Ordering, for a first visit
First Time Eating Sri Lankan Food? Order This
For two people at a Sri Lankan restaurant, order one starter (beef cutlets or fish rolls), one kottu, one curry with rice, and one devilled dish. For four or more, order the Rawana Mix Fried platter as the centrepiece and add two curries and one kottu around it. Finish with watalappan. Everything is designed to be shared from the middle of the table.
- Address
- Via Giuseppe Cesare Abba 7, 20158 Milano
- Open
- Mon, Wed, Thu 12:00–15:30 and 17:00–23:00 · Fri 12:30–23:00 · Sat 12:30–15:00 and 18:00–23:00 · Sun 12:00–23:00 · Closed Tuesday
- Phone
- 324 796 5832
The most common thing we hear at the door is: "we've never had Sri Lankan before — what do we get?" It's a fair question. The menu has kottu, hoppers, devilled dishes, biriani and curries, and unless you grew up with it, none of those words tell you what arrives.
So here is the honest answer, by table size.
For two people
- Start — Beef cutlets or fish rolls · Crisp, spiced, small. The Sri Lankan equivalent of "short eats" — snacks eaten standing up on the island
- Main 1 — Kottu with chicken or seafood · The dish that will convert you. Flatbread chopped on a hot griddle with egg, vegetables and spice
- Main 2 — One curry with rice — chicken or fish · The other half of the cuisine: slow, coconut-based, dark-roasted spice
- If you like heat — A devilled dish · Sweet-hot-sour, with onion and pepper. This is the genuinely spicy category
- Finish — Watalappan · Coconut, palm sugar and cardamom. Not like any Italian dessert
Two people, four plates, roughly €35–50 total. Nobody leaves hungry.
For four or more
This is where Rawana's menu is actually designed to shine. Order the Rawana Mix Fried — chicken, pork, wurstel, prawns, cuttlefish, fish, crab and potatoes in a house sauce — and put it in the middle. Then build around it:
- Rawana Mix Fried (the centrepiece — see the full story of the platter)
- One kottu — chopsuey seafood if the table likes seafood, chicken if it's mixed
- Two curries with rice — one chicken or mutton, one fish or vegetable
- One or two starters to keep hands busy while the platter comes out
- Watalappan and caramel pudding to share at the end
Sharing specialities run €18–70 depending on size, individual dishes €7–19, and the average spend per guest lands at €20–35.
The four dishes we'd put in front of a sceptic
Rawana Mix Fried. If someone at the table says "I don't know about Sri Lankan food", this is the dish that ends the conversation. It arrives looking like an event.
Kottu. Chopped flatbread, egg, vegetables, your protein, all worked together on a hot plate with two metal blades. In Sri Lanka you hear it being made from the street. It tastes like the best thing you've ever eaten at 1am, except it's dinner.
Hanuma's Spicy. Prawns and cuttlefish with peanuts, onion and spice. The dish that tells you Sri Lankan cooking is not a variation on anything.
Watalappan. Steamed coconut custard set with kithul palm sugar, cardamom and nutmeg. Dense, dark, slightly smoky-sweet. More on watalappan here.
What if someone at the table doesn't do spice?
Then order around it, and say so when you order — not when the food arrives. The menu covers a wide range: biriani, fried rice, noodles and most of the fried dishes are aromatic rather than hot, and the kitchen can adjust heat on many dishes. The devilled dishes and anything labelled spicy are where the real chilli lives. Full detail: how spicy Sri Lankan food actually is.
What if we're vegetarian?
Vegetable kottu, vegetable curries, vegetable noodles and vegetable fried rice all exist on the menu, and coconut-based curries are naturally dairy-free. Tell your server about vegan or gluten requirements when you book — see vegan and gluten-free options.
How to order it in one sentence
If you want to skip all of the above: "One Rawana Mix Fried, one seafood kottu, one chicken curry with rice, two beef cutlets, and watalappan at the end." That's a table of four, well fed, for around €100–130.
Book a table at Rawana · Via Giuseppe Cesare Abba 7, Milano · +39 324 796 5832
Come and eat it, rather than read about it.
Via Giuseppe Cesare Abba 7, Dergano, Milan. Book online, or call and someone who works in the room will pick up.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
And if it isn't here, just call. Someone who actually works in the room will pick up.
Order one kottu, one coconut curry with rice, one crisp starter such as beef cutlets, and share them. For four or more people, add the Rawana Mix Fried platter as a centrepiece.
The Rawana Mix Fried platter — chicken, pork, wurstel, prawns, cuttlefish, fish, crab and potatoes in a house sauce — is the signature dish and the most ordered sharing plate.
Roughly one and a half plates per person when sharing. Portions are generous and designed for the middle of the table, not for one.
Chicken biriani, nasi goreng, fried rice or noodles. They are aromatic rather than hot. Avoid dishes labelled devilled or spicy.