Sambol

Sambol brings the spirit of Sri Lankan home cooking to Bedminster, the first permanent outpost from the family team behind Ceylon and Beyond. Now open on East Street, it leans into the idea of a shared feast, a table scattered with vibrant dishes that speak of spice cupboards, coastal breezes and family recipes passed across generations.

The menu invites grazing and generosity. Begin with the hum of kadala and the crunch of cashew fry before moving to podi plates: grilled black pepper prawns glossed with chilli seaweed butter, Sri Lankan mutton rolls ready for a dunk in devil’s sauce, and vegetable-led comforts like tempered potato with coriander yogurt and toddy-poached cassava with coconut sambol. From the clay pot come deeper, slower flavours — Negombo prawn curry rich with creamed coconut and a free-range chicken curry lifted by pickled onion — while butter paratha and kothu roti are made for mopping and mixing.

A sambol station adds citrus and fire with coconut ‘pol’ sambol and aubergine pickle, and there is sweetness in reserve: a kithul pol pancake with ice cream or caramel pineapple carpaccio. Drinks carry the island mood, from Passion of the Island and Cumin Kiss to iced teas bright with passionfruit, pomegranate, tamarind and lime, plus Helles Lager, Sky Above, and fine Ceylon brews.

Gather your favourites, settle in, and let the sambols do the talking. This is Sri Lankan warmth, served by the plateful.