Many things have three phases.
Life itself, for example: the heady flush of youth, the plateau of middle age and then a general, creeping decline. Restaurants are no different. If they start well in youth, they offer interesting fare at good prices. Having created a name, a reputation and a following, the good ones consolidate, continuing to do what made them good but doing it better and getting better in the process. They stay in that middle plateau of excellence, proving that good restaurants are good because they remain good.
Others capitalise on what they've achieved, not in an attempt to improve their offering but because they want to make more money or be more fashionable. And begin to enter the often terminal phase of decline.
This is the problem with Banana Leaf. When we last visited it was slightly off the beaten track in the Brutalist hinterland of upper Cambridge Street but still worth the journey because it was good value. Authentic Malaysian style cuisine, served in good portions in an unfussy, authentic way at reasonable prices.
Then they opened a branch in Byres Road, got fashion, got a wine list, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and a coterie of 'Glasgow's Top Food Bloggers' to review. Before you know it, the old menu is out and it's all 'small plates' and 'tasting menus'.
Now, I get that this is a 'thing', this 'small plates for sharing'. Like tapas.
Fine, except for the fact that tapas is something you nibble on, in Spain, with a drink, BEFORE you go for dinner. It is not the dinner.
And therein lies the problem. But only part of the problem. Because, elsewhere in Glasgow, it is possible to order 'small plates', enjoy and pay without feeling you've been ripped off. It comes down to providing value.
Value must include a certain quality, a certain quantity and a reasonable price. Banana Leaf fails on the last two.
The quality of the food is fairly good. For example, the pork belly is flavoursome and tender served with pleasantly charred green beans. Fried soft-shelled crabs are all they should be: salty, savoury, sweet & crunchy.
But the quantity turns any pleasure into sourness. Half a palmful of pork with a snatch of beans at £6. Ouch. Three teensy crabs at £9. Ooch. Four charcoal sized lumps of beef rendang at £7.20. Eek. Three tendrils of choy sum in a sheen of batter at £5.90. Hmm. Four scrawny chicken and beef satay skewers at £6.50. Argh. A side of steamed rice sufficient to fill one eye socket at £1.10. Oof.
You might think to sidestep this agony altogether and order their 'bigger dishes'. So we did. At £14.50 for a plate of noodles, I was expecting the char kway teow to leave me gasping. And it did. In agony. At the thought of having to pay so much for so little.
£130 for six people (including three bottled beers) was the cost of an evening of people negotiating politely amongst themselves for thimble sized pickings.
On the walk back into town for somewhere to sate our hunger, we passed places that might have felt like better value for money. No shortage: a couple of burger joints, a Portuguese grilled chicken restaurant, a chain selling pasties and sausage rolls and two chippies. When your small plates are trumped by a burger and some fries, the decline has begun.
Go if you wish but leave some money in your pocket for chips on the way home.
Goodbye Banana Leaf. I wish I could say it had been fun. read more