40621 Thu Oct 20 23:25:58 -0700 2005 2 1 San Francisco Bay Area 0 194620 Banana Blossom is on Park Boulevard in Oakland's Glenview district, in the space where The Purple Plum used to be. The stylish, modern interior is mostly unchanged -- the giant purple plum mural is (alas) gone, and instead the walls have been hung with some inoffensive abstract paintings. On Thursday evening, the place was about half full and people dropped in occasionally to pick up food orders. Two pleasant, efficient servers were running the place. I don't know much about Thai food, but I liked everything we ordered. We started with Imperial rolls and a side of cucumber salad. the salad was a little sweeter than I'd prefer, but was cool, crisp and refreshing. the rolls were crispy and flavorful, and enhanced with a sweet dipping sauce, that could have benefited from a little chili heat. The red duck curry was wonderful -- tasty chunks of duck meat, tomatoes, red and green peppers and pineapple, in a luscious red coconut-milky sauce that was good to the last drop. We also had a terrific eggplant and prawn dish with plenty of Thai basil pulling all the fresh flavors together, and a nice Pad Thai noodle dish -- nothing special, but with the same freshness of flavor and texture that we noticed in all of the dishes. With a beer and large San Pellegrino, the bill came to $50, before tip. I do miss The Purple Plum, but Banana Blossom is a nice addition to this neighborhood's food line-up. We'll definitely be back. Thu Oct 20 23:25:58 -0700 2005 0 Rod Williams 1 1802226 As a neighbor, we have come to love Banana Blossom and eat there as well as have take out quite regularly. For first time diners, I would definitely recommend eating in the restaurant first (rather than doing take out). They do a really nice job of presenting the food in a lovely way and, with most cuisines, the skills of the chef shine through best when the food is freshly served. Their curries are wonderful including a kabocha squash curry. They have a nice salad with basil dressing as well as a green papaya salad. We also enjoy their ginger chicken. They have a good selection of vegetarian dishes and they are wonderful with children. The restaurant has been decorated in a modern asian style that is very appealing. Fri Aug 11 17:49:03 -0700 2006 194620 25134 Roxannea 1 2305638 Went there on Valentine's day after reading the above reviews. We weren't disappointed at all with the food. They had a special dish - curry snapper mousse that was sensational. We didn't know what to expect. It was presented in a nice ceramic rectangular "bowl" and looking almost like a custard. It had a large portion of snapper surrounded by the mousse that tasted like red curry and coconut milk and jalapeno peppers. We had fried calamari as a starter, then the mousse and the spicy crab noodle dish. The only thing disappointing was the service. The place was jumping but had only three servers for the bar, twenty or so tables plus the takeout. The orders seemed to not get quequed in sequence. People arriving and ordering after us got their food before we did. Despite that we'll definetely go back. There were too many other dishes that sounded great and given our experience, I'm sure we won't be disappointed. Sun Feb 18 19:08:56 -0800 2007 194620 17611 bluecheesewiz