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Monday, December 07, 2009

Banana Leaf Malaysian Restaurant, Vancouver: Our First Dining Experience

On December 5, we finally went to dine at Banana Leaf Restaurant, at 820 W. Broadway location in Vancouver.

This restaurant has had numerous awards for food and service, and I had been curious to see what the fuss was all about. Here is their website.

However, my experience with Banana Leaf was not a good first experience.

I wrote an email to Calvin Chong, owner of Banana Leaf, describing my experience. As my review, I copied and pasted the email below, along with their reply.




Email to Mr. Calvin Chong, Banana Leaf Restaurant:

Dec 2009.

Dear Mr. Chong,

I am an online blogger who likes to write about my experiences,
including my travels, or using certain products, or sometimes I write
about my dining experiences. Before I write and share my review with
my web audience, I wanted to bring my write-up to your attention.

On Saturday, my wife and 4 children visited Banana Leaf Restaurant for
the first time (at the 820 W. Broadway location). I've lived in
Vancouver for over 30 years, and I've dined at different restaurants,
including Malaysian restaurants, but this was my inaugural visit to
your restaurant.

We were seated at the back corner, a nice almost private setting.
There was a larger party of about 20 people beside us, so we knew it
was a busy night for your staff.

I found it unusual that we had to wait over 10 minutes for anyone to
get our initial drink order. In fact, I observed staff 4 times going
back and forth and attending to the party beside us bringing their
food during this time. So I took the initiative and got up to
approach the bar to talk to the person who seemed to be the manager to
bring to his attention that we hadn't been able to get our order in
yet. Immediately after I returned to my table, we were attended to.

The overall quality of the food was very good. We had ordered two
gado gado's, 6 chicken satay, a pineapple/chicken/sea food fried rice,
a nasi goreng and sambal chili fired okra, eggpland and green bean
dish. For desert later we had just one of the fried banana with ice
cream. Good presentation, tasty, just the right type of spiciness.
However, I suggest that your servers be safe in general and ask what
level of spiciness is preferred. One thing though, I found it odd and
interesting regarding the food portions. For example, I was expecting
larger food portions for the main dishes, and the desert I was
expecting to be just the regular size. It was the converse ,
especially with the larger-than-expected desert serving. A pleasant
surprise nevertheless, for the single desert order that served 6
people.

I have a couple of strong suggestions for the young male server who
attended to us. Firstly, he should not store the tray with dirty
dishes so close to the patrons. There was an empty 2-seater table
next to us, and that's where he put the tray of used dishes and
utensils, etc. Also, he should confirm with the people whether he can
take the plate away. What happened with us is that my wife and 2
daughters went to the washroom, and he dropped by our table. I
mentioned I wanted to order dessert. There was still 2 small plates
of food that my youngest daughter and my toddler son were still
finishing. Being young, they are slow eaters. Before I could say
anything, our waiter took them away and put them in the tray nearby.
Personally, I don't like wasting food, nor do I like to feel rushed.
And of course, with the tray of dirty dishes and our "stolen" food in
plain sight nearby, it was like, as the expression goes, "rubbing salt
in the wounds." On top of that, when my wife and daughters came back,
they complained that one of the toilets was out of order. I went to
the men's washroom and found it not as clean as I would have hoped,
with several used and unused paper towels all over the place. I
suggest you get a proper paper towel dispenser for sanitary reasons,
instead of piling them up at the corner of the wall by the faucet
where they will get wet.

Also, in hindsight, I'm curious to ask...was it so busy that the
busboy actually became our waiter? Is that why he didn't seem to have
the refined skills that a full-time experienced waiter would have?

Anyway, I invite you to provide your comments.

Thank you.

Eric Carlos
604-xxx-xxxx


Reply


From Teresa Yu, Banana Leaf Restaurants
to me, calvin


Dear Mr. Carlos,

Thank you very much for providing such detailed feedback on your recent
visit to Banana Leaf. All of us here appreciate your taking the time to
write us, for it is via comments such as yours that we know how we're
doing and where we can improve.

I'm very glad to hear that you enjoyed our food, but allow me to extend my
sincerest apologies for wherever the service was lacking. A large party
can, unfortunately, be distracting for our serving staff, but certainly,
you should not have had to wait 10 minutes to be served. Our servers
undergo continuous training and performance reviews. You can be assured
that your comments will be noted at our next meeting, as a reminder that
large parties should not divert focus from other patrons.

I'm very sorry as well that your dishes were cleared before you and your
family were finished. Our intention is never to rush or to waste. It is
common policy to clear a table of its dishes before serving dessert. Your
server most likely over-anticipated and assumed that you and your family
were finished with your meal by your mentioning of dessert. He definitely
should have asked first, however, and not given the impression that he was
rushing you in any way.

Our restaurant functions on a teamwork strategy, where all servers work
together to provide our patrons with the best dining experience possible.
Where we have been remiss, please allow me to apologize again and assure
you that all of your comments have been duly noted by our management
staff, from the large party issue, to the specifics of your particular
server, and the washroom situation. Thank you kindly for your valuable
feedback, and we welcome any further comments. We also very much look
forward to serving you again!


Sincerely,
Teresa Yu

--
Banana Leaf Malaysian Cuisine
Broadway: 820 West Broadway, 604-731-6333
Denman: 1096 Denman Street, 604-683-3333
Kitsilano: 3005 West Broadway, 604-734-3005