Sri Lankan Street Food: 15 Snacks You Have to Try

Sri Lanka's best food isn't always found in restaurants. Roadside stalls, bakery vans, beach carts and tiny "hotels" (as local cafés are called) serve snacks that are cheap, filling and full of flavour. For the bigger picture, read our Sri Lankan food guide.

The essentials

1. Kottu roti

The sound of Sri Lankan nightlife: the clang of two metal blades chopping flatbread on a hot griddle with vegetables, egg, spices and chicken, beef or cheese. Every town has a kottu shop that comes alive after dark.

2. Hoppers (appa)

Bowl-shaped pancakes made from fermented rice flour and coconut milk — crispy at the edges, soft in the middle. Have an egg hopper with an egg cooked in the base, eaten with lunu miris (a fiery onion-chilli relish). Usually served in the evening.

3. String hoppers (idiyappam)

Nests of steamed rice-flour noodles, eaten for breakfast or dinner with dhal, coconut sambol and a thin coconut curry (kiri hodi).

4. Isso vadai

Lentil fritters topped with whole prawns, a speciality of the stalls at Galle Face Green in Colombo. See our Colombo guide.

5. Short eats

Bakeries and cafés display trays of short eats — snacks you pay for by the piece:

• Fish buns — triangular buns filled with spicy fish and potato.
• Patties — half-moon pastries filled with curry.
• Chinese rolls — breaded, deep-fried pancakes stuffed with meat or vegetables.
• Cutlets — spiced fish or meat croquettes.
• Samosas.

6. Parippu vadai and ulundu vadai

Crunchy lentil fritters sold from baskets on trains, buses and at stations — perfect with a cup of tea.

7. Kadala

Spiced boiled chickpeas with coconut, onion and chilli, sold in paper cones on beaches and at bus stands.

8. Pol roti

Thick flatbread made with grated coconut, often eaten with lunu miris or curry for breakfast.

9. Lamprais

A Dutch Burgher dish: rice cooked in stock, with meat curry, frikkadels (meatballs), sambols and a boiled egg, wrapped in a banana leaf and baked. Found in Colombo bakeries and cafés.

10. Kiribath

Rice cooked in coconut milk and cut into diamonds — the traditional dish for New Year and celebrations, eaten with lunu miris.

Sweet treats

11. Watalappan

A rich, jaggery-sweetened coconut custard flavoured with cardamom and nutmeg, of Malay origin.

12. Kavum and kokis

Oil cakes and crispy, flower-shaped coconut-flour biscuits, especially popular at Sinhala and Tamil New Year.

13. Faluda

A bright pink drink of rose syrup, milk, basil seeds and jelly, often topped with ice cream.

14. Wood apple juice

A thick, tangy-sweet juice made from the wood apple fruit — an acquired taste, but very refreshing.

15. Fresh tropical fruit

Mangoes, rambutans, mangosteens, pineapple with chilli and salt, and king coconut (thambili) cut open at the roadside.

Where to find street food

• Galle Face Green, Colombo — evening stalls by the sea.
• Pettah Market — busy local cafés and snack shops.
• Railway stations and trains — vendors with baskets of vadai and samosas.
• Bakery tuk-tuks — in many towns, a tuk-tuk playing a tinny tune (often Für Elise) sells fresh bread and short eats.
• Any local "hotel" — small cafés serving rice and curry at lunch and snacks all day.

Eating street food safely

• Choose busy stalls with high turnover.
• Eat food that's freshly cooked and hot.
• Short eats are often reheated — choose a busy bakery.
• Use your right hand if eating with your hands.
• Carry hand sanitiser.

See our health guide.