A long overdue food journal |||

Paradise Soho

Sri Lankan food is having its moment and I am here for it. I’ve wanted to try Paradise Soho for a while since it has a contemporary take on Sri Lankan food. It’s strange to see food like this plated in such a way. I grew up eating mutton curry, stir fried veg, and on those rare occasions dhal (Didn’t enjoy it growing up but now I could easily drink it). Normally all plated as a big beautiful mess, now Sri Lankan restaurants all over London are elevating the cuisine. When it comes to Sri Lankan food though, I have a skeptical view of it, my mum was the best cook I knew so all these spots have to hit a high threshold to impress me!

Thankfully Paradise Soho is delightful, my buddy Kimmy joined me for lunch in Soho and we had a rather frantic lunch (Deadlines people!). We shared a few dishes and they all hit the spot, but I will call out a few as I’m already planning to go back to try the rest of the menu. The spiced grilled prawns in seaweed butter and mango chutney were great, we both had no problems diving in with our hands and sucking all that sweet meat and juices from the prawn head. The southern style Dhal was unusual but in the best kind of way, with its crispy kale bits mixed with saffron and turmeric, it had a great texture. By the end I was just eating it by the spoonful. The final dish to call out is the Dry-Fried minced chicken, this had large fresh green peppercorns that provided real heat to the dish, we mopped up all this food with hand stretched roti, one infused with lamb fat, the other with ghee. What can I say, you can understand why so many South Asians have heart disease, but hey you only live once and if you aren’t eating lamb-fat daily you should be fine.

This is a must try restaurant! In the heart of Soho, you’ve now got another legit Sri Lankan option to go along with Hoppers.

Price per head: £35 and up

Spiced grilled PrawnsSpiced grilled Prawns

Minced ChickenMinced Chicken

DhalDhal

Lamb infused RotiLamb infused Roti

Up next Umu Core by Clare Smyth
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