Rice and curries cooked with a blend of spices, herbs and coconut milk is the island’s main meal. For breakfast and dinner, rice is replaced with hoppers, stringhoppers, roti, or koththu which are all made with rice flour and eaten with red and white curries. Sri Lankan like their chillies and the redder the curry, the more chillies it will have. Coconut sambal, sweet chutneys, pickles and papadams are eaten as accompaniments. The chutneys are always good to have at hand to cool off the chillies! Lamprais (rice and curries wrapped in a banana leaf), is a favourite prepared by the burgher community. Traditional deserts include watalappan (made with coconut milk and palm juggery), buffalo curd and honey, and a range of sweets such as Kavun, kokis, aluwa, paniwalalu which is made for special occasions. Sri Lankan short eats – a range of savoury and sweet pastries is a favourite snack at any time of day. If you wish to learn more about Sri Lankan cookery, Red Dot will be happy to make arrangements with a local chef whilst you are on holiday.

Originally introduced to the island around 1850 by the British, Ceylon Tea is world famous for its high quality and has remained a major contributor to the island’s economy for generations. Currently, Sri Lanka is one of largest exporter of tea worldwide. The high altitudes produce the best flavours, so Sri Lanka’s hill-country is the ideal environment to grow the most flavoursome tea. A guided tour around a Tea Factory is an enlightening experience, which explains the whole process of tea production before it reaches your cuppa. It also provides an opportunity to buy the best grades of tea. First, visit a Tea plantation where you will see tea pluckers busy picking the precise `two leaves and a bud’ followed by a visit to a tea factory where the processing begins. For information on purchasing Tea, check the Red Dot Shopping Guide.

We have put together a journey through Sri Lanka that enables travellers to savour the tantalizing tastes of Sri Lankan cuisine along with a memorable experience of the island’s heritage and landscapes. `Flavours of Ceylon’ takes you through rural Sri Lanka to experience traditional village life and rice and curries cooked in clay pots, then to the hill country for an experience of the ancient Kandyan heritage followed by three nights amidst a lush tea plantation at Ceylon Tea Trails. Leaving the hills, you will journey to the beautiful southern coast fringed with palm trees and sun-kissed beaches where fabulous seafood is served under the stars. Experience Galle’s 17th century Dutch Fort with its cobbled streets, sturdy ramparts and boutique hotels housed in old colonial mansions. Here you will spend two nights savouring five-course gourmet delights amidst a historic backdrop.

Colombo: Food is a highlight of Colombo, much more so than you might imagine. You won’t go hungry here with its wide selection of small restaurants serving local hawker-style favourites like meat patties, fish buns, egg rolls, string hoppers, lamprais, koththu roti and biryani. All the local restaurants are extremely cheap. There is also a wide variety of fast food outlets, including McDonalds, Pizza Hut and KFC. Colombo is the best place in the island for Indian cuisine and the following are recommended: Agra, Mango Tree and Navaratna. For those looking for fusion or European-style food, there are some very special treats. For the quality of its food, especially its meats, Chesa Suisse, a Swiss restaurant, is outstanding. The most popular dining-out experience is at the Paradise Road Gallery Cafe, the restaurant with the most seductive ambience in the island. (More)

Cultural Triangle: Sri Lankan rice and curries and western cuisine is served in all the hotels within the Cultural Triangle.  Heritance Kandalama is famous for its award winning cuisine ranging from lunch time buffets to fine dining.  Vil Uyana’s Apsara restaurant with views of the Sigiriya rock, offers a la carte menu as well as a vegetarian menu.   The Ceylon Hotels Corporation Rest Houses are popular for their tasty rice and curries at a reasonable price.  The Tisawewa Grand Rest House keeps up this reputation, but watchout for the spicy coconut sambals.  There are several wayside eateries and stalls on the way to the Cultural Triangle where a cup of tea or a Thambili (king coconut) – a great thirst quencher, or a cool drink can be purchased.

Galle Coast: Galle Fort has several options for high-class dining. Fusion food with Asian influences in a seductive setting makes Galle Fort Hotel a sought-after venue, and the bar-cum-coffee-shop is a social hub. Fort Printers aims for the same high standards and Amangalla, the most expensive five-star in the Fort, has many pretensions as far as its restaurant is concerned. Lower down the scale, the Rampart Hotel offers tasty rice and curries and is wonderful at sunset. Small cafes include Pedlar’s Inn down Pedlar Street and a few miles away Unawatuna has a selection of characterful beach restaurants include Kingfisher, which serves fresh seafood including lobster, Turkish kebabs from the grill and a range of wraps and Pipels House, which is located inland and offers a tropical garden setting for dining under the stars. Some of the popular bars in Galle apart from the GFH are Dick’s Bar at the Sun House, The Zaal at Amangalla, and Cardamom Cafe at the Lighthouse Hotel. Further afield consider the Sea Lounge at the Fortress, Wijaya Beach at Dalawella and Unawatuna’s livelier beach shacks. If you want livelier still, head 25 minutes north to Hikkaduwa, Galle’s bohemian beach satellite. (More)

Hill Country: Nuwara Eliya’s Grand Hotel has several venues for dining. Barnes’ Hall, the main restaurant, serves international cuisine buffet style; the Supper Club, with a bar and lounge area with scenic views, serves a la carte meals in an intimate setting; a coffee shop offers light snacks and the Curry Pot is a popular Indian restaurant serving a variety of vegetarian and non-veg dishes, and freshly baked Indian breads.  The Old Course restaurant at St. Andrew’s Hotel serves sumptuous Sri Lankan and international cuisine prepared at their `show kitchen’ where guests can see their meals being prepared while dining on gourmet delights.  Snacks and high tea is served at their outdoor garden café.  The Bandarawela Hotel is popular for tasty rice and curries and tea and sandwiches are served on their front lawn.  Grand Ella Hotel run by the Ceylon Hotels Corporation is the main lunch stop in Ella. Their restaurant opens out onto an extensive garden terrace with magnificent views.  A la carte and buffet meals consisting of both western and Sri Lankan dishes are served here. The Tea Factory is proud of its fine-dining restaurant in a refurbished train carriage, so preserving the memory of a branch line that closed in 1940.

Kandy: Kandyan cuisine has a distinct flavor. Ambul Thiyal, for example, is a popular sour fish curry. Traditionally in the villages, lunch is taken to the fields, or for a special occasion, in a Kuruni basket with rice and curries wrapped in banana leaf.  Kandyan sweet meats including Kavum, Kokis, and Pani Walalu - prepared mainly for festive occasions – are delicious treats not to be missed.   Most of the hotels and guest houses in Kandy offer Asian and western dishes. Chaaya Citadel is popular for their lunch time buffet and the Kandy House serves delicious fusion cusine.

North West: Fresh sea food is a specialty along the North West coast.  Varieties of fish, jumbo prawns, lagoon and sea crab cooked in red hot curries, western style or grilled on a sizzling BBQ spit - is served at hotels and small beachside restaurants.  The Brown’s Beach and Club Oceanic offers an international buffet lunch while the Black Coral fine-dining restaurant at The Beach offers a fusion menu for lunch and dinner. Negombo by night has a vibrant atmosphere with a scattering of bars and cafes.

West Coast: From beach restaurants to side walk cafes - Hikkaduwa offers a range of dining options.  For good rice and curries try Homegrown.  Harbour, Refresh, and Spaghetti & Co serves international cuisine.  For something more casual right on the beach, try Top Secret.  The jumbo prawns here are fabulous.    The happening night clubs in Hikkaduwa includes Vibrations generally on a Friday night and Mambo on Saturdays. Bentota’s Avanhala run by the Ceylon Hotels Corporation serves tasty rice and curries as well as short-eats (buns and pastries).

South Coast: As you'd expect, fresh seafood is a highlight on the south coast. Beach bars serve simple grilled fish and shellfish heavily laden with garlic, lime and chilli. Resthouses - Tangalle and Matara are good – will serve fiery red curries with seer fish, a firm white-fleshed fish, and prawns. The best restaurant in Tangalle is at Amanwella (expensive) for Western-style cuisine. The Kadju House, a Tangalle villa, offers dinners subject to availability for an agreed price. The chef, renowned for his curries, has extensive experience in Cyprus and the Middle East. For simple good-value Italian food in Tangalle try Manuela's Il Camino guesthouse on Seenimodera Beach. A popular seafood beach restaurant is Winnie's in from of Palm Paradise Cabanas. Dickwella, which is Italian-owned, is also getting good reviews recently. Those staying in Mirissa have few choices aside from beach bars and may want to consider The Fortress in Koggala (good pizzas, variety of fusion dishes, wide selection of wine although expensive) as a change - or indeed Unawatuna and Galle Fort if you are up for the drive.

East Coast: Club Oceanic and Nilaveli Beach Hotel in Uppuveli & Nilaveli serves Sri Lankan and western cuisine with a variety of sea food specialties including lobster, crab and prawns. Beach BBQs are held on Saturdays under a starlit sky.

Palm Beach guest house located in Uppuveli serves authentic home cooked Italian cuisine prepared by its Italian owner. Arugam Bay has several beachside cafes and restaurants that serve snacks, sumptuous seafood, Sri Lankan and western cuisine.  Café del Mar and Gecko are beachside cafes with a laid back ambience and tasty food.  The home made ice creams at Gecko with flavours ranging from dark chocolate to Arrack, are delicious and addictive!  Mambo’s, a branch of the better-known Mambo’s restaurant and bar in Hikkaduwa, overlooks Surf Point and serves a range of snacks and beverages.  Mambo’s comes alive each Saturday night with much-anticipated house parties.

Siam View offers authentic Thai cuisine personally prepared by the owners and a range of alcoholic beverages including home brewed beer on tap. Siam View’s restaurant and bar is open daily till 3.00 a.m. and features music and surf movies that are shown on a large screen.  Hideaway serves sumptuous Sri Lankan, Chinese and Western cuisine and seafood specialties in a quite and peaceful setting.

Stardust Beach Hotel, one of Arugam Bay’s long standing beachside hotels, serves fusion cuisine and also has a vegetarian menu.  The cooking here is personally supervised by the Danish owner and served at the open sided restaurant with candle light and gentle fusion music in the background.  Food here is expensive, but the setting and ambience makes it worthwhile. At Stardust, dinner orders have to be placed by 6.00 p.m and served subsequently at a time of your liking.  For those wanting to try out Sri Lankan cuisine, there are several local eateries in town serving tasty Kothu Roti, rice and curries, and hoppers.

Health Tips: As a leading tourist venue, Sri Lanka has one of the best hygiene records in Asia and stomach complaints are uncommon. Nevertheless, you might like to comply with the following guidelines. Most importantly, drink bottled water only. King Coconut water is renowned as a thirst quencher and settler of a queasy stomach, although some may prefer to take their medicinal coconut in the form of arrack -- the local firewater. When eating, consider the old advice: `boil it, bake it, peel it or ignore it.' Be particularly wary of salads and unpeeled fruit. Ensure your meat is thoroughly cooked. If you have any doubts, overlook the buffet and order freshly-cooked... even if it takes a little longer.

Red Dot Discounts: All guests travelling with Red Dot are provided with a special gift voucher booklet upon arrival in Sri Lanka containing discount coupons for up to 10% from some of the
Island’s leading restaurants, night clubs, shops, spas, and beauty salons in Colombo.

Asian On Line Recipes: Click Here
Information on Sri Lankan cuisine, Sri Lankan recipes.

Bojoon: Click Here
Sri Lankan recipes, information on cookery programmes at various local hotels.

Dilmah Tea: Click Here
Information on Ceylon Tea and Dilmah Tea outlets where you can purchase tea.

Red Dot Sri Lanka Bookstore: Click Here
Online bookstore with titles on Sri Lankan cuisine

'A world of its own' – a review on Gallery Café
By Anushika Gunawardana, Explore Sri Lanka, November 2006

'Karapincha – the multi-faceted curry leaf'
By Wilma Fernando, Travel Sri Lanka,

'Coconut water is good for your daughter'
By Neville de Silva, Serendib, May/June 2005

'Going Bananas'
By Anushika Gunawardana, Explore Sri Lanka, November 2006

'Luscious Lamprai'
By Manori Wijesekera, Explore Sri Lanka, October 2005

'Kitchen Utensils of Yore'
By Indirani Jayawardena, Explore Sri Lanka, December 2004

'The Spice of Life – an interview with chef Koluu'
By Manori Wijeskera, Explore Sri Lanka, June 2005

'Colombo has never had it so chic! – review of Tintagel'
By Chandreenie Schaeffer, Explore Sri Lanka, December 2007