Apollo Banana Leaf

Apollobananaleaf – Srilanakan & South Indian Restaurant

http://apollobananaleaf.com

Cheese and Biscuits: Apollo Banana Leaf, Tooting

Sure, we're talking cheap ingredients here - mutton, cod, chicken, various South Indian vegetables - but most curry houses charge twice this for commodity vindaloo sauce and a couple of poppadums.

Done in the same sauce was a just-done fillet of masala cod, possibly the only time in the last couple of years I've had a bit of fish in an Indian restaurant that wasn't overcooked.

Finally, devilled mutton, and further proof of Apollo Banana Leaf's extreme command of spicing and slow-cooking.

Comparable in style to the Tayyabs dry meat - and we all know how good that is - shot through with crispy fried curry leaves and onion, each cube of mutton was meltingly tender and generously coated in that thick, dark paste of spicy loveliness.

Hopefully you'll have made your mind up by this point in the post that Apollo Banana Leaf is a serious restaurant worth anyone's time.

Apollo Banana Leaf review – Sri Lankan food in Tooting | The Picky ...

I therefore usually refrain from reviewing when I’m drowning in my own snot, but Happy Buddha, Porn Master, The Lensman, Templeton Peck and Vicious Alabaster convinced me to make an exception for Apollo Banana Leaf.

As this BYOB restaurant is quite small and gets packed out with large beery groups getting very beery with cheap off-licence beer, it pays to book ahead.

The menu is bulked out by a lot of curry house favourites to appease the beery post-pub crowds more interested in beering it up loudly with more beer, but it pays to steer clear of that chuff and stick to the more authentic Sri Lankan staples.

While they had the same crisp, oil-free breadcrumb coating as the fish cakes, inside were dense, chunky strands of moist meat with a lightly fiery heat.

Apollo Banana Leaf has plenty for vegetarians too – it’s not all about the meat.

Apollo Banana Leaf | Restaurants in Tooting, London

A humble BYOB venue providing Tooting with an invigorating blast of Sri Lankan chilli heat.

But devotees don’t come here for design tips, they come for the food – an authentic rendering of South Indian and Sri Lankan cuisine – and for great value.

Spice levels are at authentic Jaffna (north Sri Lankan) levels: a single chilli icon on the menu is to be taken seriously, two plus is for the brave.

‘Short eats’ (street-food snacks) included our soft sambar vadai (a savoury doughnut made with chickpea flour, here steeped in a thin lentil gravy) and a croquette-like mutton roll (with its rich, clove-spiked meat middle).

The rich, warmly spiced crab masala – claws and all – is worth getting messy for; chewy, buttery chapati makes the perfect foil.