During an appointment in London I asked the lady I was meeting with to recommend a place for curry. It is after all, the national dish of the UK. That’s right, not fish and chips, not meat pies, not beef wellington, but curry. Perhaps it stems from colonial days, but in any event, London is cosmopolitan, and I have almost always (99% of the time) had amazing Indian food in London. She recommended a Sri Lankan place. I was excited. I never had Sri Lankan food before.
The place was called Kolamba which is a variation of the capital of the country – Colombo. Here was the menu:
The lady who recommended the place suggested we order hoppers; so we did, and ceylon chicken curry.
A hopper is a Sri Lankan pancake and we got our with an egg in the middle. The presenation was fabulous.
According to the server, we were to put the curry in the middle and eat it together.
As this was my first time having Sri Lankan food, and I have never been to the country, I have no idea if this was authentic or not, BUT I can tell you I enjoyed it and it was delicious. The curry was different than Indian curry in that it was bolder and had stronger tastes. There was also a lot of peppercorn in the dish.
Apparently Sri Lankan curries also differ from Indian in that the former use more coconut milk. Overall, the service was good. Our sever explained the menu to us and suggested how to eat everything. The food was good. I would return to try other items. This is a good lunch spot.