In a neighborhood of increasingly expensive dining options, Banana Leaf Kitchen has established a prominent corner outpost for on-the-cheap eaters prowling Lake View.
True, at this time of year you’re unlikely to take advantage of the restaurant’s primary draw, the deck overlooking Grace Street, but the cooking still makes a visit to the bright blue and white dining room worthwhile. Thai standbys are all present and accounted for, and most acquit themselves honorably. The servers are extremely friendly, fast and accommodating.
The minimalist fresh spring rolls are refreshing, filled as they are with nothing much more than shredded carrots and chilled “glass” noodles, those thin, transparent rice noodles.
Chicken satay ($3.95) arrives hot off the griddle and tender, and free from those hazardous skewers. Thick peanut sauce is the standard item.
Another appetizer, kanom jeeb ($3.95), delivers six steamed rice-noodle dumplings filled with minced, almost overprocessed, seafood; maybe the potato starch is to blame for the blandness, but a dip in the accompanying sweet-salty sauce makes up for that.
We just had to order the dish dubbed 007 Top Secret ($5.95). Under a crunchy garnish of wide fried noodles lies a nest of satisfyingly chewy “Shanghai” rice noodles, Chinese broccoli, a couple of shrimp and amazingly dense and resilient “pork balls”: They taste much like a bratwurst, but after chewing a couple of them the temptation is to fit the others into a slingshot and take aim at the more boisterous drivers along Southport. All components are tossed together in a pretty blue glass bowl. Though the menu marks it as a spicy dish, it is tame.
Panang curry ($6.45) is sweet, thanks to a sauce of coconut milk, with just enough zing to keep it from cloying. The pork strips (the dish is available with the usual variety of meats) are tender if not numerous, but bits of red and green bell pepper help fill them out, as does the cumin-and-coriander spicing.
Pad woon sen ($5.75), a dish of glass noodles with onions, greens and scrambled eggs, has a touch more fish sauce than expected, but it stopped short of overwhelming.
Pad thai ($4.95) here is more moist than in many other places but still has that characteristic sweet tamarind tang.
For a striking beverage, ask for Thai iced tea, which arrives in a tall, curvy glass. Sweetened condensed milk cascades over ice into the golden tea below. Pretty, yes, and sweet. You won’t need dessert.
If you forgo the iced tea, four banana dessertsroasted, deep-fried, bathed in coconut milk or stuffed inside steamed sticky rice ($1.75-$2.50)offer alternatives to the fruit in syrup. But we were in a hurry to get to the Music Box Theatre down the street. No, it wasn’t a James Bond flick. Though weapons specialist Q might want to check out those pork balls . . .
———-
Banana Leaf Kitchen
(2 forks)
3811 N. Southport Ave.
773-883-8683
Hours: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Mon.-Sat.; 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Sun.
Credit cards: M, V
Ratings: 4 forks: Top of the class
3 forks: Better than most
2 forks: Very good fare
1 fork: Middle of the road
Reviews are based on anonymous visits by Tribune staff members. The meals are paid for by the Tribune.
