Brainwave crosses Thai cuisine with cafe food, delivering on many fronts: fantastic value, friendly staff, and did I mention soft serves?

The staff explain the specials the moment we walk through the door. Scrawled on a chalkboard, we know right away we’ll be ordering them. I’m sold on the hot chips with pulled pork (for a fiver, might I add). The pulled pork has a coconut milk curry flavor, bringing the taste of Thailand to the humble potato. Side note: why are potatoes humble? Shrug.

To offset the humble fried potato with something green, I order the tofu salad with sweet potatoes, green beans, baby spinach, broccoli, nori, sesame, and a soy dressing. For $10 it’s far bigger than I expected.

Eric is taken with the special combo. $12.50 gets you a plate of crispy pork cashew nut stir fry with rice, 2 spring rolls, plus a Thai milk tea. The pork isn’t as crispy as promised, but redeems itself with punchy flavors.

I also order an extra Thai milk tea for myself, plus the Thai milk tea soft serve. All up lunch costs $34.50. Insane value right there.

After I’ve ordered the Thai milk tea soft serve, the wonderful staff even ask if we want to try the ONA latte flavor. They bring out a little cup of the coffee soft serve for us to taste. The Thai milk tea soft serve is my favorite even though it’s on the icier side. Meawhile, the ONA (Brainwave’s choice for coffee) latte is creamier and reminds me of a milky Kopiko candy. The pinky soft serve was sold out that day.

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Brainwave Cafe
732 Harris St, Ultimo NSW
Mon-Fri 7am to 9pm
Sat & Sun 8.30am to 9pm