hum: ceylonta has the recipe for longevity and great sri lankan food in ottawa
canada’s oldest tamil-owned restaurant continues to serve affordable, spice-infused dishes after 30 years.
5 minute read
at ceylonta, a 30-year-old sri lankan restaurant in centretown, ranjan thana, right, is the owner. on the left is chef sayikrishna dharmakulasingam.
jean levac
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thali dish from ceylonta.
jean levac
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open: monday noon to 9 p.m. wednesday to friday 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., 4 to 9 p.m., saturday, sunday and tuesday 4 to 9 p.m.
prices: sharable dishes up to $25
access: slope for wheelchairs to front door
ceylonta, the long-time purveyor of south indian and especially sri lankan food in ottawa, deserves kudos simply for its longevity and singularity.
opened in 1994, the centretown restaurant on the ground floor of a somerset street west apartment building is entering its fourth decade. i was told this week that it is also the oldest tamil-owned restaurant in canada.
my predecessor anne desbrisay repeatedly raved about ceylonta in her reviews of 1999, 2004, and 2008, lauding its bold, distinctive flavours, affordability, and on-point service. while i haven’t reviewed ceylonta since i began my stint on this beat in 2012, i have enjoyed off-duty meals at its two offshoots: a second ceylonta on carling avenue and kothu rotti, a tiny, buffet-based eatery on dalhousie street. but those two locations have both closed.
roast beef from ceylonta.
jean levac
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this month, i paid my first visit to ceylonta in a long time. why? in the last dozen years, i’ve seen more modest sri lankan and south indian restaurants come and go in ottawa. i wondered: what was the secret to ceylonta’s staying power?
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inside, ceylonta was a narrow, tranquil, extensively decorated space of about 60 seats that set the mood for affordable, flavourful dining. its illustrated menus were a little worn, but otherwise the ambience was pleasant, relaxed, and welcoming.
during my two visits, our server was owner ranjan thana, 60, who founded ceylonta half his life ago after graduating from carleton university. a tamil who fled sri lanka as a refugee in the late 1980s, thana was a fine and even gregarious ambassador for not only his business but also his homeland’s cuisine.
vegetable string hoppers at ceylonta.
peter hum
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we told thana that we wanted to plumb the sri lankan side of ceylonta’s menu over its south indian side. he gave us a run-through of ceylonta’s dishes and cooking that left us feeling like we were in good hands. girded by decades of customer feedback, his recommendations about what to order and how to compose our entire meal were unerring.
sri lankan cooking is renowned for its liberal and expert use of roasted and ground spices, as well as vibrant chili peppers, tamarind, garlic, and ginger. at ceylonta, sidestepping the punchier flavours would essentially be missing out on the fun.
but thana explained that his food, while robustly seasoned, is both more rounded and more saucy because that’s what tamil palates like. meanwhile, sri lanka’s sinhalese majority prefers more pepper and heat in their food. that distinction explains the truly incendiary sri lankan fare that i’ve had elsewhere.
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thana also said that over time, as ceylonta’s customer base expanded from sri lankan expats to canadians of every description, a few menu items have been tweaked or even sweetened. “but most are authentic,” he said.
four appetizers at ceylonta on somerset street west, including left to right, a fish croquette, a vegetarian roll, a spicy lentil patty and a lentil doughnut.
peter hum
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following thana’s suggestion, our first dinner at ceylonta began with a simple side dish of coconut sambol ($7), a savoury condiment of finely grated coconut mixed with chilies and other spices that we ate with fluffy rotti flatbread (two for $6). if there’s a better, or even another, coconut sambol in ottawa, i’ve yet to find it. ceylonta manager tony bajua told us that the coconut is grated every three hours so that it’s optimally fresh.
we’ve also started meals with ceylonta’s deep-fried snacks. rolls that encased their mutton-based or vegetarian contents in thick wrappers (two for $6) and a fish croquette ($6) were substantial starters that took well to their deeply tangy chili sauce. a lentil-and-rice-based doughnut and a spicy lentil patty came with a superior coconut chutney.
from the spicier side of the ledger, we had ceylonta’s roast beef ($23), which was, in fact, a compelling stir-fry of tender strips of beef and sweet caramelized onions that combined complex, mouth-warming flavours reminiscent of curries. spicier still was the devilled shrimp ($25), a stir-fry that took its name from its markedly spicy, tomato-based chili sauce. its shrimp were a touch tough, though. perhaps we would have done better with devilled chicken, beef, or potato.
coconut sambol with roti flatbreads at ceylonta.
peter hum
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postmedia
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for something starchy, we had a plate of string hoppers ($17), which was a tangle of thin rice-flour noodles stir-fried with onions, vegetables and spices. this simple dish was disarmingly good, and more savoury and compelling than expected. equally craveable, and more hefty, was a plate of kothu rotti — specifically mutton kothu rotti ($20), as thana suggested — a pleasing mish-mash of chopped, softened flat bread (rotti) stir-fried with curried mutton, onions, green chillies and spices.
to make up for our meal’s deficit of vegetables, we ordered a thali plate ($23) that ringed small, colourful bowls of curried vegetables — pumpkin, eggplant, green beans, chickpeas, potato and beets — around a central bowl of curried meat, in this case chicken. all of the vegetable dishes won us over, even if the green beans were sweeter than they would have been in sri lanka, thana admitted. the dusky curry, which teemed with boneless chunks of chicken, was absolutely delicious.
this thali platter at ceylonta consists of seven vegetable dishes surrounding a container of chicken curry.
peter hum
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for dessert, we enjoyed bowls of homey vattil appam ($8), a dense, custard-y pudding flavoured with earthy jaggery (can sugar), coconut and cardamom.
while pork does figure in sri lankan cuisine, it’s absent from ceylonta’s menu. the restaurant has been halal-certified since its early days, and one of its chefs is muslim.
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however, the restaurant is licensed, and it serves some imported beers, a few basic wines, and some mixed drinks. one of its cocktails was a surprisingly good mango-tinged mojito ($15). there are other interesting non-alcoholic beverages, including a vibrantly flavoured hibiscus-based drink that topped similar items i’ve had at mexican restaurants. not only are yogurt-based mango lassis served here, but also vegan mango lassis made with coconut milk.
monsoon mojito and non-alcoholic hibiscus drink at ceylonta.
peter hum
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postmedia
thana said he’s been tracking the proliferation in recent years of south asian restaurants in ottawa. using the tallies that uber eats keeps, he says that south asian restaurants have increased from several dozen before the pandemic to more than 160 today. according to the delivery service, there are 171 “indian” eateries or kitchens in ottawa.
but based on my enthusiasm for thana’s food and hospitality, i’d say that what we need is more tamil restaurants. until then, we thankfully have ceylonta.
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