Paradise
Sri Lankan restaurant · Soho ·
Contemporary Sri Lankan dishes with British ingredients
Contemporary Sri Lankan dishes with British ingredients
"In the heart of Soho, you'll find this starkly modern Sri Lankan restaurant where the cooling greys of the intimate room provide a stylishly understated backdrop to the creative cuisine. There’s a choice of three tasting menus: one with fish and meat, one with fish and veg, and one exclusively vegetarian. Traditional Sri Lankan spices and flavours are added to largely British ingredients like Cornish pollock and Brixham crab to create attractive, colourful dishes that are thoughtfully constructed, and then proudly explained by the service team." - Michelin Inspector
"Zero-waste drinks don’t just mean draining every drop of your bloody mary. Paradise: After Dark sees Sri Lankan spot Paradise in Soho working with distilleries to turn their moody, brutalist restaurant into a bar post-10pm. They’ll serve limited-edition spirits, craft rums, and drinks made from kitchen leftovers." - daisy meager, sinead cranna
"We’d use any excuse to book a dinner at this tiny Sri Lankan spot in Soho, and a day at The National Gallery—which is a short six-minute walk away—is all the reason we need. This is our go-to place when we’re trying to impress. The flavours are excellent, the modern twists on traditional Sri Lankan dishes are exciting, and the room oozes cool. Take a seat at the counter if it’s feeling like a date, or one of the intimate booths if you’re here with a small group." - heidi lauth beasley, jake missing, rianne shlebak
"When Paradise opened in 2020, it was an innovative, moody, and effortlessly cool Soho restaurant that was limited in seating but not in incredible dishes. The interiors are still stunning but the menu, which once made it one of London’s best Sri Lankan restaurants, has had a complete makeover too—and we wish it didn’t. photo credit: Bhavya Pansari photo credit: Bhavya Pansari photo credit: Bhavya Pansari Pause Unmute The two-hour, six-course dinner tasting menu is made up of dishes that don’t quite hit the mark. Kimbula banis, a traditionally sweet croissant-shaped snack, is reimagined as a savoury bite-sized cube of pastry, filled with green chilli custard and chutney, with a small tower of grated cheese on top. The buttermilk roti—which is still a major highlight—has been shrunk to a cookie-cutter size, and a fine dining swipe of black garlic curry with hay-smoked celeriac isn’t enough to make this dish enjoyable. The chef circles around each table explaining the dish being served as if reading from a script, and despite the charming hidden drawers where you’ll find your cutlery, it all feels a little bit more serious—and a lot less exciting. photo credit: Bhavya Pansari photo credit: Bhavya Pansari" - Rianne Shlebak
"This tiny restaurant has the feel of an American speakeasy with its shelves loaded with spirits and its distressed, tiled interior. The menu has an Italian slant and includes sliders, pizettes and salads, which are served up to diners at the long counter. Great for a quick bite at lunch or dinner." - Hyperkit