Sopa Cafe, Asian Fusion Restaurant, Patisserie, Thai Take Home

Keith H. • 5 reviews

17 November 2023

7.5/10

The food was great and the three menus meant there was an excellent range of choices. The tables at the front of the cafe are on the cold side on a cold day. The only real disappointment that The Fork 30% discount offer was not honoured.

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Mike K. • 1 review

9 November 2023

9.5/10

This was a lovely place to take my older children and eat good tasty Thai food without any pretension or stress. Lovely service by owner and daughter and prompt, efficient customer care. Highly recommended.

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Ron D • 7 reviews

15 October 2023

8/10

Menu had a variety of items to choose from. Service was good. A pleasant experience.

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L L. • 72 reviews

8 October 2023

7/10

Sopa cafe is named after the owner Khun Sopa and presents itself as a fusion style Thai cafe offering blends of East meets West and traditional Thai dishes. We went there for dinner to try some of the dishes available. The restaurant layout is modern and has influences of Thailand from the cushions and other bits and pieces. A range of cakes are on display as are the main course dishes which are all prepackaged and visible in a display cabinet. We ordered some entrees which are cooked fresh to order. The satay was nice with sauce spread ontop of the skewers and fresh peanuts. They were good tasting and a reasonable size and the fresh. crushed peanuts added to the texture. The next dish was fish cake which came with five good sized pieces and some sweet chilli sauce. The fish cake had a good chewy texture to bite into however did not have enough spices to pronounce the flavor of the fish and needed some extra fish sauce (nam pla) or something else to make the dish stand out. (Some coriander in the fish cake would boost the flavor with Prik nam som as a dipping sauce). Both came with a side serve of vegetables but some of the pieces were a bit yellow (old). The third entree was the fried prawns which had three good sized prawns and a crunchy batter but needed to have more sweet chilli sauce available (the sauce was served on a spoon) and maybe a different sauce to make it more appetising. We originally wanted to order the Grapao Moo (pork stir fry with basil) however we were advised that the dish was pre made and they could not take the chilli out of the dish or make it very mild. We settled on two mains which were a mixed vegetable and tofu with rice dish and a massaman beef curry. As these dishes were pre made (stored in a container in the fridge) and then reheated, the dishes unfortunately lost much their flavors and textures. The vegetables in the vegetable and tofu dish were a little soggy from sitting in its sauce for too long and the tofu which was fried also was a bit soggy. Similarly with the curry the peanuts had been sitting in the curry for too long and were no longer nutty/crisp and the beef was sliced into thin slivers of beef whereas in other restaurants these are in chunks. The slices of beef had become a bit hard - not sure why. The curry came with potato and carrot which was okay and the actual curry sauce was nice. It may be better to have added the peanuts just after reheating in order to retain their crunchy texture. As takeaway dishes they are acceptable, however as dishes in a restaurant the expectation is that a vegetable and tofu would be cooked fresh to enable the vegetables to be crisp and fresh tasting. Curries are okay and reheating is okay however some ingredients such as peanuts need to be added later so they do not lose their texture. In this case both mains were not piping hot, but lukewarm which results in some loss in flavor of the dishes. It would be good if some traditional Thai condiments were made available when dining including fish sauce, crushed peanuts, soy sauce, shallots with vinegar chilli and onion. Maybe we needed to ask for them however as this is a part Thai restaurant for traditional dishes like vegetables with tofu and Massaman curry condiments could be presented with the dish to allow the diner to tailor the dish to their liking. Overall, entrees presented were good, we just wish that the mains were fresh cooked instead of being reheated as some of the flavor and textures are lost when reheating dishes like stir fry veggies with tofu vs cooking fresh. As a suggestion to the restaurant, some of the lunch item menus look very appealing and it may be worth considering offering these at dinner - such as the burgers and miso barramundi. If they could prepare certain dishes fresh (such as mixed vegetable with tofu this would dramatically improve the dish as vegetables really don’t retain their texture and freshness once cooked for long). Khun Sopa advised we should try the lunch menu and hopefully we can give that a go soon.

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Glen B. • 10 reviews

8 October 2023

10/10

Enjoyed the food. Didn't have to wait long for our food even though the cafe was full. Friendly staff.

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Eileen w. • 5 reviews

8 October 2023

8/10

The cafe is conveniently located. Enter from Woolworths car park. The place is very clean and food was tasty and nicely presented. yes will return

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Marisa K. • 1 review

26 September 2023

8.5/10

The owner and staff were welcoming. The cafe was clean & not noisy. Thai dishes (Massamun curry, pad krapao linguini) were a bit too sweet. Convenient location, parking at Woolies Balwyn.

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Lien Wu • 4 reviews

23 September 2023

10/10

Beautiful lunch, will highly recommended.

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William D. • 1 review

23 September 2023

8.5/10

As it was a busy time, service was very slow. Food is always good. Pleasant staff!!

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Felice W. • 9 reviews

19 September 2023

9/10

Staff are really friendly despite the restaurant is busy. Clean and nice setting overall.

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Michael C. • 9 reviews

5 September 2023

6/10

Overall worth going if having discount to the menu. One thing to note is that although the Fork special says excluding set menu and drinks, the discount actually do not apply to desserts and pastries as well (based on shop owner/manager). So it is quite misleading on the menu items eligible for discount .

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Sopa Cafe, Asian Fusion Restaurant, Patisserie, Thai Take Home • Owner

Hello Michael, disappointing you feel our restaurant is only worth going to if you get a discount. But I take pride in the many other positive reviews we have received. I would like to correct you that the discount applies to ALL food on the menu, including desserts and pastries. I am also the owner/store manager.

Yawen Hu • 41 reviews

3 September 2023

9/10

Such a lovely local cafe, great Thai food and staff are friendly. We are definitely going back to try more dishes.

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Sopa Cafe, Asian Fusion Restaurant, Patisserie, Thai Take Home • Owner

Thankyou Yawen for your feedback :)

June L. • 1 review

2 September 2023

10/10

Really good food and drinks... will be back!

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Sopa Cafe, Asian Fusion Restaurant, Patisserie, Thai Take Home • Owner

Thankyou June look foward to seeing you again!

Xing L. • 1 review

2 September 2023

9.5/10

We came to this lovely hidden café for the first time for a Saturday brunch as a family of four. The staffs were so welcoming and friendly, you can feel the warmth towards our kids. There are so many exciting choices on the menu that it took us a while to decide what to have. We ordered some crab croissants, bacon panini, baked eggs, along with milkshakes and coffee. All of the food and drinks were beautifully presented and were delicious. This is now our new favorite café and there are so many more items we want to explore next time when we visit again.

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Sopa Cafe, Asian Fusion Restaurant, Patisserie, Thai Take Home • Owner

Thankyou so much Xing. We are thrilled we are you new go-to cafe. Can't wait to serve you some of our other delicious menu items. See you soon!

Meng K. • 2 reviews

29 August 2023

7/10

The restaurant had a pleasant ambiance, and the staff were very attentive and accommodating. The food was satisfactory, although it arrived a bit cold.

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Sopa Cafe, Asian Fusion Restaurant, Patisserie, Thai Take Home • Owner

Hi Meng. Sorry you food was not hot enough. We will be more diligent in the future. Hope we can serve you again!

Brittany H. • 5 reviews

27 August 2023

5/10

All of the Thai food is already pre-made on display in plastic containers which are heated up to serve. The beef massaman was quite chewy and didn't seem to be a lot in there. The satay chicken was very tiny, dry and chewy. The curry puffs were amazing though. We rely enjoyed them. We saw other people had burgers which also looked nice. I wouldn't recommend going with the Thai food and stick with the food that is made fresh.

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Sopa Cafe, Asian Fusion Restaurant, Patisserie, Thai Take Home • Owner

Hi Brittany. Sorry the beef was not up to scratch. We changed supplier and beef cut (RossBiff) last week and the result is so so much better!!!. The reason we don;t make the Thai food to order is because we set this part of our business up to cater for the Woolies grab and go customers. That said we will have cook to order (including dinner) by the end of September.

LC Ng • 5 reviews

27 August 2023

8/10

The food is yummy!

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Sopa Cafe, Asian Fusion Restaurant, Patisserie, Thai Take Home • Owner

Thank you LC :)

LC Ng • 5 reviews

24 August 2023

8/10

The location is bit difficult to find.

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Amy F. • 14 reviews

20 August 2023

10/10

Really delicious food and good service! Must try their cheesecake!

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Sopa Cafe, Asian Fusion Restaurant, Patisserie, Thai Take Home • Owner

Thank you so much Amy. Hope to see you again Sopa xx

Vicky C. • 3 reviews

19 August 2023

10/10

Very good service Nice environment Great food

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Sopa Cafe, Asian Fusion Restaurant, Patisserie, Thai Take Home • Owner

Thanks Vicky hope to see you soon Sopa xx