Hopper Kade The Exchange

Wow just glad we gave this restaurant a go... Being a sri lankan I found food that’s mind blowing in their menu. I’m excited we now have another good srilankan restaurant much closer to city after ‘Srilankan street food’ in Glebe. The food is absolutely value for money. We tried everything on menu from hoppers to roti wrap to biryani. My favourite was biryani and that house made chilli sauce they serve on side with every dish...simply mindblowing! We ordered lentil curry inside roti wrap (yeah! Sounds a bit crazy 😜) but the taste blends well with rocket and rice. I ordered a house chai tea...they nailed it! Absolutely the same taste you find in a tea made in every Sri lankan household. Staff is really nice and the lady in front desk was kind enough to tell us ice coffee will be bit too strong for my4yo and to make chocolate milk which wasn’t even on their menu. Ruwini the owner of hopper kade also took time to stop by and have a quick chat. Wish you all the best!

First things first. Carry a USB fan since there is neither AC nor a fan big enough to cool people. The food is average at best and only one of the dishes in the starter was good. Overpriced place not worth the money. Others have complained about staff but we found them to be quite nice. Wait till they move to their new place out of Darlinghurst to see if it makes a difference.

We decided to checkout this Sri Lankan place for dinner. I’m extremely disappointed that owners serve the beautiful Sri Lankan food like this. Please before doing anything make sure you serve the starters first. Our entree was served middle of the main dish. We ordered hopper dish. Hoppers are so significant Sri Lankan dish. Owners need to know what you serve to customers are the cruel Food you call Sri Lankan. The hopers were so dry and looks so wrong. We got a dhal dish ($17) and so dry where you can see the top layer has cracks. It’s like it’s been out for so long. They give much a massive dhal dish to eat with two dry and small shrink hoppers. The wade and the chutney was ok and had some taste to it. We were not given plates to eat, the waiter just put the food on table and just walk away saying enjoy. Then the owner was sitting next to us with a laptop. We had to ask for plates to eat. Then I had to inquire how many hoppers we get for the order. She said it’s only two hoppers. And a very tiny potion of symbol. You need to give privacy for the customers who eat the girls we’re making so much noise in the kitchen dropping stuff. Very unprofessional I used the bathroom and there was a girl inside and she was sorry I can’t lock the door as there is no light inside. Please if you charge expensive amounts for customers to pay your basic needs need sorting. I use the wash room with half door opened. I wouldn’t recommend, as there was no greetings or when we paired for the such no one was bothered to ask how the food was. They were waiting for us to go. We end up paying $48 for dinner and feel so disappointed that owners serve this as Sri Lankan. What a shame on beautiful Sri Lankan cuisine.

We were recommended this restaurant for authentic modern Sri Lankan food, and it fully lived up to expectations. Friendly efficient service with just delightful curries. We enjoyed the best fish curry here since being in Sri Lanka! And chicken curry with plain hoppers. There was a mix up when the kitchen brought out egg hoppers, but it was handled pleasantly and effectively, and we ended up with extra plain hoppers. Brilliant. Excuse the 'after' photo, the food was too wonderful to wait for photos :)

We had a good experience here, the curries were generally tasty - in particular the fish curry, and their vadai was nice and fresh. We'd been really excited to try the hoppers however they were somewhat of a disappointment, they didn't taste fresh and came out well before the curries, plus half of them were flat and crumbled. Should these things be addressed, this place has great potential and we'd be sure to give it another go!

Maybe it was the cuisine more than the restaurant that I wasn't a fan of, but there we are. The food is quite expensive. What amounts to 2 bowls of floor and an egg was about $8 and the curry was ok but a bit plain and also small. The deep fried eggplant entree was interesting but again very bland, great texture though. It was an interesting experience, but not one to repeat for me.

Service staff seem to be untrained - we had to ask for menus, table water was not refilled, no meal-check until the owner stepped in at the end. The curries (dhal, chicken) were bland - no spice which was what I anticipated being a Sri Lankan restaurant and having just come back from Sri Lanka. The bill was $230 for 3x people which, for Sri Lankan food in a very casual environment is a LOT! I also worked out later that we were charged for a dish that was not brought out. An underwhelming experience, overall.