>> Plate50LA Indian & Sri Lankan Restaurant | Eat the World Los Angeles

Monday 19 December 2022

Plate50LA Indian & Sri Lankan Restaurant

Olympic Blvd. facade

๐Ÿ‡ฑ๐Ÿ‡ฐ SRI LANKA
๐Ÿ“ 2411 W. Olympic Blvd., Westlake, Central Los Angeles
๐Ÿ…ฟ️ Very small parking lot for plaza
๐Ÿฅค No Alcohol
๐ŸŒฑ Vegetarian Friendly

EDITOR'S NOTE: This meal was enjoyed in a dine-in situation but it should be noted that wait times, despite being the first customers, were much higher than average for food to arrive. If this is something that will be a problem for you, try delivery as drivers seemed to be coming in constantly to pick up orders and those meals were all ready to go out the door.

Back in June when Plate50LA first opened, eyes were opened wide to see the addition of another Sri Lankan kitchen in Los Angeles, especially for those centrally located. For their first few months of operation the business was only available via pickup and delivery, but recently their tiny bare-bones dining room has been opened for dine-in service. The brightly lit space still seems like a ghost kitchen pickup lobby as drivers come and go, but if you have the time, you can enjoy your meals fresh and avoid adding another stack of styrofoam to the city dump.

About an hour after opening on a recent weekday, the chairs were still on top of the three tables available but were promptly put down when asked if eating in was an option. The smells were a hint that the kitchen had already been making quite a bit of food, and immediately made any feelings of hunger triple. Orders were placed, chairs were settled in, and the anticipation built.

Fish and egg roll

And as the note at the top describes, it kept building. And enough time passed that expectations started to go down as confidence fell. Thankfully once food did start arriving, it was all excellent and proof of an enormously talented chef. People in the area will probably benefit the most from the wide array of Indian classics that are assuredly executed very well, but hopefully they eventually find their way to the Sri Lankan items that pepper each section of the menu.

The best portal straight back to your memories in Sri Lanka is an order of any of the deep-fried goodies that you see in so many storefronts and probably ate multiples of each day. Sri Lankans call these "short eats," and you should ask when you arrive which ones they might have on any given day. It is likely not all of them, so order as many as they do. Despite four on the menu (buns, pastries, rolls, and patties), on this occasion only the rolls ($1.75 each, above) were available, stuffed with fish and egg. They were clearly just made from scratch and excellent, a very good sign of things to come.
 
Coconut roti with chili paste

Bring at least one friend but preferably three so you can order plates like the coconut roti with chili paste ($2.50, above), two very slightly sweet breads that beg to be slathered with the spicy chili and any other sambals and curries that might make their way to the table. These are much more dense and filling than naan so ration yourself despite their deliciousness.

If you are here for Sri Lankan food, the Sri Lankan traditional plate ($14.50, below) will of course stand out on the menu, a spread of basmati and four other dishes. Normally it includes tuna ambul thiyal, a sour fish curry, but on this day that was not available and substituted with the chicken curry. Lentil curry, coconut sambal, and sweet and sticky tempered sprats rounded out the meal with just about every taste and texture necessary.

Sri Lankan traditional plate with white rice, lentil curry, coconut sambal, chicken curry, and tempered sprats

The chicken curry did not seem like a downgrade at all despite the initial disappointment, and both the sambal and lentils were great to have around for joining with just about everything. Sprats are similar to anchovies and add an intense umami to anything they join, and are another reminder of tastes you experience almost daily in Sri Lanka.

There are a few options for curries available, all seemingly prepared differently. The Sri Lankan shrimp curry ($14.50, below) only alludes to "authentic spices" on the menu but is creamy from coconut milk and brown sugar, and probably contains half the spice cabinet. Garlic and ginger pervade. It could use a few more shrimp, which are all quite small to begin with, but the big plate of basmati is enough to make the curry hearty when you run out of the crustacean.

Sri Lankan shrimp curry

The most surprising section of the menu might be the options for Sri Lankan curries that were all meatless, listing lentil, mixed vegetables, mushroom asparagus, beet, and brussels sprouts options. When inquired about, a sixth off-menu option was presented and ordered, the young jackfruit curry ($12, below), meaty hunks of the fruit in a wonderful curry similar to how the chicken was prepared.

While orders of butter chicken and sag paneer were showing up on the next table, small tears were forming in the eyes of those who wanted this Sri Lankan chef to thrive. Undoubtedly the Indian food is going to pay the bills for a while, but hopefully one day this can become a destination for anyone in the mood for something a bit more rare in Los Angeles without the means of getting to the Valley or Anaheim.

Young jackfruit curry

๐Ÿ‡ฑ๐Ÿ‡ฐ๐Ÿ‡ฑ๐Ÿ‡ฐ๐Ÿ‡ฑ๐Ÿ‡ฐ

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