Find out what food and grocery prices are in Sri Lanka. What is worth trying? What to be afraid of? How to save money? Read our tips for tasty and inexpensive food.
Exchange rate: 100 Sri Lankan rupees (LKR) ≈ 41 RUB.
Breakfast
Sri Lanka is a country of large, hearty and delicious breakfasts. Nowhere else have we been so fed in the morning! They indulge in everything: toasts with butter and jam, and freshly squeezed juice, and fruits, and pancakes with coconut filling, and spicy pies, and omelets, and sandwiches with potatoes (they know how to surprise!), And tea / coffee, of course.
Usually everything is delicious, only in one guest house everything went wrong with the hostess - every morning the entire corridor was buried in smoke, like the Caucasus Mountains in fog. Eggs were burning, sausages were burning, like sinners in hell, in the already terrible palm oil. Fortunately, other Sri Lankan hostesses are much more successful in their culinary skills, and breakfast is always our little holiday.
Gastronomic hole
The main disappointment from Sri Lanka for us and for many other travelers is food. Alas, this is a big problem here. But trouble does not come alone - get five at once!
1. Nowhere to eat
The first time I encountered such a problem was in an Asian country! Vietnamese, Thais, Chinese and other Asians are obsessed with delicious food. Yes, they just have a cult of food! In SEA, cafes, eateries, makashniki at every step. In Ceylon, everything is different: there is no tradition of street food, the locals eat mostly at home. Therefore, it is almost impossible to find a diner for locals, only restaurants for tourists remain.
2. Eating is very expensive
As I said, there are no local eateries, only tourist ones, and food in them is expensive. Sri Lankans harshly raise the price tag for tourists (they generally brutally raise prices for foreigners - especially for attractions). At the moment, Sri Lanka is the most expensive catering country in Asia, where I have been.
A modest meal for two for less than $ 10 is almost impossible. And for this money, you will get simple dishes: rice / noodles and juice. Don't even wait for meat, seafood or at least chicken! This luxury will cost even more. 10 bucks per meal is a lot for a poor Asian country. In Vietnam, for example, our budget for food for the whole day was even less than $ 10, while we got more meat and fresh juices there.
3. They don't know how to cook here at all
I have not met such culinary mediocrity anywhere else! A trip to a new cafe is always a lottery, in which luck is usually not on your side. Often we were cooked so badly that we had to leave the grubs on the plate almost untouched. This is very upsetting: you come hungry, tired, and here such a setup! Moreover, let me remind you that food in Sri Lanka is expensive. As a result, the hunger was not satisfied, and the money was thrown away.
The main problem of local cooking is the disgusting oil (palm oil?) With which they fry. The stench in the whole area is utterly unbelievable, and the food itself gets a nasty taste.
With juices, the situation is better, but also not always lucky: once they ordered orange juice - they brought a terrible badag, where the water is at least 95%, and there is only a hint of an orange.
That's not all! The food in the shops is also of poor quality. The worst is sausages. Do not even try to buy them. We didn’t take it ourselves, but the owner of one of the guesthouses “spoiled” us with them every morning - a terrible thing, there is definitely no meat, and what is there is even scary to imagine. Soft drinks are also all nasty, and juices in packages are very expensive (from $ 2 per liter) and they are very scolded in the reviews - we did not try. So you only have to drink water.
For the sake of fairness, I note that sometimes you can find a cafe where the food is very tasty. As soon as you have found such a place, hold on to it tightly - do not look for new ones, do not take risks! For example, at our guesthouse in Ella, the hostess cooked fantastic rice and curry. Breakfasts in guest houses are almost always tasty and satisfying.
4. They feed the same
When God was distributing delicious and original national dishes to the peoples, Sri Lanka, apparently, went out to smoke. All over the country, for all the thousands of cafes and restaurants in Ceylon, there are only five dishes: rice and curry, fried rice, fried noodles, kottu (chopped flatbread with vegetables) and roti (flatbread). Moreover, all these dishes are not even Sri Lankan, but borrowed from India and other Asian countries. This is both funny and sad: day after day you travel around the cities of the island, you enter a new cafe and every time you are given a menu that you already know by heart, as if they have one for the whole country.
5. And the final blow!
A stab to the heart! Sri Lankan coffee is a pain and a nightmare for the lover of this divine drink.
The problem with local coffee is very simple - Sri Lankans are greedy and brew very little of it. I’m silent that real coffee should only be of the freshest grind, of the correct grades or mixture, competently brewed in good water - I’m ready to forget about all my strict requirements, if only it was poured three or four times more per serving. But, alas, every time they bring me not coffee, but light brown water, only slightly flavored with coffee dust, as rare as snow in Ceylon (yes - very rare, but it happens). A terrible torture for a person who is ready to declare coffee the cause of causes, the second incarnation of Christ, the meaning of life, heaven on earth and utopia turned into life!
Find out: What to bring from Sri Lanka as a gift to friends and family.
Prices for food in a cafe
Sri Lankans prefer to eat at home, so almost all cafes are tourist ones. Prices for foreigners are overpriced, and the service falls far short.
We have average score in a cafe for lunch and dinner - 1500-2000 rupees. This is 2 dishes, 2 juices or lassi and a service fee / tip.
Breakfast cost Rs 400-600 per person, but they are usually included in the hotel price.
Here minimum food prices in cafes and restaurants in Sri Lanka in 2021:
- Vegetarian curry rice - from 350 rupees.
- Fish / meat curry rice - from 450 rupees.
- Biryani - 600-800 rupees.
- Cottu - 350-650 rupees. (depends on the filling)
- Roti - 100-550 rupees (depending on the filling).
- Fried rice with egg and meat - from 300 rupees.
- Fried noodles with egg, vegetables or meat - from 300 rupees.
- Watalappam - from 200 rupees.
- Kurd with honey - from 300 rupees.
- Lassi - from 250 rupees.
- Juices - 200-400 rupees.
- Milkshakes - 250-350 rupees.
- Faluda - from 300 rupees.
- Soups - 250-350 rupees.
About the difference in prices. Once in the business center of Negombo, we found a place for locals - food prices there were 2-3 times lower than in tourist cafes and restaurants. But it is very difficult to find such establishments for the locals, the catering system in Sri Lanka is completely undeveloped.
Food prices in shops in Sri Lanka
The assortment is rather scarce. Product prices are fixed and written on the product. Some small grocery stores charge a premium for cold drinks. A popular chain supermarket is Food City.
Here are the prices for grocery stores in Sri Lanka in 2021:
- Water 0.5 l - 35 rupees.
- Water 1.5 l - 70 rupees.
- Aloe vera drink 0.5 l - 150 rupees.
- Yogurt 100 g - from 30 rupees.
- Coconut cookies 100 g - from 50 rupees.
- Chocolate bar - 130-300 rupees.
- Giant shrimps per kg - 1280 rupees.
- Tuna steak per kg - 750 rupees.
The island did not see such a variety of exotic fruits as in the countries of Southeast Asia. Mainly in the markets and street shops they sell limes, bananas, papayas, coconuts, apples, oranges, wood apples, mangoes, mini watermelons, jackfruit, pineapples. Long kong / langsat, durian, sour cream, guava, mangosteen, star apple are rarely seen.
