Sekara, Sri Lankan in Victoria

Sekara
3 Lower Grosvenor Place
SW1W 0EJ

Date of Last Visit: Friday, July 23, 2010

The Victims: Dil, Holly, David, Hang

The Damage: About 20 quid each

The Background: The week before I left London, my team and I went out to lunch. For ages, we’d been talking about going out for Sri Lankan food because Dilshad is Sri Lankan and none of us know anything about the cuisine. We left it up to Dil to pick the place, and so it was that we saw ourselves heading over to Victoria for lunch one Friday afternoon.

Sekara is old school. Family run. Old paintings. Old carpet. Old bathroom. I like these places more and more because there’s an honesty to them that’s refreshingly lovely in this age of “We’re going to add 12.5% service to your bill even though the service is crap and the staff never see the money.” Check out the gilt chairs. It’s like we’re at a wedding.

As none of us know anything about Sri Lankan food, we put Dil in charge. He orders all this…

You know how when I write dim sum posts, I have no idea what I’m talking about. Let me put it this way…with Sri Lankan food, multiply that by 10. 100 maybe even. I really have no clue. Thank God for Dil.

Let me start with what I liked. I really liked the vegetable kotthu roti and the mutton kotthu roti. Dil called it “drunk food,” and I can totally understand why. Even though there was no meat in the vegetable version, it was dense and filling and I could easily understand its power as a stomach-liner. It sort of reminded me of a more fun pad se eu. These dishes arrived last, which was  really a shame. I think if they had arrived first, I would have had a much more positive view of the entire experience.

After the kotthu roti, I probably liked the vegetable patties the best. Like an empanada, but not. Again, hearty and stomach-filling.

Less successful were the mutton rolls, which seemed like they’d come straight from the deep freezer. And possibly even straight from a deep freezer that resided on a boat and had transported the mutton rolls from Sri Lanka to London during a monsoon. Really, just not very good. (And lest you think this is because of my unfamiliarity with the cuisine, Dil said they were pretty bad too.) Also bad? The squid. It was like eating rubber bands coated in tomato sauce. No thank you, really.

The Verdict: I didn’t DISLIKE Sekara. I liked trying something new, and doing it with someone who grew up with the food. I’m just not dying to go back. I would like to try some more kotthu roti though, and in general, I’d like to try another Sri Lankan restaurant just to compare the quality of the food. Shame–I’ve already researched Sri Lankan restaurants in Chicago and there aren’t any.