Kavi Cafe

What Is on a Sri Lankan Menu

Sri Lankan menus are usually built around rice and curry: a plate of rice with three or four curries, a sambol and a poppadom. The curries are the point, and ordering one dish on its own misses how the food is meant to work. Everything is shared and everything is mixed on the plate.

The other half of most menus is short eats and hoppers, which are closer to snacks and breakfast than to a main course. Hoppers in particular are often evening or weekend only, because they need a dedicated pan and someone standing at it.

What to Order if You Have Not Had It Before

• Rice and curry

  The whole cuisine on one plate. Order it first, and mix each curry into the rice a little at a time rather than eating them separately.

• Kottu roti

  Chopped flatbread stir-fried with egg, vegetables and curry. You will hear it being made before you see it. The loudest, most obviously Sri Lankan thing on any menu.

• Hoppers

  A bowl-shaped fermented rice pancake, crisp at the edge and soft in the middle. Ask for an egg hopper if they have one.

• Pol sambol

  Coconut, chilli, lime and Maldive fish. It comes with almost everything, and a plate without it tastes unfinished.

• String hoppers

  Steamed rice noodle nests, eaten with dhal and a coconut gravy. Usually breakfast, sometimes dinner.

• Lamprais

  Rice, curries and a frikkadel meatball baked in a banana leaf. A Dutch Burgher dish, and not on every menu.

Worth Knowing Before You Go

• Sri Lankan food runs hotter than most Indian restaurant food. If you are unsure, ask what the mildest curry is rather than asking for a dish to be made mild.
• Many places do a lunch packet, a wrapped rice and curry portion, cheaper and faster than the sit-down menu. It is often the best value on offer.
• Small family kitchens keep short and irregular hours, and hopper nights in particular are fixed to certain days. Ring first.
• Vegetarians usually do well: dhal, jackfruit, beetroot, cashew and green bean curries are standard, not an afterthought.

This section describes Sri Lankan restaurants in general. It is not a description of Kavi Cafe, which we have not visited.