Sri Lankan Food: Dishes You Must Try

Rice and curry

The everyday meal: a mound of rice with several curries of vegetables, lentils, fish or meat, plus sambols and poppadoms.

Hoppers and string hoppers

Hoppers are bowl-shaped pancakes, often with an egg cooked inside; string hoppers are steamed nests of rice noodles, usually served at breakfast.

Kottu

Chopped flatbread stir-fried with vegetables, egg or meat on a hot griddle, a favourite evening street food.

Also try

Lamprais, fish ambul thiyal from the south, Jaffna crab curry, pol sambol, watalappan and fresh tropical fruit.

Regional specialities

Jaffna is known for fiery crab curry and odiyal kool, a seafood soup. The south coast is known for ambul thiyal, a sour fish curry, and the hill country for fresh vegetables. Colombo has lamprais, a Dutch Burgher dish of rice and curries baked in a banana leaf.

Sweets and drinks

Try watalappan, a spiced coconut custard, and kiri pani, buffalo curd with treacle from the kitul palm. Kavum and kokis are festive sweets made at New Year. Drink fresh king coconut and Ceylon tea, and try a fresh lime juice or wood apple juice.

Where to eat

Some of the best food is in small local restaurants and family-run guesthouses, where rice and curry is cooked fresh each day. Bakeries sell short eats and sweets, and night-time stalls in towns serve kottu and hoppers. Tell your driver what you like. They know where locals eat.

For a special meal, book a cooking class with a family. You'll eat the curries you cook.

Eating with your hands

Many Sri Lankans eat rice and curry with the right hand, mixing a little of each curry with the rice. It's not expected of visitors, and cutlery is always available, but give it a try. Many say the food tastes better that way.

Frequently asked questions