Janani's Sri Lankan and Indian Restaurant

It is not often that I dine at Indian or Sri Lankan restaurants. When eating out, I like to choose cuisines that are different to what is normally prepared at home. Having a South Indian background, most of the dishes that are cooked at home contain similar spices and flavours to what can be found in restaurants. However, recently for some strange reason, I have been craving Kothu Roti. There are not many restaurants that I know of in Sydney that serves this, however one place that does is Janani's in South Strathfield.

What is Kothu Roti you may be asking. It is traditionally a Sri Lankan dish which is made from roti that is diced up into small pieces, and tossed with a variety of vegetables, egg and meat. It is traditional to make this dish on a hot iron sheet, with two blunt metal blades used to cut the roti. In the past, the Kothu Roti I have had has always been a hit and miss. Sometimes it is delicious, with the right amount of spice and vegetables tossed together, and sometimes it is bland and tasteless. Given that I had been craving this dish for a while, I was hoping that it would meet my expectations.

Walking into the restaurant, there wasn't that many people there despite it being a Friday night and peak time for dinner. My friends and I were a little nervous about the quality of the food there as a result, but there were so many varieties of dishes on the menu that we were just excited to try them all out! (And not to mention staaarving).

The decision for me was quite easy, given that I knew what I wanted to order a week prior to us even visiting this restaurant. I ordered a vegetable Kothu Roti, and shared a Gobi Manchurian (fried cauliflower with sweet and sour sauce) for entree with the other girls. Some of the other dishes that were ordered by my friends included Butter Chicken with Naan, Lamb Kothu Roti and a Seafood Thali (a traditional dish where roti is served with a variety of small curries). To keep the meal authentic, we ordered a Faluda, which is a Sri Lankan drink made with rose milk, which also contains little balls of jelly. If you aren't a fan of the jelly, then a plan rose milk will also do the trick.

The meal was actually surprisingly delicious. The Kothu Rotti defintiely met expectations, and it was the best meal on a rainy Friday. The other girls were also very happy with their meals, and we left the restaurants with a severe case of food babies. On top of the taste, the serving sizes were also quite generous, with some of us having to doggy bag our meals as we couldn't finish them.

If I have cravings for Kothu Roti again, I will definitely consider visiting Janani's again. For this restaurant, I score 8/10.