How are your tastebuds today? Today I’m going back a couple of years to my time in Galle, Sri Lanka. Galle is a brilliant destination to visit, and if you’re looking for a country in South Asia to dip your toes into, well, you can’t go past Sri Lanka.
In Colombo we were lucky enough to eat out with the family we were staying with, and try egg hoppers, which are kind of hard to describe, but they are like a large flat pancake turning into a funnel with an egg. You can get plain hoppers and other kinds too, and you can eat them with your choice of curry, and you can dip them or eat them independently as you choose.
Not I have a confession, I have absolutely no tolerance to spicy foods whatsoever. Yes, I do travel to a lot of places where the food is very spicy, but nevertheless I spend my time looking desperately for places that will do things that aren’t spicy. In India in 2018 I was lucky enough to fnd a bunch of places that were able to do some of my favourite Indian dishes without the VOOM! If you like. Dhal, Tandoori Chicken for example are favourites of mind, relatively simple, and I was amazed to find that in India I could find places that were able to do them without the heat.
In Sri Lanka it seemed a little more difficult, and in Galle, where we ate out most meals bar breakfast, well, we ended up going to places that had a mix of Sri Lankan and Western food, and in fact Middle Eastern food too. What I will say for Galle is that it has a great range of options when it comes to restaurants, the fort area really is set up for tourism and the eating there is pretty good. We had a number of meals which we were pretty pleased with over all.
Of course, as it’s a busy tourist precinct the prices are somewhat elevated. If you leave the fort area and head into the township of Galle you will find that prices are a lot cheaper, and the food a lot more traditional and Sri Lankan.
Anyways, a quick look at the different places we ate at and what I thought of them in the stunning and certainly special Galle!
Pedlar’s Inn Café and Restaurant
And so probably my favourite spot in Galle. I particularly liked sitting out the front, admittedly on a smallish table, and eating/spending time there as people walked past. But inside there were a number of rooms and it turned out to be a really interesting building too.
I’d been travelling for three plus weeks at this point and this was my first steak of the entire trip. I’d been mostly in India and you’ll understand, beef is not something you really eat when there, although it is not 100% impossible to find it. So I really enjoyed that! It was very popular with foreigners – and most of the places in the fort area are. That’s because location and price seems to count the locals out. One thing I noted in my diary was that this place included all extra charges in the price, whereas a lot of places in Galle added it on at the end. Service was a bit hit and miss but I think this is pretty standard in Galle!
Spoon’s
I read online that this place is closed until April 2021. It seems to get really good reviews. We ate here once and had chicken kebabs. The food has a Middle Eastern Flavour to it. Has a pretty good, large menu, with curries and sauces as well. We liked our kebabs although found them a little salty. That’s what my diary says at least! It also mentions that the wait staff were ‘almost disinterested’ in their customers and started packing up for close before 830pm. In fact they were turning people away prior to 830pm! Each to their own.
Chambers
I don’t remember this place particularly, but we ate here one night and despite the small portions were really impressed with the food. It’s a Lebanese/Moroccan place with a lot of flavour and worth trying for sure. Meat and vegies on a bed of light rice. Super!
The Fort Printers
This was our last night treat, where we ate well and it certainly was the most expensive and therefore upmarket of the meals we had in Galle. We had mutton samosas (nice but spicy) and a couple of glasses of red to start. The building has like a courtyard and water feature. The walls are painted white, it’s a really classy joint! It’s certainly modern and very well done but in an historic Galle building which used to be a printers.
I struggled with my Moroccan Lamb Tangine, only because it was spicier than I would have liked, my wife really enjoyed her fish curry. I was excited to see an Australian favourite on the menu for dessert – Pavlova with Vanilla Ice Cream, but found something not quite right about the pav. Although I did like the ice cream.
The Fort Printers is also a high-end hotel, and feels like it. It was expensive comparatively, but I think in the end I found Pedlar’s to be my favourite place to eat out in Galle.
Other Posts on Galle –
Have you eaten in Galle before and were there any gems you found there? Please do let me know! And May the Journey Never End!
Andy's World Journeys 
About the places that are closing, I have often wondered if it was worth making recommendations as several months/years later the scene has changed while the monuments/landscapes are still there, for the most part. And I can relate to the spicy cuisine, I have the same issue, but I have to say that many restaurants and waiters make the effort to adapt.
I’m not fun of spicy food, anyway I would love to visit Sri Lanka one day, and try some other less spicy dishes.
We loved the food in Sri Lanka, but then we do love Spice. We found a great little place in the Fort area that had very good Sri Lankan food at a reasonable price. I have no idea what the name is. We found Galle in general was quite expensive for Sri Lanka, but still loved it.
I LOVE spicy food, even if my tolerance isn’t too great (i.e. I can handle perhaps medium-hot, but Sri Lanka’s might be too intense for me). The food all sounds really good, though, and I’d love to challenge myself to handling their spice levels, if I ever go to Sri Lanka some day. Hopefully one day!
Wow, not liking spicy food would be a bit of a struggle in Sri Lanka. We really enjoyed Galle and had some good meals. My favourite meal in Sri Lanka was at a homestay in Sigiriya where our host made the most amazing curry dinner (we love spicy, though I imagine he toned it down for us).