Don't bother . The place is so so far from the hype. Food is not even ok , I was terribly disappointed . The food is between Indian and wired . read more

A girl who loves to eat and eats out most of the time, Hoppers was an amazing experience. I had heard so much about the place and but returned back thrice due to unavailability of a table. This place is always booked! Finally my fourth visit turned out to be brilliant one. Worth the wait!! We ordered almost everything in the menu. The crab curry is a must, must try. The food is spicy here and this is best part about this restaurant. Very friendly staff and they will guide you through the list really well. They do not do desserts, so even better to stuff your belly full with the main course Advice: They do not take bookings. So if you really want a table, write your name at the door by 6 pm and when your table is ready, they will give you a call. GOOD LUCK! read more

This is a small restaurant with maybe around 8 to 10 tables + bar seats of 6 , the food were spicy and delicious, i tried two dishes which both i loved , they dont have reservations for tables so you have to go there and put ur name in the list but it didnt take long time of waiting read more

I decided to give hoppers a try since I've never had Sri Lankan food before. The wait was about 2 hours at 6:30pm. Our hotel was a 5 min walk from there so we put our names down and waited till then. It was very busy and had a good ambience. The service was great! I'm not sure what Sri Lankan food should taste like, however, if I were to compare to flavors that I know then it would be very close to Indian cuisine. To be honest I was disappointed as I think Indian cuisine is more flavorful. I would describe their food as anticlimactic and somewhat bland. The food was okay but not incredible as the reviews seem to state. I gave it a three since the service was good but I wouldn't ever go back. I had the mutton rolls (the sauce that came with it was the best), egg hopper, pork Kari, and the whole chicken. I told my friend to give this place a try a couple weeks before I came since he was in the area. His thoughts were the same unfortunately, but I still came in to see for myself! read more

Great food.. waiting for the table took a long time but it was worth it. I would recommend: Biriani lamb, kari and bone marrow. read more

On our last visit to London's Soho district my husband & I went to get something to eat at Koya's Restaurant. What we discovered was that Koya Restaurant was gone and a new Restaurant, Hoppers was in its place. The Koya Bar is still open for business & is right next door to Hoppers Restaurant. When we got to Hoppers there was a long line to get in. We decided try the next day for lunch & we were able to get in. Hoopers is a very small restaurant. The food was very spicy and good. My husband and I shared the Goat Roti, Chicken Kari & a plan hopper. The meats were very tasty & tender. It was the first time to have a Hopper which was good. Service was excellent as well. We enjoyed our meal & would go back again. read more

I have to say this was one of my best meals in London to date. So good I was finally sparked off my bum to write a review after many years in the dark. They don't take reservations so get here early - luckily they do a virtual line - so they call you when your table is available, so just head elsewhere to enjoy some drinks while you wait. There were five of us - tightly packed into a small table, but there was enough room for us to move and eat comfortably. For drinks I had both the Quart of Milk Panch (shared), which surprisingly wasn't overly coy or milky - I'm assuming because it is cardamom "milk" and not milk from an animal and the Wonder Tonic, which was pretty juicy and sweet. But not in the best way. This is the only area I felt that the menu fell a little flat for me. The drinks were small - which is fine for the price point as long as they are strong - which they weren't. Next time I'm sticking to wine or beer. Now for food: "Short Eats" - Lotus Root, Cashew & Ash Plaintain Fry - these were literally crisps made out of these various tubular plants and they were delicious, and came with a dipping sauce that carried a real kick. Would order again. - Goat Roti, Rasa - I enjoyed this (because I thoroughly enjoyed their roti), but it was simile and not overly flavourful when compared to the other dishes. But it got mixed reception from our group. I would order again, don't know if anyone else would. - Idli, Sambhar, Podi - I only had a bite, and I wasn't that taken back. It was tasty, but almost like a very fluffy pancake in sauce. I wasn't going back for seconds. However, one of the others of our group (vegetarian) love it, so an option for people only eating veg. - Calamari Fry, Chemmeen Podi - the calamari was small, so maintained its crispy crunchiness. The sauce accompaniment provided a nice flavour. Would order gain. "Sides" - Roti - I'm used to north indian roti, which is quite "whole mealy" This roti was completely different. Almost like puff pastry roti. Light and delicious. Would order again. (In fact we ordered seconds) "Hoppers + Dosas" - Egg Hopper - here is another item we ordered two rounds off. This is like a thin crispy pancake in the shape of a bowl with a fried egg at the bottom. The first was fully cooked the second was runny - and they were both delicious. The pancake part is great for eating with kari, the egg tasted amazing on its own or with a selection of chutney's we got. - Dosa - Thin crispy, everything you want in a dosa. I find these great accompaniments to karis again as they aren't as heavy as rice or naans, which means you can have more bites! "Karis" - Red Pumpkin Kari - good vegetarian choice. While this was yummy and I would suggest again, it wasn't my favourite kari. Less flavourful than other options, but would probably order again. - Fish Kari - this was made with salmon in a red sauce, and it was amazing. Fish, not fishy, flaky delicious. The Kari sauce was flavourful with a kick (most of the food has at least a little kick), enough that we were sopping up every last bite. Even my friend who doesn't like salmon loved it. - Chicken Kari - this was ordered as round two as we liked the other two karis so much. it wasn't nearly as good as either the pumpkin or fish kari. Served in a spicy green sauce. Chicken was cooked well - moist and tender, just not my style. "Rice, Roast & Kothu" I saved the best for last - Lam kothu roti - We ordered the lamb kothu roti as it came recommended and we wanted to order something lamb. This is chock full of veg and kothu roti - which is roti chopped up and stir fried in with the veg and meat. This was AMAZING. Flavourful, spicy, perfect balance of oil to keep it moist without feeling oily. I mean this was amazing. We ate it all in less than 5 minutes. So good we had to order round two... - Vegetable kothu - AMAZING. Felt healthy but still very flavourful. I think this has no eggs so also veg friendly. Spicy and tasty. I'm struggling to explain the flavours in these dishes because I literally have never tasted anything like this before. Everyone at the table left full, but not in pain, and happy and wanting to go back for more! I will definitely be back to this place, cannot recommend highly enough. :) read more

Im am only reviewing this because I feel cheated. We put our names down and were told that there was a 2 hour wait. When we came after the 2 hour wait and they told us that there was 1 more hour wait and this is bullshit. So rude! read more

Great hoppers, great kottu, love the curries they do. Great Sri Lankan food all around.

Came here for lunch with a friend. We planned on meeting here at 12, when it opens, but they didn't open doors until 12:18... which worked out for me because I was running late anyway ;) And my friend was first in line, so whoopee! We got an idli, a hopper, a dosa, and a kari and that was enough to fill us! The dishes are quite nicely presented and the flavours were diverse and delicious -- note, the green bean in the idli is not really edible (quite fibre-ey)! Good service that gave good recommendations. Not a huge menu, but then again it's not overwhelming either. read more

Sri Lankan food is harder to come by in California, so I really wanted to try this place. It seems like it would be kind of hip, but the food was still authentic. Many of the words on the Sri Lankan menu are more foreign to me, so it's nice that they have a glossary. We did everything family style. Drinks: - Wonder tonic: tropical, a bit too sweet for me; rum based - Sambol garita: basically like a margarita with some extra kick - Arrack attack: the favorite drink for both of us - the ginger beer adds just the right amount of heat Food: - Brinjal moju: "pickled" eggplant; it actually wasn't sour. The eggplant had tons of flavor, and it was sweet and garlicky. The texture was interesting, too. It's definitely worth a try (it's a small cup) - Egg hopper: a coconut batter basket (sort of like a dosa shaped into a basket) with a runny egg in the center. I prefer the outer edge's texture since it's thinner and crisper. The egg's seasoning was very good, but the rest of it was better with chutney and curry - Dosa: wonderful flavor, nice and thin; it left us wanting to order another one - Chutneys: ordered on the side - orange, green, and white (tomato based, herb based, nut based) - Red pumpkin kari: a red curry that's awesome for dipping the dosa and hopper - Ceylonese spit chicken: a small roast chicken with amazing flavor. The herb crust and the skin are super flavorful, and even the white meat had flavor in itself. It was a great roast chicken, which could definitely rival the Zuni one in SF. It come with pol roti (thick pancake), but I preferred the dosa. It also had a sambol that was like a red curry, which was great for dipping things I was very happy with this meal. The food was interesting, and all the flavors were really well balanced. Prices are also reasonable. It's a pretty small space with no reservations, so plan ahead. We came around 10pm on a Friday night (close to closing), and the wait was under 10 min. I would definitely come back. read more

Food was good. Not wonderful. Set up for table worked welll. Waitress was super nice and enjoyable

Overall the The food was tasty...the only dish that wasn't great was the shelled crab in curry which waitress did warn us would be work but worth it. Sadly it was not worth it. Crab was not fresh and it was way to difficult to eat with the sauce making it slippery to handle. And although staff was nice they were a bit incompetent. There were 3 of us sharing a 4 top with two strangers which we were ok with even though one person was on a small stool. Since we had to share the utensils placed in a communal can they were lacking spoon, fork and knives for all 3 of us. When I asked for spoon they would take can away but refill with only spoon. Then when I asked to extra knife they will only bring knives. So one of us ate without a fork since it seemed painful to ask for each utensil. Then our drinks never came until the end of the dinner even though we asked our waitress twice about it and saw bartender just standing there not making anything. We finally got our drinks at the end of dinner. They gave us a extra gin & tonic to apologize but then asked us to leave before my father and I were able to finish our drinks and we are not slow drinkers. They approached us 2x even though we said 5min since our drinks came at the end. And less than 2 min later another server asked us to leave. We would have been happy to leave since it wasn't the most comfortable seating if our drinks had arrived when we ordered them. I have never been one to just sit after a meal to chat if I knew it was a small place so I didn't appreciate the rudeness after the drinks didn't even arrive until we finished our food :( read more

One of the tastiest food I ever experienced. Everything was delicious especially the shrimp devil. I strongly recommend it to those who like exotic extraordinary food read more

The front office staff is extremely rude and needs replacing (waiting staff was amazing). Food is decent but the place is too cramped - it's designed for small people and you will be pushed around by waiting staff and other customers. Overall an ordinary experience. Also, seems like most of the positive reviews on here are from friends and family as I personally couldn't relate to it. read more

Live in San Francisco was here for a few days with the family and wanted to eat at hoppers. Went here after hearing the raving reviews and the guys are so rude. The food is good but the service is extremely bad I would not recommend going here there are plenty of nice places in London to try. read more

Hoppers is an interesting one for me, if you like bold flavours and spicy food, Hoppers is a great alternative to your usual Indian food. Bear in mind it is an extremely popular restaurant right now, you would be expecting to wait over an hour in weekends to have a meal that would mostly likely last only an hour as the food comes really quick (All of our dishes came within 10 mins). It is also a no booking restaurant so my advice is come early in mid weeks. read more

Different type of food (Srilankan); food quality was excellent; wait was for 3 hours on a Friday evening. We had appam ( hopper), podi dosa, potato fry and fish curry. All of them were great. I did feel that the restaurant was over rated though read more

after reading fabulous reviews of this place, i decided to give it a try just a couple of days ago. luckily there was no wait when i got there around 1 pm and promptly got a seat at the bar. it seemed like a good deal to order their express lunch menu to sample little bit of many dishes despite its hefty price. my choices were non vegetarian dishes along with egg hopper and black pork kari and sweet tea. the mutton spring roll was rather tough and didn't have that much flavor in general. then lamb roti was at first a bit bland but the flavor started to build as i ate which was quite nice. the pork kari was quite tasty and worked nicely with the hopper and sambol and the tea was indeed very sweet. however the portions felt rather small for £19 and left me not quite satisfied unfortunately. not sure if i'd go back but it was nice enough experience for three stars. read more

Great place! The food is delicious, and the flavours are incredibly complex. Very spicy too, they don't seem to westernise their dishes which is great. I recommend you try as many things as you can eat from the menu, everything is superb. read more

Wonderful food and atmosphere! All the spices and smell and colours make you feel drunken:) love it

I got hooked on Hopper, it does not taste anything, really but it's good with curry and other things. The portion was very small. They should serve cider. I didn't like their beer. read more

Best food I've had in a while! The pork ribs were unbelievable. Everything we had was incredible.

Had a masala dosa which was pretty good but the customer service was very average and they definitely rush you but for 13 pounds it wasn't a bad lunch read more

The service is horrible don't plan to go back again. The front staff is especially bad they need to get their reservation and seating system sorted. read more

We just visited Sri Lanka. We were so excited to find this restaurant that serves Sri Lanka food. They have a very simple menu. Some daily specials were written on the wall. The food was delicious, especially the curry sauce. But don't expect to have any attentive service. Too long the wait - Not really worth it. read more

I had walked by and wanted to eat at this place on several of my visits to London this year and finally got the opportunity to eat there on my last visit. What great food. The 1 hour wait to get a seat was well worth it. Quality of food was amazing. I also noticed the number of return visitors who were willing to wait upwards of 2 hours to get a seat. The hoppers and black pork was sumptuous. Can't wait to eat there again! read more

This place is delicious however there are 2 major drawbacks - 1) the wait time...took over 2 hours to get our table and 2) it's so loud in the restaurant you can barely hear your conversation. It's a shame because the food is really tasty...but not sure if it was worth the 2+ hour wait. read more

Great food and great service and that's why it is very busy. Unfortunately they don't accept reservations which makes it quite hard to come all the way and don't find any table. read more

We went there for an early lunch because it gets crowed quickly. We've been told a wait of 1 - 2 hours is not unusual at peak times. Now we know why. The space is small and the food excellent. We never had Sri Lankan food before so we asked our waiter for recommendations. He was extremely helpful. The food is extraordinarily tasty; a pleasant mix of flavors spices and textures. The duck heart is not to be missed. The heart meat was perfectly prepared and the sauce remarkable. If you are a bone marrow fan, don't miss Hoppers'. We also had a hopper with the gourd and cashew Kari. The Kari is not to be missed. The Goat Roti although quite good was nothing special. I wish that we had more time in London so that we could go back and try some other dishes. We will on our next trip. read more