Green Grass Hotel and Restaurant in Jaffna Sri Lanka - Where to Eat In Jaffna

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Jaffna's cuisine embraced the peninsula's limitations and evolved in glorious isolation from the Indian subcontinent and the rest of Sri Lanka. Accordingly, Jaffna food is very different from the rest of Sri Lanka's and, when you visit, you might want to try some.

Good luck with that! Jaffna is still getting used to being open after 4pm so places to eat out are still few and far between.

The only place we found, after two or three hours walking around Jaffna town asking for crabs and kool, was Green Grass Hotel and Restaurant, +94 221 222 4385, off Hospital Rd. It was a place a friend from Jaffna (who now works in Colombo) found for us. It is different from the usual dark, dingy places that dot Jaffna town in that the tables are set in a big garden with a gaudy fountain.

This was the first place where we tasted food that was different from the usual stuff served to us in any kade in Colombo. Their menu is extensive and well priced but unfortunately unspecific.

For example, they have Odiyal Kool but they call it the Green Grass Special Soup (LKR 200). If you want crab curry, you have to order the day before. But, on the standard menu, there's plenty of Jaffna style curries (shrimp, chicken, fish) for around LKR 400 each. Liquor and beer is also available.

For dessert, you can have Jaffna ice cream which is made with saccharine, making it taste different but still pretty good. They have Rio, one of the better brands apparently, and you should definitely order it.

The easiest place to get a decent Jaffna meal is in Colombo or Toronto. Should you really want to eat one in Jaffna, this is probably the nicest place to do so.

PS: Oxymoron Chronicles writes about an excellent Jaffna dining experience at Lux Etoille, an LP listed guest house which seems to have better food than this.

PPS: They also have basic and new rooms from about LKR 2,000 - more with A/C.


Address: Green Grass Hotel and Restaurant, off Hospital Rd.
Phone: +94 221 222 4385
Website: http://www.greengrassjaffna.com

(Click here for more posts about Jaffna Tamil food / cuisine and hotels in Jaffna Sri Lanka)
(Click here for more posts about restaurants/places to eat in Sri Lanka)