Over the past few decades, Londonders' palettes have grown ever curious and tolerant of flavour beyond salt, pepper and mayonnaise. Sri Lankan food is one such cuisine we've grown ever fond of, where discernable diners have got wind of how delicious a crisp-edged hopper, chilli-spiked sambol, and soothing kottu roti can be.
Sri Lankan food has been brought to the fore by a recent wave of frenzied openings in London – Hoppers, Kolamba, and Paradise Soho, to name a few. However, Sri Lankan food in London is no new phenomenon. Heck, no. It has been lovingly cooked up in the corners of Tooting, Wembley, and East Ham for many years.
While Sri Lanka is nicknamed the teardrop of India, its food is distinctly different to its geographic cousin – drier and hotter, using a different concoction of spices and herbs. Influences from Arab traders, Malay navigators, Portuguese, Dutch, and even British colonists have all shaped Sri Lanka's vibrant cuisine.
With that in mind, we've sussed out the top spots in London to get your fill. From new-wave contemporary interpretations of the cuisine like Paradise Soho to canteen-style spots like Jaffna House, these are the best Sri Lankan restaurants to get your fill of fluffy pittu, tangy sambols, mutton rolls and more.
The seven best Sri Lankan restaurants in London
Rambutan
10 Stoney Street, SE1 9AD
Negotiating the glut of good restaurants in Borough Market can feel like solving the enigma code, but rest assured that Rambutan is up there with the best. Located on Stoney Street aka London’s de facto restaurant ‘strip’, this Sri Lankan restaurant is headed up by Cynthia Shanmugalingam – the first Tamil woman to open a restaurant in the city. It’s a buzzy spot with a lively open-fire kitchen and stool seating at the window that’s perfect for people-watching. The menu here takes inspiration from Shanmugalingam’s mother’s cooking served growing up in Coventry alongside trips back to Jaffna province, with the many dishes hailing from the Tamil region of northern Sri Lanka. The crab curry with savoy cabbage kottu roti and grilled chicken saffron pongal rice are must-orders – alongside plenty of accompanying sambols to load onto rotis and dosas.
Best Foods Supermarket
156-158 Forest Road, E17 6JQ
There’s a wormhole in Walthamstow. Walk ten minutes east on Forest Road from the Blackhorse Road Underground Station and you’ll stumble across Best Foods Supermarket. Judging by its facade, this could be pretty much any shop, but journey inside and you’ll be transported to Sri Lanka. Racks are teeming with spices and produce that you usually wouldn’t find outside of Colombo, while two women served delicacies like mutton rolls, string hoppers and curry from behind a glass counter. If you’re looking for a trip to Sri Lanka without the 12-hour flight, get thee to E17.
Jaffna House
90 Tooting High Street, SW17 0RN
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Jaffna House is a pocket-friendly Tooting stalwart and somewhere to flock if you want a no-frills, heartwarming, stomach-filling Sri Lankan meal. What started as a cafe 30 years ago has become a mainstay among the hoards of Tooting, serving up all the classics like kottu roti, hoppers, dosas and Jaffna curries, alongside lesser-known devilled dishes and puttu – a pillowy funnel-shaped steamed rice cake served with curry. There’s hardly a shortage of incredible South Asian restaurants to try in Tooting, but Jaffna House ranks high on the leaderboard.
Paradise Soho
61 Rupert Street, W1D 7PW
Lamb saddle, black garlic curry, nettle and coconut with fried long aubergine and jaggery moju and a hand-stretched buttermilk roti
Paradise Soho interior
Hay smoked celeriac, black garlic curry, nettle and coconut with fried long aubergine and jaggery moju a hand-stretched buttermilk roti
Calamansi leaf gimlet
If you’re sniffing out a spot that’s unquestionably cool, unquestionably innovative, and unquestionably tasty then set your coordinates to Paradise Soho. On the menu is the full breadth of Sri Lankan cooking made using British produce, served as a six-course tasting menu that takes guests through an ingredient-focused journey, priced at £59 per person. There’s a choice between land, sea and vegetarian menus that include highlights like Cornish pollock, langoustine and mustard kiri-hodi humming with lime leaves, lamb saddle with black garlic curry and nettle and soothing ghee and cinnamon leaf breudeur. The cocktails are on par with the food at Paradise, so make sure to pacify your tastebuds with plenty of mango negronis and rambutan daiquiris.
Kolamba
Various locations
With the highly anticipated opening of Kolamba East this summer, Kolamba now forms a two-strong family of restaurants serving up food from founders Eroshan and Aushi Meewella's time growing up in Colombo (or, as they say in Sinhalese, Kolamba). It’s the perfect spot for meat eaters, pescetarians and vegetarians alike, with a sizey selection of sharing plates to satiate every craving. Kick things off with the hot butter cuttlefish and pineapple fry laden with chillies, curry leaves and shallots before chowing down on the tamarind-spiked Ceylon chicken curry. Plus, the Soho branch does a banging set menu if you’re in town for lunch, which features two courses for £17.50, including fish cutlets, jackfruit stuffed roti and curry bowls packed with chutneys and sambols.
Hoppers
Various locations
Arguably London’s best-known Sri Lankan restaurant, Hoppers, is now a three-strong force run by the venerable Sethi family behind JKS restaurants (think Gymkhana, BAO, Berenjak and Lyles, to name a few). The restaurant's namesake – hoppers (a savoury bowl-shaped pancake with crisp edges and a soft centre) are a must-order. Choose between plain, egg or string to mop up all the tangy chutneys, sambols, and curries. If you’re struggling to decide, opt for the Taste of Hopper's menu – a Sri Lankan feast for the table of eight dishes for £45 each, including mutton rolls, bone marrow rotis and lip-smacking black pork curry.
Karapincha
Various locations
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If you’re looking for a Sri Lankan stomach-filler on the go, look no further than Karapincha, which has stalls in Old Spitalfields Market, Mercato Metropolitano, and Canary Wharf. Far better than your soggy egg and cress meal deal, Karapincha slings out kottu roti, curries with parathas, rice boxes and devilled chicken for around a tenner. Karapincha is the brainchild of twin sisters Dharshini and Vasanthin, who hail from Kandy and have a family legacy of owning the most popular vegetarian restaurant in Colombo. Karapincha is named after the Sinhala word for curry leaf – a herb at the core of Sri Lankan cooking.
