Our Sri Lankan Menu

Everything arrives sealed inside a banana leaf: ghee rice baked with cashew curry, fried sweet onions, eggplant moju, a cutlet and a boiled egg, plus your choice of protein. Opening the parcel at the table is half the point. Lamprais is a Dutch-Burgher tradition in Sri Lanka, and it eats as one complete meal rather than a plate of separate parts. Halal chicken on request. Beef (non-halal) +$2. Tuna +$2.

The everyday centerpiece of a Sri Lankan table, served the traditional way on a banana leaf. Basmati rice comes with daal, kale mallum, your choice of beet or mango curry, and papadam. Mix it all together as you eat rather than working through it section by section — that is how the plate is built to work. Halal chicken on request. Beef (non-halal) +$2. Tuna +$2.

Basmati fried rice tossed with vegetables and crispy chicken in a sauce built from sweet chili, red chili, ketchup and oyster sauce. Sweet and savory at once, with the chicken staying crisp against the soft rice. A generous, straightforward plate, and one of the easier things on the menu to eat one-handed at a desk.

Basmati cooked with turmeric and coconut milk until it turns gold, then topped with cashews and dried plums so there is sweetness running against the spice. It comes with daal, a fried boiled egg, fried sweet onions and your choice of protein. In Sri Lankan homes this is celebration rice, and it lands as a full plate on its own. Halal chicken on request. Beef (non-halal) +$2. Tuna +$2.

A classic Indian bite, done properly: crispy fried chicken tossed with garam masala, cumin, coriander, garlic, ginger, onion and curry leaves. Sharp and spicy, with the curry leaves coming through in every mouthful. Order it as a starter for the table, or put it next to a plate of rice and let it do the heavy lifting.

An Indian classic: grilled chicken folded into a creamy tomato butter sauce with garam masala, cumin, coriander, garlic and ginger. The sauce is rich and velvety, the kind that wants something to mop it up with — the godamba roti or a plate of rice both do that job well.

Indonesian-style fried rice: basmati with chicken, shrimp and a fried egg on top, served with devilled pineapple — or eggplant, if you would rather — and chili paste on the side. Break the yolk into the rice, then add chili paste to taste, which means the heat on this one is yours to set.

A lighter cousin to the roti kottu: soft string hoppers chopped and tossed on the griddle with vegetables, aromatic Sri Lankan spices and your choice of protein. The strands stay delicate and take on everything they are cooked with. If you already know kottu, this is the version worth trying next. Halal chicken on request. Beef (non-halal) +$2. Tuna +$2.

Rice flour and fresh coconut steamed together into a soft cylinder, served with creamy coconut milk to pour over and spicy lunumiris on the side. Simple, traditional home food, crumbly in texture, and built to be seasoned at the table with as much lunumiris as you want.

Handmade godamba roti wrapped around juicy grilled halal chicken, tender potatoes, spicy-salty coconut sambol and a melt of cheddar and mozzarella. It eats like a burrito and holds together in one hand, which makes it the easiest thing here to take with you. The sambol is what cuts through the cheese. Choose chicken or veggie.

Coconut roti made with green chili and onions, served with lunumiris, daal curry and our homestyle chicken gravy. Tear off a piece and dip it into whichever of the three you are in the mood for, then repeat until the plate is gone. Sri Lankan breakfast food at heart, and a satisfying plate at any hour.

Sri Lanka’s street-food signature, and you usually hear kottu being made before you see it, the blades chopping in rhythm against the griddle. Handmade roti chopped and stir-fried with egg, vegetables and coconut milk curry. Choose chicken, beef +$2, or veggie, and add cheese +$2 if you want it richer. Halal chicken on request. The beef is non-halal. Tuna +$2.

Two godamba rotis, one layered with egg and one plain, served with daal curry and our homestyle chicken gravy. Godamba is the hand-stretched, many-layered Sri Lankan flatbread, and you can pull it apart and see the layers. Use the plain one for the daal and the egg one for the gravy, or ignore that entirely.

A bowl-shaped pancake made from a fermented batter of rice flour and coconut milk, served with spicy lunumiris. The edges go lacy and crisp while the center stays soft and spongy. At this size it is a snack rather than a meal, so order two or three if you are making lunch of it.

Ten string hoppers — steamed nests of rice-flour noodles — served with coconut sambol and daal. Press them together with a little of each and eat with your hands, which is how it is done at home. Available individually at $0.65 each if you only want a couple.

The breakfast version of the appam: a rice flour and coconut milk pancake with a crispy edge and a soft, spongy center, with a whole egg cooked into the middle of it. Break the yolk and let it run out into the batter. Known at home as bittara appa.

A crispy Sri Lankan short-eat with a mildly spiced fish or beef and potato filling. Ask for beef or fish when you order. These are what people buy at the bakery counter on the way home in Sri Lanka: good hot, and still good an hour later.

Flaky pastry pockets stuffed with a savory Sri Lankan chicken filling — the short-eat you will find in every bakery on the island. The pastry shatters when you bite into it. Easy to eat standing up, which is mostly how they get eaten.

Elawalu roti is a must-try short-eat, stuffed with spiced vegetables and wrapped in a thin, flaky flatbread with a charred finish. Elawalu simply means vegetables. The char gives it a smoky edge against the soft filling inside, and it works on its own or next to any of the curries from the sides list.

Golden-fried potato cutlets with fish or veggie inside — ask for whichever you want. Crisp on the outside, soft in the middle, and small enough that one is never quite enough. The least expensive thing on the menu, and a good way to open a table order while everyone decides.

Parippu, the creamy Sri Lankan lentil curry that sits on almost every table on the island. Warm and comforting, perfect with rice or roti, and the one side here that goes with essentially everything else on the list. Sold as a 16 oz jar to take home.

Tender beetroot in a lightly sweet, savory Sri Lankan curry, deep magenta and mellow. It is one of the two curry choices offered on the Rice & Curry plate, and it works just as well on its own. Perfect with rice & curry, where the sweetness sits against the sharper things on the plate. Comes as a 16 oz jar.

Fresh Sri Lankan coconut sambol, savory with a gentle spicy kick. Pol means coconut, and this is the relish that turns a plain plate into a Sri Lankan one. Perfect with string hoppers or roti, and a 16 oz jar goes a long way.

Kale with coconut and onion, light and savory and clean-tasting. Mallum is the Sri Lankan way with greens, and it is what balances out a plate of richer curries. Perfect with rice & curry, and sold as a 16 oz jar.

Mango in a sweet-and-savory Sri Lankan curry, one of those combinations that sounds unlikely right up until you eat it. It is the sweeter of the two curry choices on the Rice & Curry plate, and it is just as good with rice & curry generally. A 16 oz jar.

A tangy, sweet-and-savory eggplant relish, and one of the components tucked inside the Lamprais. On its own it is punchy enough that a spoonful lifts a whole plate. Perfect with rice & curry, and sold as a 16 oz jar.

Whole cashews in a creamy, rich Sri Lankan curry, the nuts soft and almost buttery. It is a special-occasion dish in Sri Lanka, and it is also what is inside the Lamprais. Perfect with rice & curry. A 16 oz jar.

Crispy chicken tossed with onions and bell peppers in our sweet & spicy devilled sauce. Devilled is the Sri Lankan-Chinese style that turns up at every celebration table, sticky and hot and a little sweet all at once. A 16 oz jar, and very good over the yellow rice or with roti.

Sri Lankan homestyle chicken curry, rich and savory, the kind that gets made on an ordinary weeknight rather than for guests. Perfect with rice & curry, or with roti to soak up the gravy. Comes as a 16 oz jar.

Tender beef tossed with onions and bell peppers in our sweet & spicy devilled sauce. The sauce clings to every piece, sweet first and then the heat arriving behind it. Sold as a 16 oz jar, and one of the richer things on the sides list.

Sri Lankan homestyle beef curry, rich with a spicy kick that builds rather than hits you at once. Perfect with rice & curry, and substantial enough to be the only curry on the plate if you want it that way. A 16 oz jar.

Sri Lankan homestyle mutton curry, rich and deeply savory, and the most substantial curry on the sides list. Mutton is what gets cooked for weddings and big family Sundays in Sri Lanka. Perfect with rice & curry, and sold as a 16 oz jar.

Crispy fish tossed with onions and bell peppers in our sweet & spicy devilled sauce. If you already know the devilled chicken or the devilled beef, this is that same sweet-hot treatment applied to fish, with crisp edges and sauce clinging to every piece. A 16 oz jar.

Ambulthiyal is the sour fish curry of southern Sri Lanka: black pepper, goraka and aromatic spices making it bold, tangy and deeply flavorful. Goraka is a dried sour fruit, and it is what gives the dish its distinctive sharpness. There is nothing else on the sides list quite like it.

Sri Lankan homestyle fish curry, rich with a spicy kick — the everyday coastal version rather than the sour ambulthiyal further up this list. Perfect with rice & curry, and the one to start with if Sri Lankan fish curry is new to you.

A soft appam with crispy edges and a sweet center of brown sugar stirred into creamy coconut milk. It is the dessert version of the hopper further up this menu — the same lacy edge, with a sweet middle instead of a savory one. Small, and a good thing to finish on and share.

The traditional Sri Lankan coconut custard: egg, dark brown sugar and coconut milk, delicately spiced with cardamom and clove, finished with a light almond topping. Dense and silky rather than airy, with the cardamom arriving at the end of each spoonful. Watalappam is what appears on the table at Eid and at weddings.

A light, creamy mango dessert made with sweet mango pulp and Cool Whip — cool, refreshing and tropical. It is the gentlest way to finish a spicy meal, and the one dessert on the list that needs no explaining. Served chilled.