Restaurant Profile: Banana Leaves on Florida Avenue
Banana Leaves is on Florida Avenue NW, just east of Connecticut. (Alejandra Owens)
You know how everyone has a pile of takeout menus somewhere in their kitchen? The one from Banana Leaves made it into my pile via a menu stuffed into my doorway not long after I moved to DC.
I live something like two blocks from the place (it’s on Florida Avenue NW) and one night I had a serious hankering for pad thai so I gave Banana Leaves a try. Their menu hasn’t left the top of the pile since.
Some would say Banana Leaves’ lengthy menu exhibiting dishes from every Asian country on the map is their downfall. I, being the glass half full type of gal, say this is their strength.
I can order in virtually anything I’m craving, from one menu! I can also take a large group of people with various tastes, desires and tolerances for spice to one place and everyone’s happy.
What do you guys think? Have you been here? Do you order from here?
The Banana Leaves menu. (Alejandra Owens)
Banana Leaves
Where Am I Going: 2020 Florida Avenue NW. That’s the southeast corner of Florida and Connecticut. (Two doors down from *bow chica bow wow* Royal Palace.) Or your couch. They deliver!
When Am I Going: Sunday to Thursday 11:30 am-10:30 pm, Friday 12:30-11 pm, and Saturday 3:30-11 pm.
Paycheck Pain: The most expensive item on the menu is the Chilean sea bass… at $17. Most noodle dishes and entrees are $9 to $13, and appetizers and soups top out at $5. Not bad, I’d say.
Say What?: The restaurant and sushi bar is a comfortable place for one-on-one conversation. I once took a very large group of people there and we got quite loud and none of us felt judged or as if we were somehow endangering the ambiance of the restaurant.
What You’ll Be Eating: This self-described “Asian restaurant and sushi bar” serves up dishes from “Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, China, Japan, Singapore, Indonesia and elsewhere in the Asia.” Like Tom Sietsema said, you could, quite literally, spend weeks working your way through the menu.
Happy Hour: There’s a pretty extensive cocktail menu, with a tasty lychee martini, but no happy hour so far as I can tell. But, you’re probably going to be ordering in from this establishment more than you’ll be eating or drinking in it.
