Lankan Filling Station

Faultless experience at Lankan filling station. Kangaroo tail curry, sambal selection, fish, eggplant and desserts were all knockouts. I am gutted that the place is closing down, but looking forward to what chef owner O Tama will be doing in the near future. 2 weeks to go, and will be in tomorrow for the last last hurray!!

Undeniably elegant yet relax atmosphere, service was very attentive and customers well taken care of. Food was well prepared, presented well but perhaps lack the rusticity and grittiness you expect from authentic Sri Lankan food.

Came in for a lovely lunch. There‘s a couple lunch specials and the whole menu to choose from, I selected off of both and greatly enjoyed the cashew curry. It’s a small place that fills up quickly, once you‘ve tasted it you can understand why - a hearty and tasty meal!

What a great place. It's a shame they're closing their doors this year. The food is outstanding. Quality Sri Lankan food, with options got vegans, vegetarians, also plenty of gluten free options on the menu. The cashew curry and fish curry with the standouts. Their hoppers and rotis were perfect for mopping up the delicious sauces. The staff are very welcoming and helpful with the menu. Even suggesting we reduce our order because it was a bit much for 3 people. Would highly recommend this place before it closes. It's one of the best curries you'll have in Sydney.

We had the lentils, cashew curry and rice, simple but packed with so much flavour. The coconut sambol still lives rent-free in my head. Everything came out fast, the service was warm, and the room had that busy-but-fun energy. It’s such a shame to hear it’s closing. If you haven’t been, go. 🤌

Fill, we did! I can only define their food as a refined version of authentic Lankan experience. I can recommend their fish and cashew curry with string hoppers. The staff were very attentive and helpful which is becoming a bit of a rarity these days. Five stars from me and I will be back for more...

The cosy restaurant serves excellent Srilankan food. Went with friends for dinner. They didn't disappoint. Chef Bhagya has some magic in her hand. All the food we tried was excellent. I've never had such soft Pork before, it just melted in the mouth. Service was responsive. Outdoor and indoor seating are available. The portions were a bit small for the price charged for the food.

Absolute gem of a place! Lip smacking Sri Lankan flavours. We had only vegetarian food but they have non vegetarian items too. Their main offering is hoppers (basket shaped or string shaped) to pair with a variety of vegetarian and non vegetarian curries. They also change around some curries from time to time (weekend banquets/weekly specials). Flavours were authentic to the T! Service was warm too. Had a great experience. Definitely going back.

We've never had Sri Lankan food, so I made a reservation because why come halfway across the world and not try something you can't have at home? Only problem was that my mom has severe acid reflux and cannot have anything spicy (Scoville kind of spicy). I made sure to email the restaurant months in advance and when we arrived, the person helping us remembered the email! He made sure to point out again what wasn't spicy and we were able to feed her well. This restaurant is small and intimate so you definitely need a reservation. It seems to be a great date place because it's dark and there is some cool mood lighting going on. You'll be sitting very close to whoever you're with as well. The food is something I've never experienced before and I actually can't wait to try more. The hoppers were interesting. It felt hard to pick up stuff with but I noticed a lot of people just spooning curry into it. I'll try that next time. The roti was all really good, including the gluten free one. We didn't take home leftovers but my mom made sure to take those with her. Drinks were very unique and refreshing. I loved the play on classic cocktails but made with Sri Lankan flair and ingredients. So why not 5 stars? Some things rubbed me the wrong way service wise. My drink was forgotten and it kind of felt like it was my fault (t wasn't) even though I did get an apology. Also, my mom is very much a rice person so we wanted rice with her cashew curry. But the person helping us was like no, you're getting the dhal and replaced it. Yes, the dahl was good but my mom would have liked the rice.

I have never had this type of food before but it was excellent very spicy. The waiter gave us excellent suggestions and told us how to swish smoosh our foods with the bread. This is a small restaurant so make a reservation Service was excellent

Sri Lankan cuisine in Darlinghurst. Order spicy. * * * We did okay here at the Lankan Filling Station which is a good place. But we could have done better. Without paying much attention to the presence or absence of pepper markers, we ordered some of the blandest dishes on the menu. Huge mistake. Our cashew appetizer (think superspicy beer nuts) was outstanding. The dried chickpea and spice mix appetizer was milder and okay (think milder superspicy beer nuts.) Our cashew curry was like enchiladas suiza. Creamy and sleepy. The salad was a salad. We got (without thinking about what we were doing) the plainest hopper on the menu. (Hoppers are the enjera of Lankan cuisine. They are a thin lacey crispy bread bowl. You break off pieces of your bowl and eat your food with it - using your hands.) The hopper was light and pretty to look at but didn't add much interest. The coconut coriander and lime sambal was an utterly essential condiment for our meal. With the sambal things were good. Otherwise, we had ho hum with a fun bread bowl to eat. * * * It turns out we drew our food almost exclusively from the mildest 5 percent of the menu. Almost anything else we would have ordered would have had more fire and soul. The other Yelp reviewers and the other patrons in the restaurant were ordering the blast-your-mouth-off items. That would have been totally the way to go. Regardless of how you order mains, be sure to get at least one sambal. One option is to get a full range of six. When you eat in the bread bowl, all of the flavors of everything you ordered run together. Sambals add significantly to the interest. And if you ordered pure molten lava for your main dish, they have cooling raitas to calm you down. * * * I suspect this is a five star place that we just misplayed. Next time, we will know.

I can't believe I'm the first person to post a review bc this place is hopping. What I love about this place is that the spice they add is the spice they add. You can't handle it. That's on you. You should have ordered wisely. Tasted the cuttlefish - it's what they are known for - and it's very good and very spicy. No ways around it. Had their dhal - which tasted great. A bit under salted but in the context of the other dishes it worked perfectly. Has the green mallung which was like one of those ong choys - bok choys cousins- that had onions and spice which was a much needed add. Glad it wasn't sweet. Get this veggie!!! Had the crab balls. They taste like really good falafel with crab. Use the lime. Thank me later. The only thing that didn't work for me was the plain hopper. There is a sourness to the coconut flavor that was just not what I am looking for to serve up the dishes I ordered. Also the fruit flies were annoying. In this female lead restaurant - everyone seemed very very nice. Helpful when explaining everything and their shirts are cool. I'm totally coming back and wish they had something like this in the US.

We were visiting Sydney and was craving some Sri Lankan food. Found this place on yelp and I was pleasantly surprised when I walked in. Great concept and ambiance. All the employees were non Sri Lankan but was very knowledgeable of the menu and knew how to describe items well. Great service and even the owner stopped by to say Hello!! If visiting Sydney highly recommend visiting this restaurant. However please don't walk in expecting traditional SL foods. It is authentic but has a fusion flare to it in a good way.

I spent 5 amazing years of my life living with Sri Lankan twins and learned the better part of my cooking repertoire from them so Sri Lankan cuisine brings back so many feels. Lankan Filling Station is Sri Lankan cuisine at it's finest. Absolutely loved the string hoppers with kiri hodi which pair excellently with a nice white curry like the potato curry. The sambols were also fantastic and perfect to spice up and pair with all the various dishes. My absolute favorite was the eggplant dish which brought was quite spicy but with a sweetness from the tamarind that really hit the spot. The servers were really helpful to figure out the size of the dishes and come up with a meal appropriate from the size of our party. An absolute gem of a restaurant.

High quality Sri Lankan food with black beef curry to die for and melt-in-your-mouth hoppers. Just what Sydney needed.