For the Love of...: …Banana Leaf Tropical Cuisine (Calgary)

Overall - 8/10
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Food - 8.5/10
Service - 9/10
Ambiance - 7.5/10

Open for only three months, Banana Lead Tropical Cuisine seems to have built up a steady following. The evening we decided to give it a try, the small restaurant was doing brisk business and we were lucky to have gotten a table without reservations as some people were turned away just half an hour later (they usually close at 7:30pm). The food is a delicious mixture of Taiwanese and Malaysian flavours. After sampling the food, we can definitely see why this place is so busy. Even with the place being packed, the lone server was friendly and took the time to explain the menu items to us. What's more, the food came out in less than 10 minutes of ordering, tasted amazing and ended up being very reasonably priced. 

For the appetizers, we chose the roti and deep fried chicken nuggets. The roti (which is essentially an indian flat bread) was crispy on the outside and delicious when served with a side of curry dipping sauce. Unlike the chicken nuggets you get at McDonalds these ones were made from tender chunks of chicken thigh that were battered, fried and tossed in a chilli salt. The end result was a crispy and moist nugget with a nice hint of spice.  

One of their signature dishes is the Laksa, which is a generous bowl of noodles in a spicy coconut curry soup base. You can choose to have braised beef flank, seafood or Haianese chicken to top it all off. We chose the chicken which was really tender and flavourful and went great with aromatic flavours of ginger and lemongrass in the broth. 

As if all that food wasn't enough we also ordered the 'pork sauce rice' which was ground pork cooked in a rich savoury sauce served over steamed rice. The dish overall was quite tasty and satisfying but maybe overkill considering the amount of food we had ordered.