Restaurants

The peculiar name and the decor of mirrors and mismatched ‘car boot sale’ art do it few favours, but ignore such idiosyncrasies and discover why Apollo Banana Leaf is so popular with local Tamil families. The kitchen produces excellent renditions of classic Sri Lankan dishes, with the spicing just the way the locals like it. The mutton string-hopper fry is almost biriani-like, coloured the dark teak brown of roasted spices, with the vermicelli noodles (string hoppers) lightly chopped and not at all claggy; the mutton chunks were tender, the spice rush balanced. Food marked as hot really does scorch. Even a dish tagged with a single chilli symbol (such as a squid curry, the cut squares of squid immersed in a runny orange sauce) had us reaching for a quenching lassi. Lemon rice was slightly oily, but tasted fine and was beautifully garnished with fried curry leaves, mustard seeds and crimson-coloured chillies: amazing value at £2.25. In the past we’ve also enjoyed crab curry, and devilled mutton, but the more usual masala dosais and idlis pass muster too. With starters such as fish cutlets starting from 60p and few main courses costing more than £4, it’s well worth putting up with the canned music and Sahara prints.

Time Out Eating & Drinking Guide 2008