It says a lot about a restaurant’s food when people are willing to wait outside in the rain in the hopes of getting a table, a common scene at Paradise. This small, Brutalist-style restaurant on Rupert Street serves a contemporary take on Sri Lankan home-style cooking. It was opened by Dom Fernando in January 2020, with Charith Priyadarshana at the kitchen’s helm, but former MasterChef: The Professionals semi-finalist Malin de Silva took over as head chef in June this year.
Malin has devised a brand-new Paradise menu that showcases his own Sri Lankan heritage and draws on family recipes. A word of warning: the food has a kick. We’re not talking a tap here, more like a roundhouse. But douse your tongue in a refreshing Rambutan Daquiri and push through because it’s worth it.
Starters of crisp hogget rolls luxuriated in fermented chilli sauce, and breadfruit empanadas came with a refreshingly tangy pineapple ketchup.
The cured sea bass submerged in a broth of coconut, chilli and lemongrass was perfectly balanced: light and delicately flavoured, with dashes of lunu-miris sambol adding some zing to the odd mouthful. The fried aubergine and jaggery moju was a rich and gooey mixture with caramel undertones, while the southern-style salad was fresh enough to provide a respite from the spice when needed.
The yellow cod curry looked appealing but lacked the punchy flavours of the rest of Paradise’s offering, despite its XO chilli paste crust. The coconut brined lamb shoulder and wild garlic curry was a hit, though. At £14, it’s one of the priciest things on the menu – and for good reason. The meat fell apart at the touch of a fork and the creamy sauce made for the perfect accompaniment to warm, flaky paratha roti smothered in coconut and lovage butter. Now that’s a meal we’d happily queue in the rain for.