Banana Leaf has been around for years, but the White Rock (or maybe they call it South Surrey) store has opened only relatively recently. We knew they had some vegan options on the menu (thanks, Vegan Twosome!), but we were more motivated to get there once this closer-to-home location opened. We stupidly rolled up on a Saturday evening but were told that no tables were available for over an hour. That might be the first time in years that we haven't just walked in and gotten a table owing to our non-traditional dining times (i.e. we show up whenever). So this time, we had to make a reservation for another day.
Reservation in hand, we showed up at Southpoint Exchange Shopping Centre and squeezed into the parking lot (wow! Popular mall!). As usual, we ordered too much and ended up with leftovers, but we don't consider that to be a problem.
We started off with a bit of a miss. The Eggplant Fries are an inspired idea, but they showed up a little soft in the execution phase. They were nicely curry-spiced and delicious, but eggplant is not a cooperative vegetable if you are thinking of something crispy. In the end, we took some of them home and tried the airfryer and that worked not too badly.
We also had the Tofu Goreng and this was a hit. The tofu was crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. With sweet chilli sauce, peanuts, sprouts, cucumber and sesame seeds, it had a lot of flavour.
More tofu, but this was a main course and unfortunately, another miss. The Assam Curry Tofu and Vegetables brought a different set of flavours to the table. This curry started with a tamarind sauce which was very good. Unfortunately, the okra was tough and stringy. I'm not sure where they got it or what they did to it but certainly no one tasted it before serving it.
The Kung Pao Cauliflower was our favourite dish. Not sure why you would even need meat for this as the sauce is the feature. Very good!
Another really interesting dish was the Turmeric Coconut Spinach. The coconut definitely took the edge of the cooked spinach and the crispy shallots on top added some interesting texture. We would order this again.
They offer some of these dishes in small or larger portions. We ordered a couple of small and one large, but I can't remember which was which. We also ordered rice, which was a must for these dishes.
This is a very nice space with lots of light. Despite the fact that they were very busy, the serving staff did a good job keeping up! Despite the couple of misses, we enjoyed our visit to Banana Leaf.
Food 3 1/2 out of 5
Vegan Options Available 3 1/2 out of 5
Comfort 3 1/2 out of 5
Service 4 out of 5
Value 4 out of 5
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