Vegan and Gluten-Free at a Sri Lankan Restaurant in Milan

Why Sri Lankan food starts from a good place

Three structural facts about the cuisine:

• No dairy in the base. Where a French or North Indian kitchen reaches for cream, butter or yoghurt, a Sri Lankan kitchen reaches for coconut milk. Most curries are dairy-free by construction, not by substitution.
• Rice is the default. Not bread, not pasta. The standard plate is rice and curry.
• Vegetable curries are core. In Sri Lanka a rice-and-curry plate arrives with several vegetable curries as standard — dhal, jackfruit, beans, pumpkin, aubergine. They are not the vegetarian option; they're the meal.

That's a very different starting point from a menu where the plant-based dish is one line at the bottom.

What to look for on the menu

Likely to work for vegans (ask to confirm): – Vegetable curries — coconut milk base, no dairy – Vegetable fried rice — ask for it without egg – Vegetable noodles — ask for it without egg – Vegetable kottu — contains wheat roti and usually egg; ask for it without egg if you eat gluten – Plain rice, coconut sambol

Likely to work if you avoid gluten (ask to confirm): – Rice and curry — rice is naturally gluten-free – Fried rice — check the soy sauce, which usually contains wheat – Most coconut curries

Contains gluten: – Anything with roti — that includes all kottu, since kottu *is* chopped flatbread – Battered and breaded fried dishes – Gyoza, kataifi, cutlets and rolls – Soy-sauce-based dishes such as chopsuey, unless a gluten-free soy is used

The honest caveats

We would rather be useful than reassuring, so:

• The kitchen is not a dedicated allergen-free environment. Roti is made in house and there is wheat flour in the kitchen. If you have coeliac disease rather than a preference, tell us when you book and we will tell you honestly what we can and can't do safely.
• Soy sauce contains wheat unless specified otherwise. Any dish finished with soy — chopsuey, some noodles — should be treated as containing gluten unless the kitchen confirms a substitution.
• Egg appears in kottu, fried rice and noodles as standard, and can usually be left out on request.
• Fish and shrimp appear in more places than you'd expect in Asian cooking — including some sambols and sauces. Always ask rather than assume.

How to order well

• Say it at booking, not at the table. Vegan, vegetarian, coeliac, allergy — put it in the booking note. Book here or call +39 324 796 5832.
• Say the word "allergy" if it's an allergy. Kitchens handle "preference" and "allergy" differently, and they should.
• Order rice-based, not roti-based if you're avoiding gluten.
• Build a shared table anyway. A vegetable curry, plain rice, coconut sambol and a vegetable fried rice makes a full, generous meal that everyone at the table will eat from — which is the point of the cuisine.