Banana Leaf was our third option after the two popular hotels in Canberra were fully booked out for Christmas Lunch buffet. Despite that Christmas was just 3 weeks away, we were able to secure a booking for 11 adults, 1 kid and 2 babies. There is no full pre-payment required as the restaurant does not want to make it an obligation to turn up. Its either you like their food and pay on that day, or you just don't dine there at all.
The Christmas Lunch Menu as below: There are 4 options for the main meal. They were also able to offer a kid's menu, which consisted of Chicken Snitzel with chips and ice cream for dessert.
Chilli & Lime Marinated King Prawn and Tasmanian Smoked Salmon wrapped lobster terrine
Roasted coconut and carrot soup
Passionfruit and black pepper sorbet
Main meal option 1 - Lamb cutlets
Main meal option 2 - Oven roasted Christmas turkey with Sri Lankan spices
Main meal option 3 - Grilled Barramundi
Gin and Raisin Panacotta
Estate Range Shiraz 2008 (we ordered 2 bottles)
Lily's comments: Good. Service was a bit slow as expected as it was Christmas day. The entrees were overall delicious. The main meals are of a mixed bags review. The grilled barramundi was very delicious and the fish cooked to perfection - not too tough nor too tender. There are 3 cutlets in the lamb option - 2 ppl out of 3 that ordered this main commented that one of the cutlets had quite a bit of fat in it, but not the other 2 cutlets which were very tender. The roasted turkey was a disappointment as the turkey was quite tough. Overall, it was still enjoyable. We had been to this restaurant a couple of times before and the advice here is to stick to the traditional Sri Lankan cuisine such as Chicken Bryani, Fish Curry and etc as it can't go wrong. Although a few times, the pappadums served were not fresh.
