Lunch at Banapple

I had lunch with my friend J at Banapple the other day. Since the last time I was there, I only took out a Banoffee Pie, I took the opportunity to sample their meals. J ordered the Asian Crabstick and Mango Salad Sandwich and a slice of the Amaretto Cheesecake (the waitress said that this was a strawberry cheesecake). I ordered the Salpicao Rafael and a slice of their supposedly other specialty, Apple Caramel Crumble Pie. You can check out their menu & pricelist here. The place was packed and we were third on the waitlist.





The Verdict:

We saw the servings of pasta at other tables, and they are definitely value for money. The servings are big enough to satisfy you if you are hungry! I didn't hear any praises nor complaints from J, so I'm guessing the sandwich was good enough. As for my Salpicao Rafael, it was tasty. It wasn't the dark, garlic and soy sauce affair that I expected of salpicao. It was more of like a cross between a salpicao and a teriyaki. Nevertheless, it was good enough and value for money. Banapple's food isn't the knock-your-socks-off great tasting food that other reviews make it out to be, but it is above average. Sometimes I wonder if my standards are too high. But if I know I have tasted better or can make better, I don't consider it superlatively great tasting!

The Amaretto Cheesecake was also above average. It was good. The Apple Caramel Crumble Pie though, was another matter. The cinnamon was too strong, and I like cinnamon! I basically had to force myself to eat the pie, and couldn't finish it. I left maybe a third of the pie on the plate and concentrated on eating the crust, the pie's only saving grace. I couldn't taste anything but cinnamon. Even the crumble topping tasted like sawdust and cinnamon. I know I'm never ordering that again! You know how they can fix that pie? Maybe remove 3/4s of the cinnamon they put in there. Add some brown sugar and some water to the filling, and maybe a dash of nutmeg. And bloody add some grated cheese, sugar, and breadcrumbs to the crumble topping. The pie and the topping was too dry.

Overall, the great thing about Banapple is that it serves good food at hefty servings at affordable prices. The service was good, although it seemed that there was only one waitress. She was cheerful but whenever we noticed her serving orders or bussing tables, we couldn't help but think kawawa naman siya (poor thing!) since the place was really busy and she seemed to be on it nonstop. We were there for almost 2 hours since we did a lot of catching up.