Restaurants

Why didn't someone do this before? Sri Lanka has great food; Europe has great beer. Yet most Sri Lankan restaurants serve insipid lagers, when flavourful ales can be a much better match. So Hop & Spice have created a restaurant that's almost as much a bar, with bottles of delectable Innis & Gunn ale, Young's Double Chocolate Stout, Paulaner Wheat Beer and Leffe Blonde among others to help the sambals and rottis slip down.

Aware that their core customers are not likely to be Sri Lankan - this is Balham, not Colliers Wood - the menu has been simplified into a pick 'n' mix thali format, so you can choose three to five dishes you like the sound of as a main course. You might not find scallops in London's many budget Sri Lankan caffs, but you do here.

We stuck to more traditional dishes, and although they were 'Sri Lanka Lite' in style, we weren't disappointed. Seafood kottu rotti can be a searingly hot dish - especially of you order it at the nearby Jaffna House in Tooting, where it is so hot it's barely palatable. Hop's version is tame, but better for it: a bowl of rotti bread that's been cut into shreds, then stir-fried with mixed seafood, egg, chilli and curry leaves - a fast food that's unique to Sri Lanka. Coconut lamb was also mild and rich, cooked in coconut milk. Not all the dishes are Sri Lankan: there are also pan-Indian favourites such as tarka dahl and masala potato.

The look is a kind of knowing retro-kitsch, and an overhead projector screens Tamil movie clips from the 1970s on one wall. The prerequisite to be the 'Hero No. 1' back then was a big tash, a hearty paunch, and beauteous leading lady who has trouble staying out of fountains. Those were the days.

Time Out London Issue 1906: February 28-March 6 2007