Whoa I'm seriously starting to get so random right now. I've been writing about so many things in my blog but I think this is my first restaurant review haha. Expanding!
I was eagerly waiting for this restaurant to open in The Hub, Milton Keynes for a few months now. The cuisine is said to be Indochina. I've never tried that before but was really interested. I joined their mailing list as they were promoting it on the soon-to-be-opened restaurant but sadly I joined it too soon as the free dessert I received was valid only till the start of July and the restaurant opened like a week ago (it's now August). (╯︵╰,)
First impressions: interesting. There's a chill zone as soon as you enter and bartenders greet you straight away. If you want to eat, you have to pass by the open kitchen on your left which is really weird. Never seen it before. (2023 update: haha, what a noob)
Service: not too bad. The manager or supervisor who greeted us was really nice. Explained the menu since we were really confused. I still was confused even after his explanation but let's ignore that. Our server was obviously new in this kind of job. Self-conscious introverted girl. Was really hard to make her laugh even though my bf and I were all funny and easy going. I don't blame her. I was like that too when I started haha. I hope she'll improve. ｡◕‿◕｡
Mains: weird portions, weird taste. I really wanted to try this Indochina cuisine. The ingredients sounded all randomly thrown together. It was so hard to choose. Also the main component of the dish comes by itself so you have to order sides separately. My bf ordered crispy chicken with mango and lime sauce and I grabbed seafood curry. My choice was probably the worst choice in history lol. Teeny tiny pan with I don't even know what. Honestly I found like one tiny piece of tilapia fillet, 3 prawns, 2 random weird fish cakes and some sponges (I've no idea what that was). Had all this with jasmine rice. Was pretty bad but I don't blame the kitchen. I wanted to experiment so I chose it. The rice didn't have much taste. (´＿｀。) My bf really liked his crispy chicken with egg fried rice though. Although I wasn't a big fan of his food either. I guess it's just not my kind food hahaha. What I didn't like was a big difference in sizes of main courses. All the prices were pretty much similar but the sizes were like WOW WHAT? After eating a teeny tiny pan of something I saw a huge plate of salads and meat and everything on other table. Whoa, jealous...
When my bf asked for a bill we saw a 'pancake' on the bill which wasn't what we ordered (the price was also different). It looks like this was a Coconut Stuffed Green Thai Pancakes. The stuffing was really dry and too crunchy... I loved the ice cream though hahaha. Yeah so unfortunately I didn't get pudding I really wanted to try. But you know what? Jasmine tea is just heavenly. ✿♥‿♥✿
Price: damn expensive. Compared to the price we pay for a proper meal we get in other restaurants we've been so far in UK this is damn expensive. Our bill have never been higher than £43 and that's for a normal meal. Meaning either starters or desserts and mains (drinks included of course). And this time the bill was £49 only for a main course (they took the dessert off the bill because of the mistake, plus I didn't eat much of it, meh). And the sides are £4-5. Well, we weren't aware of that before going there and I had quite a lot of expectations unfortunately. I think if the meal is really impressive and good, then the higher price is understandable. But this was definitely not the case.
Conclusion: won't eat, might come back for the chill zone. Yeah so before leaving we stopped at the chill zone and played some table football (first time in my life omg!!). Scored 1 point after I was almost defeated. Achievement! Lol. I liked how the bar zone is so separated, there are bar seats and also some hammocks in the chill zone. So perfect during the happy cocktail hour Mon-Fri till 7pm. Want to come back for that only lol.
2023 update: so I did go back to Banana Tree a few years later and it was actually so much better. My taste buds have definitely matured thanks to working in different restaurants and being able to try so many different foods in my early 20s. Since it's been 9 years I don't particularly remember this outing but it definitely was overpriced. Good to know that Banana Tree did some changes and the mains are definitely of a more decent size and decent price. I did manage to try that dessert I ordered the first time, which is actually a Black Glutinous Rice Pudding and it was so damn good. Guess who tried to make it at home and it was a great success?? Yum!
By the way this pic is also in my #100happydays project I'm doing on my Twitter. How come you haven't seen it?? Follow me on Instagram! I'm so active there recently, you'll love it. ♥(✿ฺ´∀`✿ฺ)ﾉ
Happy experimenting (hopefully successful one lol) (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧
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