Aheeka M.
Yelp
I finally found Sri Lankan food in LA and I am absolutely thrilled - I knew what I wanted and was ready to go when I got to the restaurant.
Walking in you see the large TV with the menus displayed and an area for hot food to be served from (but there was no buffet/hot food options when I went on a late Saturday afternoon). You order at the counter and that's the extent of it.
The restaurant is more suited for to-go than dine-in as there aren't many seats - maybe three or four? However, that should not deter you, especially as there were plenty of to-go orders being placed when I went there.
Warning: Because everything is made fresh, it can take 10-20 minutes for your food to come out, but please know that it is absolutely worth the wait!
Pro-tip: If you don't want to wait (because the food is made fresh for every order), order ahead by calling them.
Here's what I got - I had been missing Sri Lankan food, so that's why it was a larger-than-usual order:
- Sri Lankan Lunch Packet with chicken: Savory rice with four veggies wrapped in a steamed banana leaf: $15.99.
This took me back to my childhood eating packette lunches in Southeast Asia that was a lot like this - one meat dish and lots of veggies all wrapped in lotus or banana leaves. Delicious!
-- The chicken, fish, or vegeterian, is $15.99
-- The beef or pork, is a (1) dollar more; $16.99.
-- The lamb or shrimp, is two (2) dollars more; $17.99.
- Godamba Roti with lamb: One (1) house-made egg roti and one (1) Godamba roti served with your choice of a meat side, veggie curry, and coconut sambol. $17.99
The lamb was not game-y in anyway, deliciously cooked in a tonne of spices and very tender.
The Godamba roti is similar to our Malay/Indonesia/Singaporean roti canais (which are similar to Caribbean parathas or Bangladeshi/Nepali/Indian/Pakistani/Burmese parathas - the flaky ones).
Delicious, flakey, well cooked, and the egg Godambi is always my favourite.
-- The chicken, fish, or vegeterian, is $15.99
-- The beef or pork, is a (1) dollar more; $16.99.
-- The lamb or shrimp, is two (2) dollars more; $17.99.
- Pol Roti combo with beef: Three (3) house-made coconut (pol) rotis with your choice of a meat side, veggie curry, and coconut sambol. $16.99
I love pol roti so much and have not been able to make it myself, so finding out that not only is there a Sri Lanka restaurant that I could go to in OC, but that they had pol roti really made my day.
The beef was so tender and you can't go wrong with the sambol or daal.
The pol roti is slightly thicker than your average roti (or tortilla), but not heavy in any way. It's a perfect roti to eat by itself, with some butter, sambol, or beef!
-- The chicken, fish, or vegeterian option, is $15.99
-- The beef or pork option, is a (1) dollar more; $16.99.
-- The lamb or shrimp option, is two (2) dollars more; $17.99.
- Hoppers with fish: One (1) egg hopper (Sri Lankan crepe) and two (2) plain hoppers made with rice flour & coconut milk served with your choice of a meat side, veggie curry, and coconut sambol. $15.99.
Hoppers have the crispy edges and a thicker centre, given the shape of thier vessel and how they're cooked, and serve as a perfect breakfast or meal in general with any dish.
- Sago: Tapioca pudding mixed with coconut milk, palm sugar, nuts, and spices. $4.69.
Yes, yes, yes. Not too sweet, perfectly cooked sago with amazing flavour. It's not at all like boba - if that's what you're thinking when you read "tapioca". While the same ingredient, the chewiness is far less, particularly given the shape and size of the sago.
The prices vs. quantity is on-par and while it can be expensive, especially if you order like me, this is absolutely worth it.
And, if you've had Southeast Asian food from Cambodian, Indonesian, Malaysian, etc. or even South Asian food from Nepal, Pakistan, etc., Sri Lankan food will taste very familiar, delicious, flavourful, still unique!
Fun fact: Sri Lankan (and southern Indian) spices cuisine are what travelled to Southeast Asia, leading to the heavy influence in flavours and dishes you see in the latter region - the coconut-heavy dishes we have in Southeast Asia take their influence from the trade routes from Sri Lanka and southern India.
All the dishes have spices, but they are not spicy.
The owner was also super nice and helpful! I had such a pleasant experience, I will definitely come back and try other dishes. I am so, so excited to have found this restaurant - cannot wait to have more. The sheer joy and relief I have now is hard to explain, but please know that this is a stellar small business to support, so please, please do!
They also do catering, if you're interested.
The restaurant was easy to find, plenty of shared parking.