Being a small island just off the southern tip of India, Sri Lankan cuisine shares some similarities to the South Indian cuisines of Goa, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, but our island’s cuisine stands on its own with unique flavour profiles and cooking traditions. With fiery-red curries, sugary-sweet snacks and battered seafood with a crunch, Sri Lankan cuisine has something for everyone. Our Sri Lankan restaurant in Soho, London is a homage to our island’s rich cuisine and food traditions.  

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Sri Lankan food is largely based on rice that grows and thrives in the country’s plains and hills, and coconut palms that dot much of its landscape. But traverse the north of the country where the sun peeks through the dry, arid landscape and you’ll find palmyra palms—similar to Tamil Nadu in South India—that are also used in Northern Sri Lankan cooking. Although not well known, mildly aromatic, sweet and gentle cinnamon—the best in the world—comes from Sri Lanka. The island’s southern plains also call home to many other aromatic herbs and spices. Think of black pepper vines climbing along the swaying palms, curry leaf plants in backyards and rampe (pandan leaves) groves by marshy waterways. And thanks to its 1340km coastline, island homes are never short of seafood, from freshly caught tuna to tiger prawns and lagoon-caught mud crabs. 

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Add to this is diverse cultures and communities who arrived in Sri Lanka from time to time, and called the island their home. This means that Sri Lanka, despite being a small island, packs a punch when it comes to its cuisine, including a mouth-watering spread of curries, sambals, pickles and mallungs (shredded greens paired with grated coconut). 

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And here in London, our Sri Lankan restaurant Kolamba strives to take you on a journey through the sounds, aromas and flavours of the island kitchens. Blending authenticity with a touch of modernity, here are some of the dishes we offer at our Sri Lankan restaurant in London:

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Hoppers

Bowl-shaped, and made from fermented coconut milk & rice flour batter, hoppers are called appa or appam in Sri Lanka. A dinner-time favourite, plain hoppers are usually eaten with a side of lunu miris, a spicy onion relish. They also come topped with an egg.

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String hoppers

Idi appa or idiyappam in native Sinhala and Tamil, these thin, delicate steamed rice and wheat flour noodle mats are best paired with a lightly-spiced, turmeric-coloured coconut milk gravy called kiri hodi, flavoured with aromatic curry leaves. At our Sri Lankan restaurant in London, we also add a side of spicy coconut sambal. 

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Parippu (dhal)

A can’t-miss, we use red split lentils to make this everyday staple of Sri Lankan cuisine. Lentils are coloured with turmeric, thickened with creamy, rich coconut milk and finally tempered with spices like dried red chilli and curry leaves to elevate the flavour. This warm, hearty curry goes well with white rice and string hoppers.

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Batu moju

A wonderful blend of sweet, sour and spicy, this quintessential Sri Lankan dish combines fried eggplant stripes, shallots and green chilli with a touch of mustard and vinegar for pickling. A festive dish, batu moju is mostly enjoyed with some fragrant yellow rice (turmeric-coloured rice cooked with aromatics like pandan, curry leaves and cinnamon sauteed in butter) alongside other curries. 

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Mutton poriyal

A northern Sri Lankan classic, tender mutton is dry-fried with sliced onions, green chilli and lime, and thickened with creamy coconut milk. It goes well with pol roti, Sri Lanka’s go-to flatbread made with shredded coconut, shallots and green chilli. 

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Kola kanda

From the weekend brunch menu at our Sri Lankan restaurant in Soho, this nutritious, herbal congee is made with leafy greens and red rice. It’s a morning staple in Sri Lanka.  

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Kiribath with lunu miris

Another brunch addition to our Sri Lankan restaurant in London, this celebratory Sri Lankan dish includes white rice cooked with rich, creamy coconut milk served with a side of spicy onion relish. You can also eat it with our aromatic Sri Lankan chicken curry or any other vegetable curry. If you want something sweet, pair it with seeni sambol, caramelised onions cooked with Maldive fish flakes to add an umami punch.

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FAQs

What is Sri Lanka’s traditional food?

There are many, like the dishes we mentioned above. But if you are looking for our everyday staple, that’s a plate of rice paired with different curry dishes like dhal, chicken curry and breadfruit curry from our menu. It’s commonly called rice & curry.

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Is Sr Lankan food spicy?

Some of our dishes—like the northern Jaffna crab curry— are red, fiery and not for the faint-hearted, but others are lightly spiced with aromatic herbs. Think of subtly spiced potato curry or dhal. One thing to note is that Lankan cuisine isn’t only built on chilli or pepper, but a wealth of aromatics that add different flavours to our dishes.

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If I go to Sri Lanka, what dishes should I try?

Look out for a rice and curry lunch, batu moju, Jaffna’s crab curry, kiri bath, hoppers and Sri Lankan-style pancakes—they are stuffed with caramelized coconut and go so well with a cup of ginger-infused black tea. When the night comes, grab koththu roti, which includes thinly striped flatbread, vegetables, egg and meat chopped on a metal grid with metal clamps. This metal-on-metal sound is so iconic that you can hear it from hundreds of meters away. 

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What are some classic Sri Lankan snacks?

Sri Lankans love their snacks so much that there’s a whole culture that surrounds it called “short-eats” or “shorties.” These short-eats are snacks often eaten during teatime like deep-fried crumbed mutton rolls, and fish cutlets that are small, fish-filled crumbed croquettes. You can grab mutton rolls from the daily dining menu at Kolamaba, our Sri Lankan restaurant in London.

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Is Sri Lankan cuisine vegan and vegetarian-friendly?

Absolutely! Apart from meat and seafood dishes, Sri Lankan cooking also has many vegetable-based dishes like mallungs made with green leaves, baby jackfruit curry cooked with coconut milk and cinnamon-scented dhals. 

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