Initially when I heard that a Sri Lankan restaurant was opening up near the Horton Place roundabout, I will admit that I was mildly intrigued. Finally, a place serving authentic local fare, minus the formidable price tag so common among Sri Lankan restaurants situated at certain five star hotels in Colombo.

It has been just two months since Upali’s by Nawaloka opened, and the reviews and responses have been good. Personally speaking, from the two occasions I did dine at the restaurant, I was left pleasantly surprised at how delicious everything tasted. From the hot potato curry soaking up a cylindrical shape of rulang pittu to the warm, crispy egg hoppers with a side of lunu miris to the miniature vegetable rotis - so flavourful and mildly spicy, I couldn’t help but think that this is all Colombo’s been needing - a restaurant serving great Sri Lankan cuisine, instead of having to constantly choose between the multitude of Indian and so-called Chinese restaurants.
 

The Food Factor met David Cruse, who handles operations at Upali’s, for a brief chat about the restaurant and how it came into being.

“I’ve been working in the hospitality industry for a long time now, and I spent a number of years running a successful business in Australia, before I decided to come back to Sri Lanka.  Upali Dharmadasa had an idea about a Sri Lankan restaurant and he pitched the idea to me, and asked if I would be able to help him out. He’s a very passionate cook and he realised that Colombo lacks a proper restaurant serving Sri Lankan cuisine, and he wanted to fill that void, so I agreed to do it,” explained David.

He, along with his wife Cathy run the operations at the restaurant everyday.

David added that ingredients for dishes are sourced from all over the island. For example, the seafood is brought from Mannar, certain spices for Northern dishes are from Jaffna, and the vegetables are bought fresh on a daily basis from the Pettah market. “No one believed how well things would go, and we already have certain customer favourites such as the vegetable set menu for lunch, where you can order a meat or poultry curry as a side, and the fish head curry is also a favourite,” he said.

Soups and Starters

Delving into the menu, you will find vegetable soup, rasam, mulligatawny soup and mutton soup. Then, vegetable patties, traditional ulundu wade, fried fish and a combo dish featuring prawn rolls, vegetable patties, stuffed fish capsicums and dhal wade.

Salads and Sambols

This section features pol sambol, seeni sambol, gotukola sambol, katta sambol, deep fried bitter gourd, and a cucumber, green chillie, onion and tomato salad.
 

Mains

Serving everything from Jaffna mutton or crab curry to a black jack seed curry to brinjal moju and potato curry, you will not be disappointed at the variety of dishes available. Choose from the boiled egg white curry cooked with coconut milk, the savoury scrambled eggs, traditional chicken curry, marinated yellow fin tuna in a sour and dry curry, lagoon prawns cooked with coconut milk or a fresh fish curry.
 

Upali’s serves string hoppers, plain and egg hoppers, egg roti, regular roti, pittu and freshly baked roast paan, all of which are accompanied with katta sambol, pol sambol, coconut milk and lunu miris. You can also opt to have steamed white rice, Ruhunu country rice or steamed white rice tempered with ghee, onions and curry leaves.
 

Dessert and Beverages

Watalappan, curd and treacle, oil cakes, and an indulgent chocolate biscuit pudding are on the list of desserts. David tells me that biscuit pudding is lovingly made everyday by Sandhya Dharmadasa, Upali’s wife. Beverages include fresh fruit juices, plain tea, milk tea, cardamom tea, ginger tea and iced tea, while you can also have coffee.

Upali’s by Nawaloka is located at No.65, C.W.W. Kannangara Mawatha, Colombo 07, and they are open everyday from 11AM-11PM.



Text by Sarah Kellapatha
Pics courtesy Upali’s by Nawaloka