A couple of weeks ago I was fortunate to be invited to review The Coconut Tree Reading* a new restaurant specialising in Sri Lankan street food.
Sri Lankan street food: The menu
As someone that has had Sri Lanka on my travel bucket list for a long time, I was looking forward to exploring The Coconut Tree Reading menu, particularly as its heaven for vegans and vegetarians. Similar to tapas, The Coconut Tree serves up mostly small dishes and the specialty hopper, a bowl shaped coconut milk pancake.
The dishes
Not quite knowing exactly how many dishes to order, our waitress advised selecting five. As a meat-eater, my husband ordered the devil pork and pineapple, and the devil chicken wings. We also ordered the pineapple curry, roast potatoes (Sri-tato), brinjals (lightly fried aubergine), and a portion of rice.
To ensure we got the full Sri Lankan dine in experience, we also tried a plain hopper that arrives with three fillings – coconut sambol, seeni smabol, and lunu miris. The idea is to roll the hopper up as you would a burrito, and eat.
If you’re still a bit stuck as to what to try, there is the option to have The Coconut Tree Reading staff help by selecting five dishes for you, guided by your food preferences.
All of the food is freshly made and arrives to the table as and when each dish is ready.
Sri Lankan street food at The Coconut Tree Reading: summary of visit
As a couple with two small children, we selected to visit The Coconut Tree Reading on a weekday lunchtime while our toddler son was at nursery, so we just had the baby with us. It was a warm day and we were seated at the front of the restaurant next to a large open window; ample room for the three of us (including a pram).
We were warmly greeted and the staff were very friendly. The Coconut Tree Reading wasn’t too busy but there were a mixture of other diners in at the same time. There was another family dining near us with children, but it’s not somewhere I would personally chose to bring very young people unless you could be confident they would enjoy the food.
The menu isn’t too big or intimidating, and I think most people would be able to select a few dishes they would enjoy trying if Sri Lankan street food is new to them.
You can book a table at The Coconut Tree Reading here.
Until next time x
*Press invite. All opinions are honest and my own.
