Tasty Sri Lanken Cuisine

This is my first Sri Lankan post for Ibaraki Eats! I am excited and terrified. Excited, because I get to write about this delicious and spicy cuisine. Terrified, because I know little about Sri Lankan cuisine. Where I grew up in Miami, Florida, in America, I never saw a Sri Lankan place. Not near my home or the famous area, South Beach. I am sure there is a Sri Lankan restaurant now, but back then, there wasn't. So the first time I tried Sri Lankan food was in Japan. The first time I had it was at the Aoyama Farmers Market in Tokyo. It was a food truck that wrapped their Biriyani (Sri Lankan spicy rice) in a huge banana leaf. It was a tasty dish and I wanted to have it again. Ever since then, I have had Sri Lankan food a few times around Japan. Usually an Indian and Sri Lankan mixed restaurant. The first time I went to a pure Sri Lankan restaurant in Ibaraki was a few weeks ago at a place called Heladiwa.

Heladiwa

Heladiwa is a Sri Lankan restaurant located in Tsukuba City. There are two restaurants. One is the original restaurant in the Amakubo area of Tsukuba. The other is located in Hojo Town, right off Route 125. You can also find Heladiwa at a bunch of different events like the Tsukuba International Festival, the Tsukuba Summer Festival, and Sri Lankan festivals in Tokyo.
The restaurant the Ibaraki Eats Duo visited was the Hojo Heladiwa. We were visiting a limited-time art event in Hojo, and after we checked out all the amazing pieces, we decided to eat around Hojo. We drove out of the main town area and headed to Route 125 and found Heladiwa. It is hard to miss. It is a building painted blue and yellow. We parked our car in the parking lot and headed in.

Inside

When we walked inside, the staff led us to a booth, and we sat down and looked around. The TV was playing a continuous Buddhist chant, which then turned into a Sri Lankan concert event. There was a U-shaped table in the middle of the restaurant with a bunch of buffet-style trays. I am guessing this might be a weekend buffet thing or something along those lines. After looking around, we grabbed the menu and looked over what Heladiwa had to offer.

The Menu

The menu is quite extensive. Mostly Sri Lankan cuisine, but there are a few surprises here and there. The main part of the menu has curry sets and biryani. If you go further into the menu, there are different kinds of bread, Sri Lankan side dishes like a Sri Lankan omelet, and a drinks section with drinks like coconut drinks and special Ceylon tea.
Mrs. Ibaraki Eats decided to get a curry set and I want from Biriyani.

Chicken Biryani

I am not sure if you have ever had biryani before, but I can tell you that it is a dry rice full of a bunch of different spices. Mostly spicy spices. Biryani also usually brings a fried egg, maybe some kind of meat, and vegetables. This biriyani brought huge slices of tomatoes, one fried egg, and a huge piece of chicken.
Here is the weird thing about this dish. I am having a really hard time writing about it. The reason is that I love it and yet I don't. Having the actual rice by itself is not my favorite part of the dish. It is not bad, but it is just dry rice with a little bit of flavor. I am also not a huge fan of huge slices of tomatoes. I was about to give up on this dish, but then I tried the chicken with the rice, and it became a magical biryani with a bunch of amazing different flavors. The chicken was excellent and went extremely well with the rice. I couldn't stop eating this amazing biryani. The fried egg was also a nice addition to this dish. My wife got to try some of it, and she had the same reaction I did. The rice by itself was Ok, but the chicken and rice were spectacular. Nice biryani, Heladiwa. I can't wait to try your shrimp biryani.

Manzoku Plate

The manzoku plate brought a lot of amazing-looking food. My wife chose the chicken curry option. The plate brought white rice, a lot of different types of vegetables, and roti. Roti is an Indian and South Asian crispy naan looking bread. My wife let me try some of the chicken with white rice and it was fantastic. It was a bit spicy, which made me cough a few times, but otherwise, it was an amazing chicken curry. The vegetables were also fantastic. They were fresh and marinated in delicious spicies. It was quite a delicious plate. My wife loved her manzoku plate. She had a few little coughing fits from the spicy level of the chicken and vegetables, other than that, she gave it her thumbs up.

Coconut Roti

We also decided to order a side dish. It was called the coconut roti, and this roti was incredible. I know this is more Indian cuisine, but you have to try this roti. It isn't as crispy as regular roti. It has more of a chewy breadlike texture in the middle. The outside part was the crispy part, and it went so well with my wife's chicken curry. The coconut flavor enhanced everything about this roti, and I think that is what made it so addictive. I could have this coconut roti every day. This roti should be tried by everyone!

After we finished our meal, we thanked the staff and headed home, remembering our fun and delicious Sri Lankan experience. Heladiwa, thank you for an awesome meal. I hope we can come back again soon and I hope we can try the buffet-style meal you have at your restaurant.

So if you are around the Amakubo area or Hojo area and are craving some Sri Lankan cuisine, why not give Heladiwa a chance? Who knows? You might see us there. My wife will be trying some new curry while I will be eating as much coconut roti as I can handle.
By the way, as I said before, I am not very familiar with Sri Lankan cuisine. So if you see any mistakes in my writing, please let me know and I will change it as soon as I can.
Enjoy!

For more information on Heladiwa, check out their Twitter (X) page:
https://x.com/Heladiwa2hojo?t=J9v-AZEQWbQrYgu0pPV4Xg&s=09