. Then came the roti. Still no rice. We watched as the tables that came in and ordered their orders after us get red bowls filled with rice and for our table, still no rice and the same oops, I forgot again. The sizzling tofu came out. Surprised at the veggies, but still no rice. Finally the busboy clearing the table next to us helped us with our order of plain white rice. Used to be a family favorite, but next time we are craving Malaysian food, will make the drive to Katy and eat at Uncle Chin's Kitchen. The Roasted Hainanese Chicken with chicken rice and Malaysian Chicken Curry are so delicious at Uncle Chin's Kitchen.

    Banana Leaf Satay Beef
    Jacquelyn C.

    I haven't been to this place in many years and unfortunately the food quality has gone down. We ordered the roti canai as an appetizer and I loved that the roti came out hot, but the dipping sauce was super watery and did not taste like much. The beef satay was yummy, but a little cold. The beef flat rice noodles weren't hot when they came out and didn't have much flavor to them. The sizzling tofu--which I've had sizzling before--was not sizzling and again did not taste like much. We also ordered a dried curry shrimp dish--which was actually a wet curry--which we did not enjoy much. Service was good and they moved quickly, but unfortunately the food quality has gone down.

    Rex C.

    This is an easy 5 star review for the food! The food is great but the main problem is the loud chairs. I'll explain below. Food: the sizzling pepper beef was absolutely amazing. Grilled and made to perfect perfection. Every single bite was so phenomenal. My girlfriend and I really enjoyed that dish with all the bell pepper, onions and everything like that. It's an amazing dish and I highly recommend it. My girlfriend got another dish as well which kind of looked like drunken noodles. The water tasted horrible. I wish they had a bottled water because the water from here is not good at all so that's one thing you need to work on either get their water cleaned up or serve water bottles because you cannot drink the water here if you care about drinking clean water because this water is nasty. Once again, the food is five stars. No problem with that at all. Also, the customer service is five Where they get the 3 stars is the extremely loud chairs. I could give this restaurant a one star rating because it was that much of a disturbance. When we arrive, all of the waiters kept moving these heavy chairs around making obnoxious loud noise. It was to the point where we were no longer even enjoying our meal. Like what is wrong with your staff? How can you not realize this is annoying as hell. Moving around these heavy ass chairs making all this loud obnoxious noise. I should probably give this place a one star review because of that I mean it literally ruined our experience. How can you not realize dragging heavy chairs and making all this noise doesn't affect the clients experience. It made for a really annoying dining experience. I mean, I could literally give them one to a star because of this, but I'm giving them three stars because the food was good. Management teacher staff to not drag and make all this noises with your chairs while people are trying to dine in and eat it establishment. It's 100% ruined our experience.

    Indian Pancake
    Houston B.

    The Indian pancake tastes great! Highly recommended. Dishes are kind of salty than expected if prefer relatively low sodium diet. Service is good, waiter stayed on top with adding water and extra napkins... it was busy at lunch time, you could not skip the conversation of next table if you stayed quiet

    Curry Chicken with Rice
    Rachel S.

    I stopped in here for lunch after a day of checking out the sights in Chinatown. My partners family was excited to try some new cuisine. The service was quite good, we were seated right away and our food came quickly, the waitress even boxed our food in take out boxes at the end of the meal. The food is large portions for a decent price too... the curry chicken was two meals for only 9 dollars. I liked the roti a lot too.I won't lie, the restaurant didn't seem particularly clean and the bathroom was kind of disgusting. Asides from that, it was a decent experience, though the food was nothing too special.

    Sizzling Bean Curd
    James C.

    One of my local favorites, Banana Leaf has offers delicious Malaysian flavors (if you're unfamiliar with this cuisine, think of flavors from South Asia mixed in with those of East Asia) that keep me and my family coming back. I personally highly recommend the Sizzling tofu entree, which I get with meat, and the Roti Canai appetizer, both of which are packed with flavor and go deliciously with rice. Of note; this restaurant is in Chinatown and the interiors aren't super fancy nor will the waiters go out of their way to talk to you. But, they deliver on flavor and that is the metric I use in Chinatown.

    Stir Fried Flat Noodle with Beef
    Young K.

    Stir fry flat noodle was solid. Water spinach was a little bland, could've used more bean curd. Roti was good, flakey, and buttery; curry dipping sauce was ok. Sizzling bean curd was great! Services was great, ambiance = family restaurant

    Banana Leaf Pineapple Fried Rice
    Kylena P.

    Finally tried this gem after passing by it for years and glancing at the menu in the window. Well worth the surprise visit! The restaurant is kind of narrow but they somehow fit about 12 tables and only had two servers in the incredibly busy hours we arrived. The waitress was very accommodating and gave us a high chair for my baby right away. The menu is nice and simple; includes a helpful description of the food in italics. Now onto the food: The best of these dishes, is the Banana Leaf Crispy Golden Fried Calamari. Nice thick, crispy and wonderfully flavorful batter wrapped around fresh, chewy yet springy squid. Tastes even better when dipped into the sauce that comes with the Indian Pancake. Which, is exactly what you expect. Warm, thin, flaky bread you can dipped into the rich, creamy brown sauce. Perfect appetizer. The next two dishes were good, but I could live without them also. The Shrimp with Eggplant Malaysian Style. Mildly spicy and tasty. The eggplant was very moist, just saturated in the brown sauce it's cooked in. Not sweet like Chinese YuXiang eggplant (鱼香茄子)but very savory. And, the Banana Leaf Pineapple Fried Rice, which is cooked with chicken, shrimp, and eggs. Was great. Very flavorful yellow rice, deliciously sweet onion, bit of chicken and shrimp in there (not much, but there), and green peas and cubed carrot. Good enough portion to feed about three people. (They give a bowl of white rice for the table also). Nothing really remarkable it was just good fried rice. Overall great restaurant. I would love to try more the menu next time but not exceptional enough to become my staple favorite!

    Basil Clams or Mussels and Basil Sauce

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    Always a great experience at this small storefront. This time I had the sizzling beef but the crispy fish is my favorite.

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    Page 3 of 21

    Ask the Community - Banana Leaf

    Do you have any halal items on your menu?

    Sorry. No

    Do they have buffets here?

    No. Ala carte

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    PappaRich - Roti Prata with Rendang

    PappaRich

    4.4(283 reviews)
    0.3 miChinatown, Sharpstown
    $$

    Visit #alot and it was spectacular :) love all these foods. Service and cleanliness is spot on …read more Feel comfortable and safe to dine here. Beef randang is yummy and chicken skewers are amazing :) they should have a larger portion as an entree :) writing this review has me wanting to go back for more The sizzling tofu on the got plate with egg on the bottom with the glazed soy sauce on top is a sleeper. This is the top spot I have had tofu at in houston.

    We came here for dinner on a Friday night and it was very empty, but we still had to drive to the…read moretop of the parking garage next door in order to grab a parking spot. We were hungry, so we decided to order two entrées and the roti canai (plain). I usually enjoy roti, and while this was tasty, it was not my favorite. I think it was dryer than I've had before, so maybe I'm just used to more grease. Our first entree was the curry chicken, and it was tasty. Surprisingly there are only a few chunks of potatoes but lots of chicken. The curry sauce was good, but it was exactly the same as one of the roti dipping sauces. The star of the meal for us was the fried Hainan chicken. It has so much flavor and a nice crisp exterior. It was on the pricier side, but I would definitely recommend ordering it. They brought out a chopped ginger dipping sauce, a darker sauce, and a chili type sauce, so there were lots of options to choose from to add even more flavor to the chicken. Our food came out very promptly, the servers were very kind and friendly and seemed genuinely pleased to hear that we enjoyed the food. We definitely plan to come back!

    Photos
    PappaRich
    PappaRich - Sizzling beancurd

    Sizzling beancurd

    PappaRich - Seafood flat noodles

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    Seafood flat noodles

    Uncle Chin's Kitchen - Malaysian Curry Chicken

    Uncle Chin's Kitchen

    4.7(267 reviews)
    12.6 mi
    $$

    I will be quite honest with you that I really have no experience with Malaysian food. In point of…read morefact, I've bypass this restaurant numerous times simply assuming that it was Chinese. It is anything but in point of fact, it is in my estimation, a unique culinary experience. I don't write from the perspective of comparing this food to other Malaysian dishes that I've had in point of fact to the best of my recollection I don't think that I've ever had Malaysian cuisine. But if this restaurant is an example, I have missed a great deal. The food is very unique the servings are very gracious charitable. The prices are incredibly reasonable given the distinction of this particular cuisine and given the portions and quality of food that is served. The service is quite simple and the restaurant is actually quite small. However, I must tell you from A service perspective. It's truthfully amazing because the takeout business is extremely active. Not to mention the fact that the chef walks out and speaks to people will share anything that you want to know about Malaysian food and obviously from the quality of the food that I ate not only is his explanation thorough but my guess is his skills are incredible. As I said it is very small so it's difficult to Alpine about the ambience other than it was quite clean and given the number of whom I suspect were Malaysian people it's obviously quite popular within that community. So I take that to be a sign that this food is quite native in nature. I had a pork meal, which is only on Sundays. I spoke to the chef about it, and he explained that the preparation started one day in advance of actually serving the meal, so I understand why it is only served once a week. Although I must tell you because I lack familiarity it seemed to me that I would be hours and hours trying to replicate any of the dishes. All I can tell you is this if you are in an exploratory mood for a cuisine and have had or have not had Malaysian before I suspect this is a place to go. Quite informal, extremely fair pricing very generous portions great service very pleasant people and frankly it's a a family affair of what you will see many when you go. Quite a lovely experience.

    Ordered the chicken curry, sizzling tofu, stir fried flat noodles and seafood fried rice…read more There was good wok hei on the noodles and fried rice. Aside from the rice though, everything was incredibly bland. I was honestly pretty disappointed given all of the glowing reviews of this place.

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    Uncle Chin's Kitchen - Seating inside

    Seating inside

    Uncle Chin's Kitchen - Malaysian Roti Telur (roti coated with eggs)

    Malaysian Roti Telur (roti coated with eggs)

    Uncle Chin's Kitchen - Front counter and bar area

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    Street Food Thai Market - Yellow curry

    Street Food Thai Market

    4.5(838 reviews)
    12.3 miThe Heights
    $$

    This is one of my favorite Thai restaurants near my home! What really caught my attention is that…read moreit combines a Thai restaurant and a small Thai grocery market all in one, which I thought was such a cool concept. The dining area is pretty small, with around 10 tables, but it was surprisingly busy with so many people coming in to eat. It gave me that hidden-gem kind of feeling, like a local spot that people know is really good. The food was honestly delicious and tasted quite authentic compared to other Thai restaurants I've tried. Everything was flavorful and well-seasoned, and our food came out surprisingly fast. The staff was also very friendly and welcoming. Definitely a little hidden gem that I'm happy to have found near my home. I'll definitely be coming back!

    The service is great and fairly fast. Definitely a Thai street food place. I loved how flavorful…read morewas everything and they gave really good recommendations. I wouldn't necessarily sit down here but if you want to you can. More of a grocery store than sit down restaurant. Khao soi gai: 7/10 This was so flavorful and delicious but definitely should have opted for the chicken instead of the soft shell crab I wasn't really a fan of the crab. Love the flavors and textures though. Definitely want to try with chicken and I recommend getting some rice on the side. Pad mama: 9/10 This had a really yummy vibrant flavor with a good amount of protein and leafy greens. Could be spicier I think the just gave us a random spice level. Overall really yummy and good portion for the prices but would love to retry with more spice in the dishes.

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    Street Food Thai Market
    Street Food Thai Market - Chicken pad Thai

    Chicken pad Thai

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    Sambal Chef

    Sambal Chef

    4.1(88 reviews)
    0.2 miChinatown, Sharpstown
    $$

    The first time I tried this place happened to be the second to last day before their closure at the…read morecurrent location, and I am beyond grief after trying a variety of dishes and falling in love with each one! The restaurant interior reminds me of the colorful 3D interactive street murals known to attract tourists to Malaysia, which is in theme with the Malaysian cuisine served. Unfortunately, when I arrived on Saturday, they were already sold out of the classic Singapore Chili Crab that was highly rated in other reviews. Instead, I ordered a few other unique Malaysian dishes that is specially available at Sambal Chef: Roti Canai with Beef Rendang, Malaysian Style Sizzling Tofu (with in-house made fresh tofu), Salted Egg Fried Chicken Wings, Cheo Koay Teow (Malaysian seafood flat noodles). You can literally taste the freshness in every bite, and the flavors are unbeatable! Despite tending to a busy restaurant, the servers were responsive and made friendly conversation. The restaurant is spacious, and the food was served quickly. I also noticed something that I truly admired: the eating plates are served hot to the table, which means they were freshly sanitized at high temperatures and provided extra assurance on the cleanliness of dining at the restaurant. I am already counting down to the day when they find a new location and reopen the restaurant!

    While I was initially saddened by their closure in Pearland, I was elated to know Sambal Chef found…read morea new home in Chinatown. After what felt like an upgrade, they managed to shutter just after a year and the heartbreak happens all over again. This was a significant upgrade in terms of the space as they had tables for all types of groups and private areas for things like special occasion, dining and even karaoke. Their decor was also on point and the little murals were such a nice touch. While I think I enjoyed the food more at their previous location, they managed to expand on their variety to offer vastly more dishes. They were consistent and the food was spicy when warranted. Char kway teow was always a hit and their beef rendang was fabulous. I think the satay was a bit overpriced, but it was ordered every time, along with the roti canai. I had read that there was a rental dispute, when it came to the building's owner. While I do hope they emerge somewhere in the city, I'm not all that confident that it will happen. Malaysian cuisine is already quite limited in Houston, so here's hoping I'm wrong.

    Photos
    Sambal Chef
    Sambal Chef
    Sambal Chef

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    Banana Leaf - malaysian - Updated September 2026

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