Ella by Minoli — Restaurant in Northern Territory

The Summary is - nice venue, efficient table service, but food very over-priced and over-rated

I ordered the Barramundi - as is often the case, it came cold. So I sent it back, the second time it came it was hot, but was sloppy and did not properly flake.

In the green sauce - see video - it looked (and tasted) like an unappetising mush. Nobody came to ask me if it was better than the first, and I left half, but the clearer made no comment on this - this is poor service.

I had asked for boiled rice and had been brought a quite large bowl, which I thought nothing of.

Pappadoms were very oily.

Overall, the food was nothing like any food I have ever tasted at multiple visits to Sri Lanka. It was fairly plain, under-seasoned and it felt almost dumbed-down.

Reap the marketing benefit of using evocative words like 'Sri Lanka', but actually don't really put much authentic flavours in at all.

The special white wine recommendation was very good.

When I left, I was disappointed to note that the restaurant was not interested if I was a satisfied customer or not - nobody asked. And I was presented with a bill for the full amount.

Also, I was charged for 'rice for two', which I politely pointed out was incorrect as I was dining alone. The cashier lady said she'd have to check with the server. I told her not to bother, as if that was the regard in which they held the customer's word over a $3 rice bill difference, which was obvious using common sense, I wasn't going to argue, so paid in full and left.

Like.... really ??... 🙄 A solo (valued?) diner's word on not having asked for a double rice portion could not be accepted ? For the sake of $3?

This restaurant has got caught up in its own froth and hype.

I have seen this before when restaurants go through good times - a sort of gentle arrogance, and lack of interest in 'lifetime customer value'. Milk them fully, as if it will keep on flowing. Hmm..

Well, life and business is rarely like that, especially when you serve sub-standard food, over-charge for it, don't check that matters have been resolved, then rip-off the client at check out.

Seen it so many times - usually at the froth of a restaurant getting a Michelin star, and they think they can ignore the customer.

Lots more much better value places in Darwin for a 1/2 or 1/3 of the price

Very...

Difficult to locate, in the back alley. Decor of the alley, once found, was lovely and the atmospheric journey begins. We were shown to a banquet seating table in a corner away from the main bar area. Lovely setting! Cocktails - excellent with good variety too. The highlight for me was Island Medicine. Food - we ordered 2x 2 types of entree to share amongst 7 of us. The cauliflower was great, tasty with different textures. The squid dish was extremely small with just a few morsels of squid (I would guesstimate not even one squid tail worth). It was very inadequate for a dish priced at about $22. We had all the mains except the barramundi which was unavailable. Plus the eggplant modu. Beef cheek ($48) was amazingly tender and tasty but it was only one beef cheek. The sauce in itself was creamy and rather incipid. It unfortunately didn't do anything to offset the richness of the beef. The chicken curry was lovely but no standout. The jaggery lamb was also good but it was all starting to be very similar at this point. All the dishes had curry leaves but it stood out in none. The sauces all had the same texture. The prawn dish ($42) was good, gravy was a different texture to the other dishes. But alas we only got 5 prawns. Would have been good if the waitresses could have let us know and offered to either top it up to 7 so we all get a prawn each of recommend 2 serves. Eggplant is my absolute favourite vegetable but sadly it was well undercooked and unpleasant to eat. The sauce was good though. The gothamba was rich at $12 a piece. Desserts were great but overall the food was a let down in terms of taste, texture and serve size. Service - our waitress was so lovely but we struggled to wave anyone down as our area off the main area was not always serviced. Serving spoons were not provided at first instance and we had to ask for them for each dish. Will I be back? Probably not. Always willing to pay for good food but I felt here it didn't hit the mark that the ambience and...

My wife and I visited Ella by Minoli, we are Sri Lankan born and familiar with good Sri Lankan food my brother being a chef and my wife having worked in the restaurant industry. My son and his wife based in Darwin heard about Ella and gave us a gift voucher so we could experience the food. The atmosphere and service was excellent, from the gentleman who came out to get us as we could not find the restaurant, to the lady and gentleman who served us. We chose the Chefs favorites selection at $110.00 PP. The dishes that stand out are the Curry leaf Snapper in a coconut sauce, the Spiced Lamb ribs and the Spiced Potato which made up the entree. These were delicious. After that in the mains there was roasted Pineapple in a curry sauce, a quarter of Charred Cabbage in a Garlic and Cashew sauce which were both delicious, I liked the Charred Cabbage a lot. The Black Pork was not to our taste as we are used to a very hot curry with very strong black roasted curry powder tastes and this was mild and not a very strong taste, still tasty but not as much as the other dishes. The Gothamba Roti was I think too oily and too flakey for us as in Sri Lanka it is more like the Malaysian Roti Canai softer and not flakey. The desert consisted of Watalappam and a Mousse with coconut pieces on top. The Watalappan was more like a Spicy Cream Caramel and not the strong tasting version with cashews that we are used too. All in all it was a good experience and I would recommend the Snapper, the Charred Cabbage, the Spiced Lamb ribs and the Pineapple dish. The food is a fusion between traditional Sri Lankan cuisine and modern day cuisine. The portions are not very big, similar to most haute cuisine restaurants. Will definitely return to sample the...