If you are looking for a comprehensive list of street food in Sri Lanka to try on your trip, you are in the right place. I first arrived to the island 14 years ago to work at a jewelry store, which sounds fancy, but was anything but. As I earned 300 dollars per month, Sri Lankan street food was all I could afford for lunch.
There was, of course, an occasional rice and curry on my lunch menu — usually at the start of the month, when I received my salary and could splurge a little. Mostly it was simple vegetable- or egg-fried rice. But by the end of the month, as my wallet grew thinner, I would always end up buying so-called short eats — savory buns, baked or deep fried.
Back then, a plate of vegetable-fried rice cost me 120 rupees (a dollar in 2010), but 3 buns filled with fish, eggs, or chicken cost only 20 rupees a piece. An amazing deal for my wallet, not so great for my waistline as I learned a few months later.
The Types of Street Food in Sri Lanka
Ok, enough with reminiscing. Let’s dive into different types of street food in Sri Lanka. There’s no official subdivision but because I am a nerd who likes structure, I separated the foods into the following groups: meals, short eats, sweet buns, and snacks.
Meals are big dishes that constitute a full breakfast, lunch, or dinner, for example, kottu or string hoppers. I did not include rice and curry or fried rice in the list, although many street shops sell those. While I have no problem getting my kottu from a hole-in-the-wall place, rice and curry is something I would rather have from a place I know and trust.
Short eats — a name I have only ever heard in Sri Lanka — are a variety of savory buns that come in all shapes and sizes. They can be baked or deep fried; made of yeasted dough or puff pastry; filled with vegetables, meat, fish, or egg.
Sweet buns are exactly that: something you can have with your afternoon cup of tea. Snacks are a category for everything that didn’t fit into meals, short eats, or sweets.
Where to Buy Street Food in Sri Lanka
You probably want to say: “Umm in the street, duh?” and you are right, but let me offer a few tips. Your first option is the small street shops — podi kade in Sinhalese — that you’ll see all over the country by the side of the road. Those are often run-down no-name joints with a window case out in the front filled with pastries. Most of them sell short eats, hoppers, string hoppers, and kottu. If you are looking for an “authentic experience” (notice the quotes), this is as authentic as it gets. It’s also the cheapest.
Your second option (at least for short eats and sweets) is chain cafes like Perera & Sons, Fab, or Sen-Saal. Those are a bit more expensive, but provide more in terms of ambiance and, well, hygiene, if you are concerned about that kind of thing. It’s ok if you are not. Personally, I throw most rules out of the window and just enjoy food wherever it comes from while on the island.
Then, there are fancy restaurants and hotels that offer street food at much higher prices, but also made with higher quality ingredients. Sometimes chefs reimagine classic Sri Lankan street foods. Think: hoppers with squid ink, roast paan panini, or crab kottu. If you have already tried the classic versions of Sri Lankan street foods, this is a great way to expand your horizons.
Lastly, if you stay in Sri Lanka long enough, especially if you rent a house (or stay with a host), sooner or later you’ll hear the sound of Beethoven’s Für Elise, albeit a more annoying electronic version of it. And that can only mean one thing: choon paan, a special tuk-tuk with a glass case filled with bread and pastries. Freshly baked goods are delivered to your doorstep — all you need to do is flag down the tuk-tuk.
Last, but not least. This here is only a list of Sri Lankan STREET food. If you are looking to take a deep dive into Sri Lankan cuisine and explore all of the curries, sweets, drinks and beyond, I have a guide to the 50 most traditional Sri Lankan foods.
Meals
Kottu
Probably, the most well-known and beloved street food in Sri Lanka is kottu, also known as kottu roti. To make kottu, one mixes thinly sliced roti (flat bread) with vegetables, spices, egg, and meats (optional) right on the hot grill with the help of two metal blades.
You always know when kottu is being made not because of the smell, but because of the distinct sound of metal hitting metal on high speed. Some cooks are so good, they can create music while making your dinner.
There’s a second type of kottu, for some reason less popular but just as delicious, called string hopper kottu (or indi appa kottu in Sinhalese). Instead of roti, string hoppers are used as the base: they are cut up and mixed with the other ingredients on the grill. String hoppers can be a meal on their own and we’ll talk about it in a bit.
Important thing to remember: kottu is a dinner-time dish, you can only find it after 5 pm.
Pro tip: if you are in Colombo, Pilawoos is considered the iconic place to try kottu.
Hoppers (Appa)
Hoppers are the sweetheart of Sri Lankan cuisine. I don’t know a single person who wouldn’t love them, because what’s not to love? Pancakes with a soft spongy center and paper-thin crispy edges — a dream!
Hoppers can be plain, made with egg in the center, or with coconut milk and sugar. The latter is my favorite, but the least common version, mostly only found in Tamil restaurants.
The only thing I don’t love about hoppers is that while they sound like a perfect breakfast, you’ll only find them after 5 pm, for dinner. This is a point that has been argued about on multiple occasions — I get many messages saying that families in Sri Lanka have hoppers for breakfast. But usually, that is because a mother or grandmother in the family knows how to make hoppers which is not at all that common.
Kind of like every Italian woman probably knows how to make pasta, but not every Italian woman knows how to make panettone, which requires special equipment and skill. So every Sri Lankan woman can prepare rice and half a dozen curries for lunch, but hoppers are usually something one buys from a street shop.
If you are a tourist, though, you can find hoppers on the breakfast menu of some hotels and cafes in touristy towns.
Pro-tip: Skinny Toms in Unawatuna makes great hoppers with bacon and black pork curry for breakfast.
String Hoppers (Indi Appa)
While string hoppers and hoppers sound like they should be brothers or, at least, cousins, that is not the case. The one thing they have in common is rice flour as the main ingredient. String hoppers are thin rice noodles that are shaped into rounds and steamed. This is my best attempt at describing what they are, as I can think of nothing remotely similar in other cuisines — so simply refer to the picture!
Remember we talked about string hopper kottu? This is what’s used as its base — the rice noodle rounds are chopped up and mixed with vegetables and spices on a hot grill, resulting in the most delicious fragrant, albeit high in calorie count, dinner dish.
More often, though, string hoppers made with white or red rice flour are simply served with curries. You can find them both for breakfast and dinner.
Coconut Roti (Pol Roti)
Pol roti are Sri Lankan flatbreads made with wheat flour and freshly grated coconut. Served with pol sambol (spicy coconut sambol) and parippu (lentil curry), this is one of my favorite breakfasts ever. Other popular accompaniments for pol roti are lunu miris (spicy chili and onion paste) and seeni sambol (sweet onion relish).
Roast Paan
Sri Lanka doesn’t boast too many bread varieties, but there’s one type that is so freakishly good, it’s worth traveling to the island for. Roast paan (pronounced ros paan) looks like a slice of bread rather than a loaf.
To make roast paan, yeasted dough is shaped into thin squares; about half a dozen such squares are placed into a loaf pan and baked together. Once baked, the squares are divided and baked separately once more until golden brown. This double-baking technique allows you to get the most crispy slice of bread on all sides, while still soft inside.
At the street shops, roast paan is served with curries for breakfast. The pol sambol and parippu combination is a classic. Some shops also sell roast paan cut in the middle and stuffed with pol sambol — a perfect on-the-go meal.
Chickpeas (Kadala)
Now, the next two street foods are NOT something you typically find at small shops where you get kottu or short eats. More often than not, chickpeas are simply sold out of a steaming hot pot, set on a table by the road.
in Sri Lanka, chickpeas are boiled first, then tempered in coconut oil with curry leaves, pieces of fresh coconut, and chili flakes. It makes for a great breakfast, but chickpeas are sold throughout the whole day, so you can have them for lunch or dinner too, if you are lucky enough to come across one of these stalls.
Green Porridge (Kola Kenda)
Kola kenda is thin rice porridge prepared with leafy greens, like gotukola and mukunuwenna. This is a typical breakfast food in Sri Lanka, beloved because of its high nutritional value and many vitamins.
Kola kenda is probably the one dish in Sri Lankan cuisine that I am not in love with, but that probably speaks more to my dislike of porridge in general. Sri Lankan people swear by it. Like chickpeas, you will randomly see tables set up in the morning with pots of hot kola kenda. If you see one, do try it — you never know when you will come across another stall like that.
Short Eats
Fish Bun (Maalu Paan)
Possibly, the most popular of short eats is a simple fish bun. It’s made of yeasted dough stuffed with a mixture of tin fish (usually mackerel) and mashed potatoes.
Seeni Sambol Bun
Same yeasted dough, but inside you will find one of the most popular Sri Lankan relishes — seeni sambol, or caramelized onions.
Egg Bun
Another yeasted dough bun, but unlike its cousins the bun is baked on its own, without a filling, then cut in the middle and stuffed with boiled eggs, onions, and chili peppers. Kind of like a hot dog, but with eggs.
Sausage Bun/ Sausage Roll
Speaking of hot dogs, the closest version Sri Lanka has to offer is a sausage bun. I’ve seen sausage buns made with puff pastry, as well as a sausage stuffed into a yeasted bun — the choice is yours.
Chinese Roll
I am fairly sure that were you to go to China, you wouldn’t find these rolls there, so they should probably be called Sri Lankan Chinese rolls. Confusing, but delicious. Chinese rolls are made of crepes that are stuffed with anything from meat to fish to vegetables, rolled up, dipped into egg mixture and breadcrumbs, and then deep-fried.
Samosa
Samosa is a small fried pastry usually filled with mashed vegetables (potatoes and peas) or meats. You’ll easily recognize it by its iconic triangle shape. The dough is thin and crunchy and the filling inside is warm and spicy. Samosa made its way to Sri Lanka from India, where it is considered one of the most popular snacks. What’s interesting is that samosa didn’t originate in India, but was brought there by merchants from the Middle East in the 13th or 14th century.
Vegetable Roti
Remember we talked about thin roti that are used for making kottu? They are called godamba roti and there’s another way to use them: place vegetable filling inside, wrap it up and fry on a pan. Then it becomes a short eat called elawalu roti, or vegetable roti.
Egg Roti
Same as above, but made with egg filling. It’s also wrapped differently: flat and rectangular instead of a triangle.
Sweet Buns
Kimbula Bunnies
Kimbula is, hands down, Sri Lanka’s most beloved sweet bun. The name comes from its elongated shape — in Sinhalese kimbula literally means “crocodile”. The buns — or bunnies as they are affectionately called in Sri Lanka — are made of sweet yeasted dough and sprinkled with crystals of sugar on top — a signature look.
Jam Bunnies
Very similar to kimbula bun, but differently shaped and filled with jam.
Tea Bunnies
The simplest, yet one of the most satisfying baked goods you can get from Sri Lankan bakeries is an unpretentious tea bun. There are no tricks, just soft, almost cotton-candy-like dough (when done right), sometimes specked with raisins. Cut the bun in half, smear some butter on top, then — don’t be surprised — pair it with a banana. One bite of a bun, one bite of a banana. That’s how my father-in-law eats it and you should too.
Snacks
Parippu Wade (Dhal Wade)
Wade are bite-sized deep-fried lentil patties, made with chili flakes and curry leaves. When served fresh — as all deep-fried foods should be — wade is the most enjoyable snack that ever existed. When traveling around Sri Lanka, you’ll see little stands by the side of the road set up with a bowl of dough at the ready and a large pan of hot oil bubbling away.
It is vitally important that wade are shaped from raw dough and fried right in front of you. There are some stands that fry a batch in advance and let it sit around. When you order they simply throw the wade into hot oil to reheat. Huge no-no.
Prawn Wade (Isso Wade)
Same lentil patty, but this time it comes with prawns on top. One of the most popular spots to get prawn wade (as well as all other kinds of wade) is Galle Face Green promenade in Colombo. Unfortunately, a lot of vendors here do the trick with double-frying I described above, so be careful who you buy from.
Pro-tip: Isso, a small local chain of restaurants specializing in prawns (isso means “prawn” in Sinhalese) does incredible prawn wade or, rather, their twist on the traditional Sri Lankan snack.
Crab Wade
You probably figured it by now: lentil patty topped with a crab. But don’t get your hopes too high just yet, it’s not the kind of crab that requires effort to crack open and get the meat out with a thin metal pick. Rather, it’s the smallest, practically meatless kind of crab that adds a crunch to your wade.
Ulundu Wade
Another deep-friend lentil snack but, while parippu wade are made with chana dhal (orange-colored split peas), ulundu wade are prepared with urad dhal (black gram). The result is a slightly more doughy texture. Ulundu wade are similar in shape to doughnuts but have a distinctly savory taste thanks to onions, green chili pieces, and fresh curry leaves.
Achcharu
Achcharu is a blanket name for all kinds of spiced and pickled fruits, like mango, pineapple, veralu (Sri Lankan olives), ambarella (sweet and sour fruit with a fibrous pit), guava, and many others. You can typically find all the varieties in one cart divided into sections. In Colombo, there are achcharu carts in Galle Face Green and Pettah Market. The carts often have wheels, so the vendor can move from one spot to another.
You have the option to buy one variety or a mix of everything in one box. I always go for pineapple with chili flakes — the simplest, yet my favorite. I’d say achcharu is an acquired taste: its spice and briny punch require some getting used to, so tread lightly.
Manioc Chips
Manioc, also known as cassava, is often served in Sri Lanka for breakfast — simply boiled with a side of coconut sambol. But my absolute favorite way to eat it is in the form of chips mixed with a fair amount of chili powder. Fatty, crunchy, spicy — everything you look for in a snack.
Bonus
Tea (Te)
The one thing you can find in any, even the tiniest street shop in Sri Lanka is tea. Glorious Ceylon black tea. A word of warning: if you ask for “tea” by default you will be served tea with milk and sugar. If you want black tea without any additions, ask for “plain tea”.
These days some coffee shops offer so-called kade te (street shop tea) which is made by mixing strong black tea with condensed milk. It is one of my favorites to order, but it is usually really-really sweet.
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This is by no means a full list of street food in Sri Lanka. I am sure, I have missed something or other, so do let me know in the comments what your favorite street food is!
Want to Learn More About Sri Lanka? I Got You!
Here are some of my other guides on Sri Lanka that will help you to plan your trip:
My Favorite Hotels in Sri Lanka
50 Important Tips for Traveling in Sri Lanka
The Ultimate Guide to Sri Lankan Food: 50 Must Try Dishes
11 Things to Do in Kandy Beyond the Temple of the Tooth Relic
The Absolute Best Things to Do in Sigiriya in Two Days
40 Seriously Cool Things to Do in Colombo
The 18 Best Restaurants in Colombo
Colombo City Guides (a shopping guide, a guide to the best restaurants, Pettah market guide)
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