Shandika, a new Sri Lankan restaurant in Paris

Curious foodies unite! If you’re a culinary globe-trotter looking for novelties, if you want to discover the cuisine of each country or if you’re simply a gourmet always looking for good addresses, you should go to the Montorgueil neighborhood where a restaurant – that looks like a canteen from elsewhere – has just opened. By coming in, you’re ready to discover a cuisine still unknown in Paris, the Sri Lankan cuisine. Its name? Shandika.

At first, they were caterers. By the way, they still are. But form now on, it’s also a restaurant at full heart of Paris. Willing to give you a foretaste of what Sri Lanka has best, Shandika offers homemade dishes to be enjoyed on the spot or on the go. On the menu, we discover a street food cuisine typical of the country.

As starters, we can enjoy the delicious samboussas which dough is homemade, crispy and soft at the same time and fried with breadcrumbs. For the stuffing, the choice is yours: beef and green pea, tuna, spinach and cheese, or 100% cheese, these fritters whet your appetite and we impatiently wait for the main course.

And it’s about time since here, we can taste one of the most emblematic dishes of the Sri Lankan cuisine: the chicken Kothy Idiyappam. It’s made of very fine rice flour noodles that are homemade – it’s not like it’s everyday we can find such a gem – and steamed. The whole is served with vegetables and chicken curry. Very well balanced when it comes to spices, this dish perfectly goes for the most sensitive mouths. For this dish, Shandika won a prize from the Académie Nationale de Cuisine [National Cuisine Academy] and we taste it, we totally get why.

• To be read
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If you want to keep things interesting, you should go for the Chicken Devilled that will manage to win your taste buds’ favors. Spicier, this dish is sweet and savory that perfectly pairs with the scented basmati rice that is served with. A generous dish full of flavors that is more than welcome since temperatures are dropping.

And to end this tasting on a sweet note, we go for the dessert of the day, for example, it can be an exotic fruits salad with apple, jackfruit and mango coulis.

But careful, Shandika is a business to follow very closely since this eatery is planning to offer an exotic brunch with Sri Lankan hints. To be continued…

Please note that it's been over 4 years since our last visit, so the place and experience may have changed.