Colombo Kitchen Brings Live Sri Lankan Hoppers and Kottu to London
A recent London food feature has placed Colombo Kitchen’s Putney restaurant in the spotlight, showcasing live-made hoppers, freshly chopped kottu roti, Sri Lankan curries, sambols and an Oreo hopper dessert at the award-winning family-led restaurant.
An award-winning Sri Lankan restaurant in South West London is attracting fresh attention for turning two of the island’s most recognisable foods into a live dining experience.
London food creator Arian, who publishes as @londonfoodblogs, recently featured Colombo Kitchen’s Putney restaurant and highlighted its open preparation of hoppers and kottu roti, together with a wide selection of curries, sambols, seafood and dishes intended for sharing.
The feature asked whether Colombo Kitchen could be “one of the best restaurants for Sri Lankan food in London” and praised the food, atmosphere and service. That description is the reviewer’s opinion, rather than an independently measurable ranking. The restaurant’s award-winning status, however, is supported by published records.
The official results of the Nation’s Curry Awards 2026 list Colombo Kitchen (Worcester Park) as Sri Lankan Restaurant of the Year. Colombo Kitchen operates two restaurants: its original Worcester Park location and the Putney branch featured in the recent video.
A Sri Lankan dining experience in Putney
Colombo Kitchen Putney is located at 240 Upper Richmond Road, London SW15 6TG. The restaurant’s official website describes the venue as a multi-level space with a balcony and lower-floor patio, while independent coverage confirms an open kitchen where diners can watch hoppers and kottu roti being made.
The visual experience is part of the appeal. A hopper begins as a fermented rice-flour and coconut-milk batter, cooked in a small curved pan to create a bowl-shaped pancake with thin, crisp edges and a softer centre. Kottu roti is prepared on a hot griddle, where chopped flatbread is mixed with vegetables, spices and a selected curry as the cooks work rhythmically across the cooking surface.
These are familiar flavours and sounds for many Sri Lankans. In London, the open-kitchen format also introduces diners from other backgrounds to the techniques, textures and energy of Sri Lankan street-food culture.
Hoppers, kottu and a broad Sri Lankan menu
The restaurant’s published menus support the main food claims in the social-media feature.
Hopper choices include plain, egg, milk, jaggery and sweet variations. The kottu selection includes chicken, mutton, vegetarian paneer-and-aubergine and seafood options. The wider offering extends to Sri Lankan curries, short eats, rice dishes, biryani, sambols, vegetable preparations and seafood.
Among the listed dishes are Negombo king prawn curry, Jaffna crab curry, Ceylon chicken curry, mutton curry, jackfruit curry, aubergine moju, coconut sambol and weekend lamprais.
The much-discussed Oreo hopper is also genuine. Colombo Kitchen has promoted the dessert through its own social channels, and it appears in its delivery menu as a hopper served with Oreo and chocolate sauce. Availability and presentation may differ between dine-in and delivery service.
The recent @londonfoodblogs feature particularly recommended the hoppers and kottu and described the sound and aroma of the live preparation as part of the experience. It also praised team members identified as Dinu and Kesh. Those service comments are personal observations from the reviewer and are appropriately reported as such.
Award recognition confirmed
The phrase “award-winning” is not merely promotional wording in this case.
The organiser’s published winners list for the fourth Nation’s Curry Awards records Colombo Kitchen (Worcester Park) as Sri Lankan Restaurant of the Year. The awards ceremony took place at Cedar Court Hotel in Huddersfield on 9 February 2026.
Industry reporting following the event described Colombo Kitchen as a restaurant group with locations in Worcester Park and Putney and attributed the achievement to its Sri Lankan cooking, consistency, service and contribution to the UK’s South Asian dining sector.
Colombo Kitchen’s official website also identifies earlier honours connected with the restaurant and its chef, including the Asian Restaurant Awards’ National Chef of the Year and Surrey Chef of the Year titles in 2024, a Sri Lankan Restaurant of the Year title in 2023, and a two-star Great Taste Award in 2024 for its lamprais.
For accuracy, these honours should not be compressed into a vague claim that the Putney branch alone won every award. Some titles recognise founder and chef Sylvia Perera, some recognise a particular product, and the official 2026 Nation’s Curry Awards list names the Worcester Park location. Together, however, they establish a documented history of recognition around the Colombo Kitchen brand and its food.
The story of founder and chef Sylvia Perera
Colombo Kitchen’s development is closely linked to Sylvia Perera, its founder and executive chef.
In an April 2026 interview published by Life Online, Perera described growing up around the food traditions of Negombo, later studying cookery in Australia and putting her own restaurant ambitions on hold while raising four children. She eventually opened Colombo Kitchen in Worcester Park in 2019, followed by the Putney restaurant in 2024.
The restaurant’s menu is presented as a collection of family recipes and regional influences, prepared using Sri Lankan ingredients and techniques while being served in a modern London setting.
Perera told Life Online that the restaurant roasts spices, prepares coconut and follows traditional cooking methods rather than relying on shortcuts. The publication also reported that her husband sources fresh seafood and that other family members contribute to operations, social media and events.
This family-led foundation helps explain why the restaurant’s public identity extends beyond individual dishes. Colombo Kitchen presents its food as a connection to Sri Lankan memory, hospitality and everyday culinary practice.
From street food to culinary theatre
Hoppers and kottu are not new creations, and their cultural value should not be measured only by how visually entertaining they appear on social media.
Hoppers are part of Sri Lanka’s food heritage, enjoyed in homes, small eateries, street-side establishments and restaurants. Kottu roti is one of the country’s most recognisable street foods, valued for its flexibility, bold seasoning and unmistakable preparation rhythm.
Colombo Kitchen’s contribution is to make that preparation visible in a London restaurant environment. Diners see the curved hopper pans, hear the metal blades working across the kottu griddle and experience the aroma before the food reaches the table.
That combination works particularly well for short-form video, where food is communicated through movement and sound as much as through appearance. The recent @londonfoodblogs feature is therefore more than a restaurant recommendation: it is another example of Sri Lankan culinary culture becoming accessible to an international audience through digital storytelling.
A growing place for Sri Lankan cuisine in London
London’s dining culture is shaped by communities from around the world, but Sri Lankan cuisine has not always received the same mainstream visibility as some other South Asian food traditions.
Restaurants such as Colombo Kitchen can help broaden that understanding by showing that Sri Lankan food is not a single style of curry. The cuisine includes coconut-rich dishes, roasted spice blends, sharp sambols, seafood traditions, vegetable preparations, fermented batters, rice dishes, short eats and recipes shaped by the island’s regions and communities.
The Putney menu reflects some of that range. Its references stretch from Negombo seafood and Jaffna crab curry to hoppers, kottu, lamprais, jackfruit and aubergine moju.
No individual restaurant can represent the full diversity of Sri Lankan food. Nevertheless, a venue that respects traditional techniques while communicating them confidently to new diners can make a meaningful contribution to how the cuisine is understood abroad.
Visiting Colombo Kitchen Putney
The official information available on 31 August 2026 lists the following details:
- Address: 240 Upper Richmond Road, London SW15 6TG
- Telephone: 0203 337 2249
- Website: https://www.colombokitchen.co.uk/
- Email: hello@colombokitchen.co.uk
- Usual opening hours: Wednesday and Thursday, 5 pm–10 pm; Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 12 pm–10 pm
- Nearby public transport: Putney railway station and Putney underground services
Menus, opening times, dishes and prices can change. Diners should check the restaurant’s official website or contact the Putney team before visiting, particularly when travelling for a specific item such as lamprais or the Oreo hopper.
The SLD Perspective
Colombo Kitchen’s latest social-media attention is a proud example of Sri Lankan food culture connecting with a wider international audience.
The appeal is easy to understand. Hoppers bring texture and delicate technique; kottu delivers flavour, rhythm and energy; curries and sambols show the depth of Sri Lankan spice traditions; and the open kitchen turns preparation into a direct cultural encounter.
The restaurant’s story also carries a wider message. Sylvia Perera opened her first Colombo Kitchen later in life, built the business around family recipes and expanded from Worcester Park to Putney. The awards and enthusiastic diner responses that followed show how authentic Sri Lankan enterprise can earn recognition in one of the world’s most competitive dining cities.
Accurate reporting matters. “One of the best in London” remains the view of a food reviewer, and SLD cannot independently confirm the claim that every employee is Sri Lankan. What can be confirmed is already worth celebrating: Colombo Kitchen is an award-winning, Sri Lankan-led restaurant brand with two London-area locations, a documented live hopper-and-kottu experience and a menu that proudly places Sri Lankan dishes before an international public.
Sri Lanka Directory congratulates Sylvia Perera and the Colombo Kitchen team on their continued recognition and their contribution to sharing Sri Lankan culinary heritage in the United Kingdom.
