**TL;DR: Really good spot for Sri Lankan food if you don’t want to trek all the way to Staten Island. The food is genuinely really spicy, and I love how they didn’t hold back. Cash only though so keep that in mind.**
The only time I’ve tried Sri Lankan food before this was in Japan. When I tried it there, I ate it to go alone in a hostel, and while it was good, I wanted to give the cusine a proper try with some company.
My upstairs neighbor and I wanted to try Sigiri to celebrate one of my accomplishments. It’s in our neighborhood, which is a lot more convinent than going all the way to Staten Island. I wore a spicy fragrance to match the vibe (Amouage Journey Man for the curious), and we came around 7:30 PM on a Sunday night. The place was really packed, but we were lucky enough to find 2 free spots.
Looking through the menu, we ultimately decided on a chicken kotthu roti (first picture), crab fried rice (second picture), king fish curry (second picture), and watalappam (not pictured). The wait took around 45 minutes, which was kind of annoying cause both of us were starving, but the company was good.
We got the chicken kotthu roti first. Originally, we thought the roti itself was going to be a side item with the dish, but I think it’s mixed inside. On its own, the kotthu roti had a nice spicy smokey flavor and the texture was similar to eating something like injera. I think there were eggs mixed in too, but I didn’t taste too much of them. The chicken was perfectly cooked without that gross microwaved or frozen chicken taste that plagues lots of restaurants. The dish came with a really spicy sauce whose flavor is hard to describe. It’s kinda like the mouth feel of a nice fatty broth (something like bun bo hue), and it sort of tastes like chile de arbol.
The crab fried rice and king fish curry came out next in tandem. This is going to sound really dumb, but the crab flavor in the crab fried rice was very noticeable. I’ve had some crab fried rice dishes before where the crab flavor is masked or mixed with a bunch of sauces or veggies, but here, it’s the star of the show. The fish curry was probably my least favorite of the 3 main entrees, but it was still good. The fish was a tad overcooked, but the flavor of the curry itself mixed well with the crab fried rice and the kotthu roti. For what it’s worth, we did order the curry medium spicy, and it ended up being less spicy than the kottu roti. I would say the curry tastes like a typical spicy curry that you can imagine in your head. Really good, but kinda hard to pinpoint anything distinct.
For dessert, we got the watalappam. The description on the menu said “A rich pudding…,” but we misread it as “A **rice** pudding…” Despite not being what we expected, we still liked it! It was a cardamom and cinnamon heavy pudding with the texture of a slightly thicker crème. In hindsight, I’m actually glad this was something different than what we originally wanted because it gave us a nice surprise.
Overall, I think this place is definitely worth checking out! The food is excellent, even though the wait times can be a bit long. It’s BYOB, so that can be a way to make the wait time more bearable lol. Will definitely go back to try more of the menu when I get the chance.
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[**https://sigiriny.com/**](https://sigiriny.com/)
**TL;DR: Really good spot for Sri Lankan food if you don’t want to trek all the way to Staten Island. The food is genuinely really spicy, and I love how they didn’t hold back. Cash only though so keep that in mind.**
The only time I’ve tried Sri Lankan food before this was in Japan. When I tried it there, I ate it to go alone in a hostel, and while it was good, I wanted to give the cusine a proper try with some company.
My upstairs neighbor and I wanted to try Sigiri to celebrate one of my accomplishments. It’s in our neighborhood, which is a lot more convinent than going all the way to Staten Island. I wore a spicy fragrance to match the vibe (Amouage Journey Man for the curious), and we came around 7:30 PM on a Sunday night. The place was really packed, but we were lucky enough to find 2 free spots.
Looking through the menu, we ultimately decided on a chicken kotthu roti (first picture), crab fried rice (second picture), king fish curry (second picture), and watalappam (not pictured). The wait took around 45 minutes, which was kind of annoying cause both of us were starving, but the company was good.
We got the chicken kotthu roti first. Originally, we thought the roti itself was going to be a side item with the dish, but I think it’s mixed inside. On its own, the kotthu roti had a nice spicy smokey flavor and the texture was similar to eating something like injera. I think there were eggs mixed in too, but I didn’t taste too much of them. The chicken was perfectly cooked without that gross microwaved or frozen chicken taste that plagues lots of restaurants. The dish came with a really spicy sauce whose flavor is hard to describe. It’s kinda like the mouth feel of a nice fatty broth (something like bun bo hue), and it sort of tastes like chile de arbol.
The crab fried rice and king fish curry came out next in tandem. This is going to sound really dumb, but the crab flavor in the crab fried rice was very noticeable. I’ve had some crab fried rice dishes before where the crab flavor is masked or mixed with a bunch of sauces or veggies, but here, it’s the star of the show. The fish curry was probably my least favorite of the 3 main entrees, but it was still good. The fish was a tad overcooked, but the flavor of the curry itself mixed well with the crab fried rice and the kotthu roti. For what it’s worth, we did order the curry medium spicy, and it ended up being less spicy than the kottu roti. I would say the curry tastes like a typical spicy curry that you can imagine in your head. Really good, but kinda hard to pinpoint anything distinct.
For dessert, we got the watalappam. The description on the menu said “A rich pudding…,” but we misread it as “A **rice** pudding…” Despite not being what we expected, we still liked it! It was a cardamom and cinnamon heavy pudding with the texture of a slightly thicker crème. In hindsight, I’m actually glad this was something different than what we originally wanted because it gave us a nice surprise.
Overall, I think this place is definitely worth checking out! The food is excellent, even though the wait times can be a bit long. It’s BYOB, so that can be a way to make the wait time more bearable lol. Will definitely go back to try more of the menu when I get the chance.
Love this place
I dream about that kottu roti. Love this place.