• Ambaal's Vegetarian Hotel

  • (18)
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  • White Vegetarian
Vegan-friendly
Lacto
Indian
Fast food
Take-out

Typical Indian style sit and eat cafe. Dosa, samosa, perrota and more. Mostly South Indian food with plenty of vegan options. Open Mon-Sun 7:00am-10:00pm.


Venue map for Ambaal's Vegetarian Hotel
© OpenStreetMap contributors

18 Reviews

First Review by a112

Sundaram_Hetav

Points +13

Vegetarian
18 Feb 2024

Beware.Only for White Skin people!!!

FIRST TIME WE HAVE FACED RACISM IN Srilanka!!!!!
Wherever we travelled in Srilanka we always welcomed by smile. But today was our bad day.
Don't go to Ambaal's Hotel and restaurant if you are not White skin!!!.
We faced Horrible and Poor experience for the first time in Srilanka. They don't care us to give service. We waited for 30 mins to get menu and finally we went to the counter to get menu. But at the same time quick services were providing to white skin customers. After getting the menu to ourselves we waited to someone come and get order. Finally food was served to us, we had to shout again for the spoons and forks. Food was good but we lost our interest due to poor service. They were so fast to give Bill and I appreciate only for that .

Pros: Nothing at all

Cons: Poor Service , Horrible service

Sterling

Points +415

Vegan
02 Jan 2024

Alright, 3.5 stars

It’s alright. A crowded place. Service and food are fast.
1 normal and 1 very hungry person paid €6,-
Seems a bit unhygienic due to food and paper on the floor.
Don’t go if you are afraid of crowded or noisy at least during peak times.

pichapraew

Points +182

Vegetarian
20 Nov 2023

Cheap, tasty and kind service

Delicious southern Hindi-Indian cuisine with all vegetarian options (many are vegan!).

The place is relatively good; quite clean compared to many places I’ve been in Sri Lanka. The staffs noticed us foreigners right away and give us all recommendations/ bottled water/ a chitchat even spoons for us (cause you know, we are no experts with eating by hands).

So smooth favoured curry served with freshly in house-made hot naan/ paratha. Note that curries do not come with rice, either order extra bread or rice.

We had paneer butter masala: sweet and spicy curry in creamy tomato sauce, and Daal Khichadi: lentil curry cooked with rice and spices garlic naan paratha. We paid around 1600 RPS (inc. tip). Super cheap for such great food.

No minus, everything was so great.

On the way out , we bought some more sweet like Ladoo/ Jalebi for a late night snack.

Pros: Food, Service, All vegetarian

00panknes

Points +632

Vegan
10 Nov 2023

Richtig gutes Zeug

Wir hatten diverse herzhaftes veganes Essen und ebenfalls drei verschiedene Nachtische. Auch der Service war gut, gute Beratung!

katiechurn

Points +455

Vegan
26 Oct 2023

Incredible Indian veggie food

Service was great, our server spoke fluent English and told us every dish that was vegan or could be made vegan. Unfortunately the rice couldn’t be made vegan but the naan and dosas made up for it. The curries were delicious and we will probably come back again tomorrow!

Pros: Great tasting curry , Great service , Affordable prices

JanaDre

Points +524

Vegan
06 Mar 2023

Yummy food, confusing service

The food tasted amazing and most of the dishes are vegan or can be vegan in request. We came here two times, trying four different dishes as well as many of the naan/paratha/dosa and everything was extraordinarily tasty and authentic. The service was a bit confusing, as the waiters either did not understand what we wanted or stood next to us watching us eat.

Pros: Reasonable prices, Amazing food, Many options

lokalvegan

Points +1643

Vegan
10 Jan 2022

Dirty, oily, cheap

Lots of vegan options, but the food is oily and the place is very dirty.

Pros: Lots of vegan options, Cheap, Accept cards

Cons: Dirty, Not hygienic

HansFranz

Points +15

Vegetarian
07 Mar 2020

Good food, confusing service

The food is very tasty, came here 4times.
Big minus because of the confusing service/staff and prices.
Third time they send us upstairs in the 2nd Floor(the hotel restaurant), even If we said we want to stay at the 1st floor.

Lot's of the items on the menu are not available and no prices.

On the 2nd floor, most of the waiters speak poor english.
They charged more, were constantly standing next to us while we were eating, brought food what we did not order and also opened a waterbottle without asking.

There is a lunch buffet on the 1st floor, which was comunicated to us with naan bread included.
We had to pay extra in the end.


Feel very sorry for this review, because the food was one of the best I/we had after 2months Sri Lanka.

Friendly staff, hope changes will come.

JoshMariano

Points +375

Vegan
08 Dec 2019

Great if wanting a local experience

Traveling through Sri Lanka and don’t always like going to the touristy restaurants as I want to experience the Sri Lankan local way. This restaurant had the thumbs up for me as it always full of locals, in my opinion these are the places you want to eat at if you want to go cheap and local. Fast turnover so food isn’t sitting there all day. The food very authentic and local. Everything mostly vegan. Very tasty and huge portions especially the dosas. You get complimentary curries in the table to add to you dish. It’s cold but I still ate it and still survived. Stomach was left satisfied as much as my wallet. Very very cheap!! If your the person who is pickey and only sticks to touristy restaurants this will not be the place for you.

Pros: Heaps of vegan options , Cheaper then a bag of crisps, Quick service

stam

Points +1901

Vegan
04 Oct 2019

Super cheap, huge portions

I went here for dinner every night because the dosa is so good and so gigantic. Staff are friendly, service is quick, and there are pails of coconut chutney and dal on the table so you can eat to your heart’s content. Masala dosa is only 160 LKR! There are 2 locations (they are across the street from one another), so if one gets too busy just cross the road.

Pros: Lots of vegan options, Cheap and huge portions, Friendly and quick service

AnnaHarwoodGross

Points +78

Vegan
20 Jul 2019

Crazy, fast and tasty

Ate here three times over short stay. Welcome hearty curry for just 150 rupees including rice, five types of curry and a popadom. Samosas all vegan and delicious take away food. Plan to get a few for train journey!

Pros: Tasty, Varied menu, Funny , super efficient staff

Cons: Bit dirty but we survived

PaigeGraham

Points +58

Vegan
21 Oct 2018

good cheap food!

The masala dhosai is vegan. Didnt see the review about the buffet upstairs so ate downstairs. They have dahl and sambal on the tables at no extra price. Dhosai was 160rs. Bargain!

LavenderB

Points +26

Vegan
03 Sep 2018

Little gem

What a little gem; authentic food and super cozy. We ate so well for only 520LKR altogether, even with a cup of tea. The entertaining staff made for a big pulse too!

Pros: Staff speak English , Vegan options (delicious)

Cons: Basic aesthetic/decor (not a con for us though)

ohkneel

Points +26

Vegan
28 Aug 2018

Cheap, tasty and vegan (mostly)!

The downstairs of this restaurant has a menu and you can order typical southern Indian dishes such as masala dosai etc. Be careful not to order any of the Ghee (Indian style butter) based Dosai if Vegan.

The upstairs of this restaurant is a wonderful self serve buffet, there is a woman who speaks great English and helps you with the self service part giving you some cutlery if you don't want to eat with your hands, just let her know you don't want anything with ghee or cow/buffalo milk in. Self service buffet came to 200LKR/pp with a huge plate of rice and curry along with a couple of chickpea small eats and poppadoms, fantastic value!

Pros: Cheap and mostly vegan!

Cons: Can be very busy during peak times

Kugara

Points +13

Vegetarian
07 Jan 2018

Ambal Vegetarian Restaurant

We were driving all thru the day from Sigiriya towards Yalla, and did not find decent vegetarian food enroute and the sight of Ambal Vegetarian Hotel made allof us hungry even more and believe me the Plain Dosa roast was so delicious, we thoroughly enjoyed with chutney and sambar typically south indian style. Inspite of their closing time, they did serve us to everyone's satisfaction.

Spoke to the owner, who migrated to Sri Lanka from Trichy a good half a century ago.

I shall recommend the place to every traveller who surely would enjoy the food there.

serrarose

Points +532

Vegan
29 Apr 2017

Local Sri Lankan Eatery

Title says it all. Local, cheap eatery offering Dosa, String Hopper, Paratha etc etc. There's dal soup and samba on the tables to pour over whatever you order. Pretty much vegan except for the ghee or cheese dosas. They cook with coconut oil.

Pros: town centre, cheap

Kiko

Points +72

Vegetarian
20 Aug 2013

Sri Lankan Vegetarian

This restaurant is located at the main road & very easy to find. But no idea why they name it as "hotel". In fact it's a restaurant. I saw few restaurants too but with the name of "hotel".
The food here are purely Indian style with heavy spice and herbs using. Food such as Prata, Dosai, Chapati, Vade, Daal etc. No noodle are served but rice upon request.
A lot of people and the shop is small and narrow. Price is inexpensive and food is delicious.

a112

Points +133

Raw
12 Apr 2013

Dosa, dosa & samosa ))

We were happy to found this place on our trip through Sri Lanka. This eatery is egg-less, but has some dairy meals. By the way it is 90% vegan. Be aware of ghee - it is cow's milk butter. Typical south indian meals are in the exact recipes. Masala dosa (crispy rice pancake with mixed spicy vegetables inside), perrota (soft rice&wheat pancake) and others rice meals are surrounding with 3-4 currys (mixed vegetable, dhal (peas), soy meat & coconut). Really inexpensive - 5$ for 4 persons. Place is very simple. Many locals & backpackers.




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