Authentic Sri Lankan Food in Yamaguchi-cho: Trying the Beautiful Curry at Little Lanka

To uncover local Nishinomiya info, and went exploring in Yamaguchi-cho.

Right after passing through the Bantaki Tunnel and just past the first traffic light, we spotted the Sri Lankan restaurant “Little Lanka” on the opposite side of the road!

The Exterior

Here’s the entrance. They also have terrace seating.

What We Had for Lunch…

The Lanka Plate had such a colorful, “wow!” kind of presentation! There were so many side dishes all around the rice!! Apparently all the leaves are edible too. The vegetables are grown in their own garden, and there were even some leaves I’d never seen before… The red dots decorating the edge of the plate are rose syrup. When I tried each side dish one by one, every single one was full of spices and so good. Mix in the curry, then mix in the side dishes too, and the flavor changes into something perfectly balanced. Wow, delicious!!! And then,

A Lunch. The chicken curry had a mild sweetness with a nice coconut flavor, and the salad dressing was delicious too! The papatan was like naan made in a croissant style, not sweet, and perfect with the curry!(^^)!

The full table photo is below. So much food on the table! Each set comes with curry, and A Lunch includes dessert and tea, while the Lanka Plate comes with tea(^^)

While we were waiting for the food, a richly flavored soup was brought over with the words, “This is a complimentary herbal soup. It’ll make you beautiful!” We enjoyed it and became beautiful(^^)

When dessert arrived, turmeric and rose jelly, cheesecake, and persimmon, the tea master appeared!

“This delicious tea becomes even smoother when it takes in air like this,” he said, giving us a performance(^_^)v The customers behind us were surprised too!

He told us that in Sri Lanka, people drink sweet tea after spicy dishes. It was a delicious tea with gentle spice notes(^^)There’s no sugar added, so you can sweeten it to your own taste.

Sri Lankan tea, known as “Ceylon tea,” is loved all around the world.

By the way, Sri Lanka is here↓

Here’s the lunch menu↓↓

At night, they apparently have a different menu with à la carte dishes and sets.

After Visiting Little Lanka…

We arrived right after opening, but it was already full, which surprised us! A staff member from Sri Lanka kindly helped us in polite Japanese, and we came back to the restaurant an hour later.

The person who welcomed us with a lovely smile and gentle way of speaking was the owner, Shanta-san(#^.^#)

He said it has been six years since opening the restaurant, and it will soon be ten years since he came to Japan. All the staff were so polite, with warm smiles, and the food was delicious. We were completely satisfied! even said they wanted to work here. ← What’s Nishi2 supposed to do now?(ーー;)

There was also someone asking, “What time does the next bus come?” Imagine wanting to eat here so much that you’d even come by bus!

Sri Lankan food may not be very familiar to many people, but these are flavors you definitely can’t recreate at home! Please give it a try at least once!(^^)!

Restaurant Information