Kurumba
Sri Lankan$$
The spice is right and the hopper bar is hopping.
The irrepressibly talented De Hoedt family – with three generations spread across kitchen, floor and sweets duties – make Kurumba a finely tuned treat. Expect care and precision, extending right through to the adrenaline-pumping flavours coming out of the open kitchen.
It’s a handsome restaurant, flush with banquettes and honey-toned woods, but pick a seat facing the hopper bar to see the freckled crepe-thin fermented-rice-flour bowls made from flour come into existence before your eyes.
Fill them with spice-flecked tempered cauliflower rich with garlic and pickled onion and a wodge of chilli lime sambal, or pile in creamy chicken curry humming with spice, finishing with a squeeze of lime.
Signature lobster kottu, deeply flavoured with a house spice blend and tossed with chopped roti in a blistering wok, is only matched by the decadence of jaggery and coconut custard watalappam, bruleed and finished with spiced ice-cream and smoky-sweet kithul. Aye, Kurumba.
Good Food reviews are booked anonymously and paid independently. A restaurant can’t pay for a review or inclusion in the Good Food Guide.
Restaurant reviews, news and the hottest openings served to your inbox.
Sign up