Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Eating & Drinking
Ella's guesthouses are great places to try excellent home-cooked food, perhaps some of the
best eating you'll discover in all of Sri Lanka. All the guesthouses and hotels serve meals;
they ask for around four hours' advance notice. Especially good is the food at
Rawana
Holiday Resort
,
Zion View
,
Waterfall Homestay
and
Ella Flower Garden Resort
- in some
guesthouse restaurants you can even join the chef in the kitchen for a rice- and curry-mak-
ing class. At Rawana Holiday Resort you can look forward to around eight different
dishes, including sweet-and-sour eggplant, spicy potato curry, and Rawana's signature gar-
lic curry, made with whole cloves of the 'stinking rose' (it tastes much better than it
sounds). Just let them know by midafternoon. Any of the places listed here will normally
let interested visitors join them in the kitchen to learn the secrets of their culinary brilli-
ance.
In recent years, the sleepy village has spawned a couple of places that stay open for a
few beers later at night. If you've been walking in the surrounding hills and tea planta-
tions, you've probably earned a cooling end-of-the-day ale.
Curd (made with buffalo milk) and treacle (syrup from the
kitul
palm; sometimes mis-
named 'honey') is a much-touted local speciality.
Curd Shop
INTERNATIONAL
Tiny hole-in-the-wall spot near the bus stand that's good for a cheap breakfast before or
after an early-morning stroll to Little Adam's Peak. It's a classic backpacker-style place
and, as the name suggests, is
the
spot to try curd and honey or
kotthu
(
rotti
chopped up and
mixed with veggies etc). It's also handy for picking up sandwiches if you're going walk-
ing.
Garden View Restaurant
SRI LANKAN
A wooden treehouse-like place with friendly staff, great tasting local meals and cheap
prices. You'll pass it as you walk along the railway tracks between town and Ella Rock.
Little Folly Restaurant
CAFE
