Thambapanni - Sri Lankan cuisine

 Thambapanni is a recently rebranded and revamped Sri Lankan restaurant which was taken over by a new management. They invited me to try out their food.



We started with one of the famous Sri Lankan juices - the wood apple juice. It is a fruit that is very hard to find in UAE and is found in very few places around the world. It has a bit of musky and spicy flavour to it. You might have to develop a taste for it, but I really liked it as I had had it earlier.



Sri Lankans have a various buns as small bites, and the restaurant has these too. They got us the fish bun, and the chicken bun which were really nice. 



The chicken roll too was quite good.



My favourite perhaps was the seeni sambol. This is a bun filled with spiced caramelized onions. It has a sweet and spicy flavour to it and you should surely check it out.

Seeni Sambol in the background


A street food item that's very popular is the Kottu roti. It is made by chopping Sri Lankan flatbread, and adding spices and vegetables and / or meat. It is a little spicy and I totally devoured it. They served it with a curry and that made it even more delicious.


After that we had the seafood chopsuey. It had a bit of an Asian flavour to it but was different from the ones you'd have usually had.



There's also a Sri Lankan version of Nasi Goreng which they got us next. It was fried rice with a half fried egg, and grilled chicken leg. It was quite nice although I think I like the traditional version better.



Another item that is like an appetiser is the hot butter cuttlefish. It is crispy and spicy. I loved the taste as well as the texture and I surely recommend it.



Last, but not the least, we tried the Sri Lankan egg hoppers. These are crispy towards the edges and soft and fluffy in the middle. You can have them with the spicy sambal sauce or curry.



It was festive season, so they also had some lovely Christmas rolls too.



Overall, I really liked the place. It is not too big, but they have some interesting menu items and the food is fantastic.






Thambapanni Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato


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