Pepper Seeds Balmain — Restaurant in Sydney

With Moon Restaurant recently reinvigorating my interest in Thai food, a well-timed mailbox menu pamphlet saw me head in to Pepper Seeds in Balmain. The flyer indicated they had a few dishes that extend beyond the usual suburban Thai standards. The restaurant, set on a quiet bend in Darling Street, takes up the ground floor of a narrow two-storey terrace. It’s kept wide open to take advantage of the balmy autumnal evening, allowing diners to appreciate the star filled sky.

Inside, low rafters are made into a feature with a metal shabby chic chandelier hung over the long central table. One wall is paneled with wood, while the other is left as bare red brick. The lighting is low and moody, in contrast to the service, which is sunny and sweet.

“The mussels we make with a basil sauce inside,” our waitress volunteers when we show an interest in the menu cover photo, a dish called Mussel Delights ($19.90). The resulting dish sees New Zealand green lipped mussels remain the briny heroes against a bright blend of basil leaves, garlic and red chillies. It’s an excellent dish, and I can see why it was chosen for the cover shot.

Even with English as a second language, our waitress is able to answer menu queries; offering us any dish we like as hot. “Spicy is better,” she nods with approval at our selection. I’m pleased when our Egg Net ($12.90) arrives with a dipping sauce that’s laden with red chillies that are genuinely hot. The texture of the golden, egg lace omelette is lovely and light; and the chicken, prawn and peanut interior is tasty and fresh.

We team it with Khan Toke Lanna ($9.90), a Northern Thai dip made from dried chillies, pork and tomatoes. We enjoy exploring it across a range of dipping ingredients - a cone of sticky rice, cherry tomatoes, lettuce leaves and twists of pork crackling – against the Peter Yealands Pinot Gris ($39/bottle). It’s our second pick (the first was unavailable) from the short but reasonably priced wine list.

While the rice itself in the spicy-pork flavoured Lanna Fried Rice ($15.90) is a bit claggy, the juicy green snake beans dotted through it, are perfectly cooked. We enjoy our rice with the turmeric-based chicken curry, Gaeng Garee ($19.90). It’s a beautifully presented curry topped with a crown of crispy egg noodles and accompanied by two neatly rolled roti to soak up the rich coconut gravy.

And finally, if you happen to be dining here on date night, you’ll find free condoms available in...

The management of this place is poor to say the least. I went to the Eveleigh branch at 1230 lunch time rush had to line up for 15 minutes no problem. They have a pre made selection of food for you to choose from but unfortunately all ready everything sold out. Wait what there's is about 30 people behind me on there lunch breaks that just want to grab something quick to eat. I don't have the luxury of waiting for them to cook something for me. Why don't they plan to cook much more food and then keep it in the massive pots they have in the kitchen. Planning is kinda key when you have the head quarters of the Commonwealth bank directly above you with 3000 employees wanting to grab food when they get 30 minutes for a break.

My suggestion is put the massive pots in the kitchen to use double or triple the amount of food like green curry or beef Curry actually curry is the kinda food that improves with time so there's no excuse to run out of food at 1230.

These are the same cafe owners that cried during COVID lockdowns that their businesses were impacted and they lost revenue, yet when they get busy, they couldn't care less about customers.

My suggestion to anyone wanting to get Thai food and you don't want to waste your lunch break waiting in line to get told no more food is insteadis walk to yummy yai Thai food restaurant at 45/72 Botany Rd, Alexandria NSW 2015...

Sure!

The food we ordered was absolutely delicious and exceeded our expectations in terms of flavor and quality. Each dish was thoughtfully prepared, and the presentation was impressive. It was clear that a lot of effort had gone into creating a satisfying and enjoyable dining experience. However, one major drawback significantly affected the overall experience—the waiting time. After placing our order, we had to wait nearly an hour before the food was served. This long delay was quite frustrating, especially considering how hungry we were and how much we were looking forward to our meal. While we understand that restaurants can get busy, particularly during peak hours, a wait time of almost 60 minutes felt excessive and could have been better managed or communicated to us in advance. It would have been helpful if the staff had provided updates or a rough estimate of the wait time, so we could set our expectations accordingly. The quality of the food definitely made up for some of the inconvenience, but the prolonged wait did dampen the overall experience. We hope that in the future, service times can be improved to match the high standard...