It was my husband’s birthday last Saturday and so we visited a relatively new Bengali/Bangladeshi Restaurant called Banoful. It’s located in a very ethnically diverse suburb of Sydney called Lakemba where you can dine on many different Middle Eastern and Sub-continental cuisines. The restaurant was empty when we arrived but that gave me a good opportunity to snap this lovely Henna-style decoration on the wall and these lovely Bengali cushions.

The service was prompt and very respectful. The waitress addressed my husband as “uncle” – so much more friendly than “sir” and it added a little quaint charm to the experience. I had every intention of taking photos of the food but when it came it looked so lovely and smelled SOOOO good that I completely forgot – sorry. We ordered parathas which came piping hot and flakily crispy, a dhal puri which was interesting if a little heavy and a lamb rezala for my husband and a chicken korma for me. My husband said the rezala was really very tasty but not like his mother’s or (wait for it) mine!  The chicken korma was delightful – a little spicy but not too hot and not sweet and sickly like others I’ve had. You could appreciate the flavours of the different spices that had been blended. It really was the best I’ve ever had. We opted to take some of these sweets home with us.

They were doubly delicious as we haven’t had sweets or sugar for several weeks. At the end of the meal we were given a little dish of an interesting mix of ingredients to cleanse the palate. We didn’t partake but it looks interesting. We had a really lovely time and I’d be happy to go back as long as I didn’t have to face the big screen Bollywood film clips that played continuously. Can I have a gripe here? Why oh why do restaurants put TV screens in their dining rooms? They’re noisy, they’re distracting and you can’t fully enjoy the food or the conversation. What do you think?