The friendly suburban restaurant excels at complex curries, crisp hoppers and the kind of Sri Lankan food “your mother would give you at home”.
Sanka Amadoru
Upon crossing the threshold of Ceylon Spicy Foods, you’ll be greeted by a cavalcade of scents and sounds. Spices mingle with coconut, vegetable, and meat aromas, jostling for airspace alongside the hum of quiet conversation or the refrain of easy-listening karaoke.
The dine-in option follows a common format for Sri Lankan restaurants around Melbourne: indicate to staff that you would like to partake in the all-you-can-eat buffet, and they’ll happily supply you with a plate and point you to available seats. A self-service adventure begins, with as much or as little guidance as you care to ask for.
Starting with a foundation of rice in the plate’s centre is advisable, although chopped koththu roti (ordinarily a type of street food) could be added or substituted. Various vegetable curries allow you to begin adding concentric layers of complexity. Parippu, better known as dhal or stewed red lentils, is considered an essential addition, providing mild turmeric-laced counterpoint to the more chilli-forward options to come.
There is often a jackfruit curry – either in its ripened form, yellow, tender, and mild; or young jackfruit, cooked down with a robust dark-roasted spice mix until the mouthfeel is firm but yielding. Greens may more commonly take the form of curried runner beans or spiced and diced kale with onion. A rotating cast of buffet dishes makes it unlikely you’ll see the same combination of options twice.
Ceylon Spicy Foods’ founder Rajika Bandara started her cooking journey by learning from her mother and grandmother. Bandara’s food endeavours in Australia began with preparing homemade meals for homesick migrant students settling in Melbourne’s northern suburbs. She wanted to provide “food your mother would give you at home” and eschewed the richer fare found in most restaurants.
When COVID lockdowns occurred, Bandara bought a food truck which quickly became too popular for its confines. When the current brick-and-mortar venue became available, she saw an opportunity to transport an authentic experience of being in a restaurant in Sri Lanka to Melbourne – and seized it.
To bolster that sense of authenticity, several elements of the restaurant are imported. Wall hangings and traditional masks evoke places on the island’s southern shores. Serving spoons are made from shells of coconuts, with handles from the trees that bear them. Traditional clay pots have left many miles of ocean behind them. The thatching over the buffet line pays homage to rustic village roofs. Hard-to-find ingredients are shipped in, frozen or dry goods.
For omnivores, the chicken red curry is a classic; the meat is cooked bone-in to lend depth of flavour to the gravy, which I suggest you drizzle across your rice or roti. A standout black pork curry is often available. Its base is made in a traditional manner, by painstakingly grinding singed raw rice and dried coconut into a powder. Additional depth is conferred by goraka (a citrus-leaning souring ingredient similar to tamarind), and heat by black pepper and chilli.
Most nights see the hopper cooking station in action: rice flour batter is fermented overnight and poured into specialised pans, emerging as crisp, savoury, hemispheric pancakes. You might break some off with your hand and scoop up some of the parippu and ochre chilli-coconut-lime pol sambol for an odyssey of texture and flavour in one bite.
Hoppers with an added egg are also available, charged in addition to the buffet’s flat pricing. Dessert might be yoghurt with palm treacle, or a cardamom-spiced coconut custard called watalappam – but given the quality of the main meal, you may wish to focus your attention there. Other non-buffet food options include baked and fried savouries in the warmed cabinet. A variety of tropical drinks and takeaway desserts await discovery in the fridge.
Ceylon Spicy Foods has a sense of cosiness and warmth of character, and is welcoming to all comers despite largely being frequented by a loyal Sri Lankan following. However, like many all-you-can-eat establishments, the space is not designed for hours of lingering. The bathrooms are difficult to navigate to; seating is practical without being uncomfortable. For those wanting to enjoy the food elsewhere, takeaway and even catering is available, or you could visit their newer food court location in Craigieburn’s Highlands Shopping Centre.
I should also note that Ceylon Spicy’s Sunday takeaway extravaganza is exceptional. At opening time, several restaurant tables heave with approximately 40 types of curries, predominantly vegetarian or vegan, ready for mix-and-match meal building at home. It may be the most diverse offering of its kind in the city and sells out quickly.
<strong>Three other Sri Lankan takeaway gems in the northern suburbs</strong>
Serendib
Originally a fish-and-chip shop, it’s easy to drive past Serendib on Plenty Road without really noticing it. The full complement of rice and curries is now available, along with short eats (savoury bakery goods), filled roti, koththu roti, and Sri Lankan adaptations of biryani and Chinese dishes.
951 Plenty Road, Kingsbury, serendibfood.com.au
MKS Spices’n Things
This South Asian grocery stocks Indian, Sri Lankan, Pakistani, and Fijian-Indian dry goods. Bain-maries warm Sri Lankan and South Indian curries and short eats. Dine in or add takeaway packs to your haul of raw rice, dried pulses, and jars of tropical pickles and chutneys.
258 High Street, Preston, mymks.com.au
Chef Lanka
This casual restaurant adjoins a grocery well stocked with non-perishable and frozen goods. Takeaway and dine-in options include traditional vegetable, meat, and fish curries (the dhal and skipjack tuna being particularly good), Sri Lankan biryanis, koththu roti, and short eats.
87 Wheatsheaf Road, Glenroy
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