Colombo food guide. Best areas, local dishes and restaurants for first time visitors.

Colombo has a genuinely excellent local food culture that most tourists miss entirely. Here is the guide.

The essential dishes to eat in Colombo:
Rice and curry: the midday meal of Sri Lanka. A mound of rice surrounded by small portions of two or three curries, dhal, papadams, and coconut sambol, served on a banana leaf at local restaurants or in metal dishes at slightly more formal spots. The best versions are at places that serve office workers at lunch, not tourists. Cost LKR 300-600.
Kottu roti: the quintessential Sri Lankan street meal described above, available in every neighbourhood.
Lamprais: Dutch-Burgher heritage dish. Rice cooked in stock, a small curry, a cutlet, a blachan relish, and a prawn or fish, all wrapped in a banana leaf and baked. Distinctive and fascinating historical food. Available at a few Colombo restaurants that specialise in Burgher cuisine.
Hoppers and string hoppers: the breakfast. Available from 6am to mid-morning at hopper shops.

Best areas for local food:
Pettah: Malay Street and the surrounding lanes for biryani, kottu, and Muslim food at lunch.
Wellawatte (south Colombo): the residential neighbourhood has a high density of good local restaurants serving both Sinhalese and Tamil food without tourist pricing.
Kirulapone market area: small local eateries around the covered market, very good and very local.
Galle Face Green: evening street food, particularly isso wade (prawn fritters), and the general promenade atmosphere.

Long-established local institutions:
Hotel de Pilawoos on Galle Road has been serving kottu, hoppers, and rice and curry to Colombo residents since the 1970s, 24 hours a day. A Colombo institution.
Muslim biryani shops in Pettah around Malay Street have operated for generations.

Breakfast beyond the hotel buffet: find a hopper shop. Ask your guesthouse where the nearest one is. A plate of four egg hoppers with coconut sambol costs LKR 200-300. It is the definitive Sri Lankan morning experience.

Bakery snacks to buy before leaving: Elephant House cream cracker biscuits, Chinese rolls (a deep-fried pastry with a spiced filling, available at every bakery), and kiri toffee are small Sri Lankan-specific pleasures worth buying at a local bakery before the airport.