Spicy Zest - Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Farmers Branch

I tried very hard to love this place. I know I did. But... it just didn't end up impressing me as much as I wanted it to?

I can't tell whether the food is "authentic" since this is my first experience with Sri-Lankan food. Those who've read my other reviews will know that it is seldom my first priority anyway. Hence, I'll simply attempt to comment on the taste from a neutral perspective.

So I had the mixed kottu, a fish bun, a dalgona coffee and a curds dessert. Not the best flight, but I felt it was diverse enough for a try.

The mixed kottu on its own is pretty good. Spicy (in the "lots of spices" way), al dente, and delicious. I ordered it with cheese, though I didn't notice much cheese. It wasn't a big deal, though. It could've just blended in with all the hot meat and eggs. I did taste a certain creaminess to it.

However, when I was having this dish, a constant thought kept crossing my mind: "Hold on. Isn't Pad Siew just this but better?"

Yeah. Having lived in Fort Wayne, Indiana for a long time - a place with a large Burmese population, lots of whom can cook a mean Pad Siew, it was hard for me to be impressed.

Maybe I just wasn't sure what I was expecting, but I did expect some new flavors and tasting what amounted to an imitation of Burmese-Thai cuisine of all things did disappoint me a little.

The fish bun and the dalgona felt pretty much the same. The fish bun has too much bun and too little fish, and the fish paste they used had a quite fibrous texture that made it feel more like pork floss than a piece of fish to my tender teeth. I guess "fibrous vaguely-fish-flavored curry bun" just didn't roll off the tongue too well. Meanwhile, the dalgona coffee looked a lot better than it tasted. It didn't taste bad, it just tasted like a Starbucks frappe.

The curds dessert, on the other hand, was easily the worst offender in my book. It didn't taste like much else besides yoghurt smothered in honey - a VERY SOUR yoghurt, at that. Again, I have no idea if this is supposed to be authentic, but every rendition of the Halloumi and Honey dish has been more enjoyable to me, while feeling quite similar.

My friend had a chicken yellow rice and complained that the chicken was a bit salty. I only had a bite of it, but I'm inclined to agree. The chicken meat itself didn't seem to be anything special, either. It was breaking apart like everything you get from Tyson.

Service is ok. Atmosphere is ok. Neither really stood out either way to me.

TL;DR Sri Lankan cuisine is quite curious. However, I don't think the place stands up very...

We went to this restaurant for the first time yesterday, we were excited to try Sri Lankan food, because it is rather uncommon to find such cuisine in our area. We were also slightly unsure if the food was as great as it sounds. We ordered Chicken Lumprais, Curry Burrito, and Godamba Roti for our main course. Immediately after digging into the food, we could tell that this place was a good restaurant. The Chicken Lumprais , according to me, was a full meal. It was flavorful, basically is fried rice with cashew, some herbs and spices, lots of caramelized onions with egg plant, a fried egg, cutlets of crab/fish cake and chicken, all wrapped in a plantain leaf and steamed.The curry burrito was a nice fusion of Mexican burrito with a Sri Lankan twist, as my daughter likes to put in words. The portion was rather big for her, but she managed to eat a good amount of the chicken curry and rice burrito along with plain curd and veggie salad that came along with the burrito. However, when my wife began to eat her Godamba Roti , which was defined as a thin flatbread with chicken or veggie gravy (she took veggie), she felt like it tasted more like Chapati (Indian flatbread) and Dal (lentil curry). This is the main reason I have only given the restaurant 4 stars, for it is misguiding customers into trying something they think they haven’t tried, when they actually might have. For dessert and coffee, we took Watalappan and Sri Lankan Coconut Roll Cake, with Sri Lankan Harischandra Special Coffee. The Watalappan, which is said to be very good, really was great. The mix of jaggery (palm sugar), coconut milk , and egg yolk made into a cake is something worth trying. The coconut rolls had a nice coconut filling wrapped in a thin pancake is excellent for people who enjoy coconut. The coffee was okay, very milky, though. As good as the food was, the staff were very flexible and polite, which is key when running a business. They also have a small space with local Srilankan grocery and snacks which was interesting , the restaurant was Clean and Organized, I HIGHLY...

We tried this restaurant on a whim and recommendation from another family. So glad. From the outside, we could never have guessed the quality, flavor and experience we were to have that night. They offered a high tea buffet, which was a bit heavy on the sweets IMHO. There were a few savory items kids were interested in, so they ordered the buffet and adults tried the menu.

The non-sweet buffet items appeared authentic, but proved too spicy for the kids. The owner came by, saw a ‘problem’, talked to my daughter about what she liked, and made her feel special by making her something just for her from the kitchen (chicken fried rice and an eggy cheese omelet with ketchup - what kid doesn’t like ketchup?). He SAVED the whole dining experience for us. There are not enough stars to give for this kind of service. The rice was probably the best chicken fried rice we’ve ever had btw…truly.

As for the adults…we were lost. Having never had Sri Lankan food we didn’t know what to order. We chose recommended items from our waiter. Fantastic. The spice levels were high (hint, an American 5 must be a Sri Lankan 3, lol). Each thing was beautiful, flavorful, filling and delicious. The hit at our table was a rice dish wrapped in a banana leaf that our teen had. We each tried his and it was fantastic. I personally had the lamb curry, which was phenomenal - I’m still thinking about it and will return to order it again.

We will return (multiple times I bet) partly bc of how the owner demonstrated his love of his culture & cuisine and treated us like guests vs customers. But also because the food was flavorful, delicious, filling, and hit spice notes that we love (think India + Africa, IMHO).

I could go on and on, really. Our only gripes were the buffet options/variety and atmosphere (white table cloths seem upscale, but the grocery store in the back and televisions don’t fit the...