Review Hopper Kade The Exchange - Sydney

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.

Never tried Sri Lankan food before. Loved it! Got the Hopper which you tear off bits of crepe to use for grabbing the filling so you’re eating with your hands. Super fun. If you like spicy get extra onion sambol- so good. Great laid back atmosphere and friendly staff.

Really disappointed by this restaurant which I was excited to try having had amazing good in Sri Lanka on holiday. The service was slow and distracted (not surprising since there was one waiter on the floor and one lady serving from the kitchen). We had the feasting menu and the starters were fried and tasteless, the curries for main had very little flavour and not much meat in them and the hoppers came 10-15 minutes after everything else so we had either eaten our food by the time they arrived or what was left to eat them with was cold.

For sides we ordered: <br/>- Eggplant Chips (3/5): The sauce to dip the chips saved the dish because the batter was a bit hard to chew. It wasn’t light and crispy on the outside like it should. We mopped up that sauce though! <br/>- Beef R

I first managed to enjoy the delights of Hopper Kadé at their pop-up restaurant in the Tramsheds in Rozelle, so I was super happy to find that they’ve opened a sit-down restaurant in the old location of The Goods Cafe on Crown Street, a short walking distance from where I live!

Amazing food at Hopper Kade! It was extremely tasty and the meat was delicious (we tried Colombo chicken and pulled pork). The venue is very cute and warm, perfect winter spot. It is also BYO🍾

I was really interested to try the hoppers which were tasty. The chicken curry was tasty as well. I wouldn’t recommend the fish curry, it was rather bland. Please be mindful this is a BYO venue. We only found out when we got there and were a bit disappointed. The staff are ultra helpful and encouraging to the cuisine and I do like that they have a fixed menu option for amateurs.

We got served by the owner of the place who, unfortunately, gave us a terrible customer service. She forgot half ur order and when we finally got it, the food was cold and the coffee tasted of cleaning detergent..

So pretty much everything on the menu is in a hopper - these ones had a thickish pancake-like bowl rather than the crispier dosa-like ones that I had in Sri Lanka, but no matter, they taste good and make a great bowl for the toppings. I went for lentil curry and coconut sambal, along with an egg, to replicate the common Sri Lankan breakfasts and it was pretty tasty curry. It made a good breakfast but $14 might be a bit much for it (if you want meat, it will be $18). Coffee was fairly rich but a bit cold.  It's a decent cafe but mainly a good opportunity to try hoppers.

This place felt friendly and authentic with a family run feel. The Sri Lankan food was simple but tasty, especially the slow cooked meats and we thoroughly enjoyed our meal here. Good value for money

Went here to grab some food on the go,<br/>While being served the guy at the counter was playing texas hold em and serving at the same time, didnt care if i was waiting to tap my card or what, his poker game was priority

Ruvanie and the team are an amazing bunch of people who have created a great experience and a cool twist on the hopper.  Having fusion dishes and new flavours is something rather hard to do, but they have done very well and their lovely restaurant really fits with the hip fit-out of the Tramsheds at Harold Park.  <br/><br/>My friends and I had a variety of hoppers - the Dhaling Harbour, 12 Hour marinated beef, and the Ozzie.  <br/><br/>I made sure to bring my Sri Lankan friends along, and we got their tick of approval on the flavours of the dish, as well as the atmosphere and great service.<br/><br/>While I was briefed that traditional hoppers are usually served separately with no filling to maintain their crispness, and a side of curry, the batter is still flavoursome, and the fillings were beautiful as well.  These hoppers are very well presented, and be sure to get your side of sweet potato fries!

Hopper Kade is a my new favourite takeaway. I'm a huge fan of dosas so to me Hoppers really allured. Sampling a few set menu items, I really recommend mixing it up and customising your own. Alot of standard options are pretty dry as not many have the sauces and curries that these guys are actually making. I can see alot of items are westernised and dulled-down as such to appeal to a new market, hence my recommendation of designing your own. Their Kiri Hodi and Ceylonese Curry sauces are actually quite flavoursome, however as I said, they don't feature much on the standard menu, so add them. For first timers I really recommend the marinated beef, as well as the fried chicken - provided you're adding some sauce. <br/><br/>I love the staff here as they have always been so friendly and lovely. Their passion in getting people exposed to this food is really evident and they are happy to give you samples and explain components to you if unsure. When you consider the outlets already residing in Tramsheds, Hopper Kade offers some real flavour in amongst some basic tastes. <br/>

I wanted to love this place as there aren't too many Sri Lankan shops in Sydney serving authentic hoppers. I got the (Unawa)Tuna hopper and was hugely disappointed with the flavours. It was quite bland and the hopper was poorly done. One of my friend liked the Dhaling Harbour and my other mate who got the Beef hopper was also quite disappointed. Having had authentic homemade hoppers in Sri Lanka, I assure you that this is not what hoppers should taste like. It was also quite pricey ($15) for an Entree sized portion. We visited on Sunday afternoon when the owner wasn't around. Maybe that's why the flavours were off.

So terribly disappointing. Hopper was stale and not thin and crispy how it should be. Pol sambol bland and the sauce/relish thing served on the hopper was just odd. Its a shame that inner Sydney still doesn't have authentic Sri Lankan cuisine. This place is just bland. I get that this is meant to be "sri lankan inspired" food but at the end of the day, this place is a hopper shop and a hopper is a hopper. Either its good or its not.... and in this case, its not. Kelly

It’s always amazing to see how enthusiastic a Sri Lankan person will get when you mention their food to them. That’s why when we heard about the pop up shop Hopper Kadé in the Tramsheds shopping centre, my girlfriend declared that we HAD to go. Tramsheds is an historical shed built in 1904 to service the once-common trams that roamed the streets of Sydney. Works were completed last year to convert the previously abandoned building to a new foodie destination.