Thilaks — Restaurant in Ottawa

We travelled from Sudbury to Ottawa for the long weekend and were looking for Sri Lankan cuisine. Fortunately, some of our friends had discovered this place the day before and spoke very highly of it. So, before leaving Ottawa, we all went together — and it was absolutely worth it! The staff, especially the owner, were incredibly friendly, making us feel like old friends. The menu is full of authentic Sri Lankan delicacies. Following the owner’s recommendation, we ordered just two dishes for our family of 4, as the portions are generous — and he was right! We had the chicken rice and curry and the goat/mutton biriyani. We tried some Chicken Kottu from our friends who ordered different dishes… All dishes were delicious, bursting with authentic Sri Lankan flavours, perfectly spiced, and reminded us of having lunch in a village back home. Oh meals come with banana leaves as the wrapping material, we all know it adds more flavour and delicious smell… we ordered some fried fish and cutlets, and Chicken Kottu and Biriyani to take away…

Also we had freshly squeezed orange juice with black pepper, that was fully refreshing…

One special thing we appreciated was that, despite the restaurant being in a basement location, there was no overpowering or any strong cooking smell inside — it was well-ventilated and comfortable.

Thank you, Arjun aiya, for your warm hospitality. We will definitely visit again on our next trip to Ottawa. Highly recommended for anyone craving authentic Sri Lankan cuisine...

Hubby and I had read the recent Peter Hum review of this restaurant in the Ottawa Citizen and decided to go seek it out. Are we ever happy we did!

It's tricky to find! There is no signage outside. You go inside the Manila Mart on Carling Ave. and there is a sign on the wall with an arrow that points to the basement.

The restaurant space is....bleak. But the service and the food make up for that 110%. We tried a mutton roll and a fish roll (both were yummy but we both liked the mutton roll better). They came served with a home made hot sauce with a really nice heat!

We then tried the Black Pork Kotthu Roti. ($18) A sublime dish filled with amazing tastes and flavours!!! Black Pork/shredded roti/carrots/garlic/ginger/cabbage/onions/chili peppers and spices. The portion was HUGE! We ate heartily and took home the remainder which will be enough for another entire meal for the two of us!!!!

I also ordered a glass of the Gooseberry juice/Nelli just for fun. It was good, not too sweet.

The Owner was super nice and friendly and helpful. We wish him much success in the future. You can ask for different heat levels. We went with medium. We like spice and this had it.

This was the most fun foodie experience we've had in a while and we will totally go back to try...

We went to Thilaks for dinner this evening. The restaurant is in the basement of a grocery store. The owner is a lovely man, very friendly and suggested what we should order. We ordered their rice dish with black pork curry. This was served on a banana leaf. Their was a veg eggplant dish which was delicious, some stewed onions and a coconut and dried shrimp side which was amazing. The black pork was fabulous. All in all this dish was fantastic and the portion was enough for the two of us to share 1 order. We also ordered the devilled shrimp which was sri lankan chinese. Shrimp was plump and juicy, although i wish we had ordered more of the sri lankan food like the kothu roti. We were pleasantly full when we left. This is definitely a place you want to frequent if you are craving Sri lankan food. I just want to make it clear this is not fine dining its good homecooked food which you can take out if you like. This place deserves 5 stars for the food and the warm and...