Review: Banana Tree, Battersea
4:00pm Thursday 8th March 2012 in Reviews
Banana Tree is a mini chain of restaurants with a branch on Battersea Rise.
It was formerly known as Banana Leaf Canteen but recently underwent a rebranding and emerged with a new menu.
The cuisine is that of Indochina and can best be described with a direct quote from their website “Indochina is the peninsula of South East Asia, roughly east of India and south west of China, comprising of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar (Burma), and the mainland territory of Malaysia”.
This rather epic span gives Banana Tree licence to mix and match flavours from across the region.
I had been to Banana Leaf Canteen many times in the past and had always found the food great value, well flavoured and a great alternative to other Asian restaurants in the area, however I am sad to say I don’t feel the rebranded, redesigned version has done it any favours.
The best value meals at Banana Tree are the “combos” which means for an extra £2.95 on a selection of the main meals you get a sesame glass noodle salad, sweet corn cakes, steamed jasmine rice and prawn crackers.
We opted for a combo and didn’t bother with starters, we both went for signature dishes, I had a new addition to the menu - string-tied braised pork belly with green coconut juice (£7.20) and my better half had crispy chicken with mango and sweet lime sauce (£7.20).
The pork belly arrived and was a generous hunk of meat, slow cooked and tender with melting belly fat.
It was well cooked but the pork was bland and the sauce lacked depth of flavour, it was sweet with a hint of star anise, it wasn’t unpleasant just a bit boring.
The crispy chicken wasn’t much better; despite the menu proclaiming the sauce was “finely balanced” it was actually too sweet and cloying – it needed an extra bite to complete the dish.
The sides that come as part of the combo were the saving grace; the rice nicely cooked; the noodle salad sweet and sticky with a chilli heat to balance it out; the corn cakes had great texture, served hot and crispy and lovely prawn crackers that actually taste of prawn.
Desserts have never been a strong point here but that didn’t put me off – especially when I saw coconut stuffed green thai pancakes on the menu.
To be fair, the description was accurate – these pancakes were green. They looked weird and tasted OK, the coconut inside was moist and tasty.
I think the best way to sum them up is that I don’t regret trying them but I wouldn’t order them again.
I felt quite let down by Banana Tree, they have tried to change a formula that wasn’t broken. I suspect they plan on expanding and unfortunately expansion often leads to a drop in quality. Banana Tree could be a lot worse, but it has been and could be a lot better and that is its greatest tragedy.
Meal for 2 with drinks and service - £40 75-79
Battersea Rise, London, SW11 1HN 020 7228 2828 www.bananatree.co.uk Mark Bixter is a food writer who runs the blog http://michelinmicrowave.wordpress.com/