5 Best Restaurants in Colombo, Sri Lanka

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We've compiled the best of the best in Colombo - browse our top choices for the top things to see or do during your stay.

Chutney's

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One of no less than 13 eateries in the central Cinnamon Grand Hotel, this place serves up possibly the best South Indian cuisine in the country. Overlooking the hotel pool, the restaurant's modern minimalist dark-shaded decor and shiny polished wood floors lend it a chic atmosphere. The menu spans 20 pages and offers dozens of vegetarian and meaty regional specialties from each of four South Indian states: Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu. The kitchen adds a sophisticated twist to such classics as thali and masala dosai. Service can be a little slow, but the food is consistently worth the wait.

Green Cabin

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For bargain-priced Sri Lankan snack foods, as well as the national dish of "rice and curry," it's hard to beat this. The decor is simple and the furnishings minimal, but the focus here is on flavor. For a light meal, try the hoppers: small rice-flour pancakes that you dip in curry sauces and sambal (a hot chili condiment). The string hoppers (where the flour is formed first into noodles, then steamed together into small cakes) are particularly delicious.

453 Galle Rd Kollupitiya, Colombo, 00300, Sri Lanka
011-258--8811
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: No credit cards

Seafood Cove

$$$

There can't be many bustling capital cities where you can eat while curling your toes in the sand, with the waves of the balmy tropical Indian Ocean breaking just a few feet away. By taking a short taxi ride south from downtown Colombo, you can do just that at the Mount Lavinia Hotel's beach restaurant. Dine beneath the palm trees by candlelight as a gentle sea breeze cools you. Choose from a range of fresh seafood caught that same day in that same ocean, and cooked to your liking in any style. For the perfect mix of ambience and flavors, have your quarry cooked "Sri Lankan," with plenty of local spices and curry.

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The Gallery Café

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One of Sri Lanka's very best restaurants, this open-air courtyard eatery occupies a historic building that was once the office of the nation's most famous architect, Geoffrey Bawa, and is now an art gallery. The decor is truly stunning, and the food—Asian fusion, blending Sri Lankan and European influences—more than matches it. All of the cooking uses fresh local ingredients in an inventive, flavorsome way. One signature dish is black pork curry, and the restaurant is also renowned for its great desserts. Located in a high-class area full of foreign embassies, the restaurant doesn't have a formal dress code, but T-shirts and shorts are a definite no-no.

The Lagoon

$$$

One of several dining options in the Cinnamon Grand Hotel, this romantic candlelit choice focuses on seafood and consistently receives some of the best reviews in the city. This charming restaurant with an outdoor terrace beside a manmade lagoon places its emphasis on variety, freshness, and quality. You can select from the fresh catch of the day—including huge lobster—then mix and match your own sauce, cooking method (grilled, steamed, curried, etc.), and style (Sri Lankan, Chinese, Indian, Thai, or Continental). Or if that's too confusing, go for one of the more established classics, such as lobster bisque. The prices here may be sky high by Sri Lankan standards, but they would not break the bank most other places.