Peppers on Fire, Forest Hill

Peppers on Fire is a Sri Lankan / Modern Australian restaurant located at Forest Hill. Note that this is not a fusion East + West restaurant. One chooses to have either Sri Lankan or Modern Australian dishes. I did not mind the separation one bit but I do think the restaurant needed to make up it's mind which one of these two cuisines it would like to specialise in! 

The decor of the restaurant is nicely presented. There is also a section at the back of the restaurant for a live band that plays every Friday night. 

We ordered the crispy barramundi with nam jin sauce, and lamb kofta for entree. The barramundi was delicious and so was the accompanying mango and apple slaw in nam jin sauce. 

Crispy barramundi

The lamb kofta came with a sauce on the side which had a lot of nuts, a little curry taste and was watery. I was not sure what this sauce wanted to be, but it felt like some leftover curry sauce jazzed up with some nuts.

Lamb kofta

For mains, we ordered the seafood platter and pork ribs. The seafood platter consists of grilled fish, deep fried prawns, squid, steamed veges and rice. The fish was deliciously cooked as were the prawns. I enjoyed this dish but would have preferred the creamy sauce to be served on the side. The taste of seafood was affected by the greasy feel of the sauce.

Seafood Platter

On the contrary, there was no sauce for Gaz's dish of pork ribs. There was some deeply fried chips at the bottom which would have been nice with some say, mushroom sauce. But the ribs were nicely cooked and Gaz enjoyed this dish. 

Ribs with chips and slaw

Although we did not try the Sri Lankan dishes, they appear to be rather pricey compared to other restaurants. Also, there are 2 other places on the same street that offers Indian/Sri Lankan cuisine which probably explains the restaurant's decision to throw in the Mod Aus slant but I think there are room for improvement with the western food here.