The usage of banana plants in the preparation of traditional foods, including local products, dishes and beverages, is very popular in the banana growing regions. Bananas are an important staple crop in many tropical countries. There are lots of studies devoted to bananas from botanical, genetic, economic and historical perspectives. There is a growing interest in understanding the diversity of traditional foods based on banana plants in Asian and African countries. However, there is a lack of systematic knowledge about the usage of banana plants in the preparation of traditional foods. The goal of this paper is to provide the overview of existing publications dedicated to the diversity of traditional foods based on banana plants in countries from the Southern and South-eastern Asian regions and the African Great Lakes region. We applied the review method by using reference snowballing to give a comprehensive view of the diversity of traditional foods prepared from banana fruits, banana inflorescences, leaves and pseudo-stem. Through analyzing a sample of peer-reviewed articles and gray literature from the research institutes, we answer: (a) what parts of banana plants are commonly used in traditional foods and why some dishes are very popular; (b) what similarities and differences exist between Asian and African traditional foods based on banana plants; (c) how research has been evolved in these regions; and (d) what further aspects should be taken into attention in the research area.