Kottamba Kanda

The bay

The restaurants and bars of Hiriketiya

For a bay this size, Hiriketiya eats absurdly well. The sand itself carries a rim of cafés doing curries, smoothie bowls and good coffee from breakfast onwards; around the bay and into Dickwella sit a handful of genuinely serious kitchens; and a few minutes up the coast stands Smoke & Bitters, a barbecue-and-cocktail room that has spent years on Asia's fifty-best-bars lists.

The scene shifts with the seasons, as beach towns do, so treat this page as the shape of it rather than a directory. The villa manager keeps the current list and books the tables that need booking.

Render of the dining space set for dinner, kitchen light beyond
Eating and drinking in Hiriketiya: the essentials
From the villaThe bay's cafés are 4 minutes on foot; Dickwella and the coast spots are a few minutes by car
Best seasonDecember to April, when every kitchen is open and at full strength; quieter months thin the list
BookingThe sand cafés take walk-ins; the serious kitchens and Smoke & Bitters deserve a reservation in season
Arranged by the villaTables held, the month's best openings, and the car for anything beyond the lane

On the sand

The bay's cafés are half the reason mornings at Hiriketiya feel the way they do. You come out of the water, sit down under the palms with salt still on you, and breakfast arrives: a Sri Lankan rice and curry, eggs, fruit, a proper flat white from beans someone cares about. Places trade names and owners between seasons, but the register is constant, and the pleasure is less any single kitchen than the fact of eating well with your feet in the sand thirty metres from the wave you just rode.

The serious tables

Around the bay and along the Dickwella road, a small set of kitchens has grown up that would hold their own in a capital city: wood-fired cooking, day-boat fish, produce from the same markets the villa's chef shops. The standouts change year to year, which is exactly why the villa keeps the running list rather than this page. Tell the manager what the party likes, and the right two or three evenings out will be booked before you have finished the first pot of coffee.

Smoke and Bitters, and the evenings

The area's one internationally famous room is Smoke & Bitters, a few minutes away by car: open-air, smoke-driven food, and a cocktail list that has kept it among Asia's most awarded bars for years. It fills in season, so it is a table to plan rather than stumble into. Otherwise, evenings around the bay stay low and easy, with beach bars running to sunset drinks and the occasional live set. The best nights of a villa week often stay home anyway: the chef cooking what the boats brought in, and the bay's lights coming on below.

Common questions

Where should you eat in Hiriketiya?

Breakfast and lunch at the cafés on the bay itself, a few evenings at the serious kitchens around the bay and Dickwella, and one night at Smoke & Bitters up the coast. The scene changes seasonally, so ask the villa manager for the current shortlist and let the villa book it.

What is Smoke and Bitters?

A barbecue restaurant and cocktail bar a few minutes from Hiriketiya, regularly ranked among the fifty best bars in Asia. Open-air, smoke-led cooking and a serious drinks list; in season it needs a reservation, which the villa arranges.

Do Hiriketiya restaurants take reservations?

The beach cafés run on walk-ins. The more serious kitchens, and Smoke & Bitters especially, take and deserve reservations in the December to April season, when the coast is at its fullest. The villa holds tables for you as part of any stay.

Can you eat at the villa instead?

Every day, if you like. A private chef cooks all three meals at the house, shopping the Dikwella market at dawn, and there is no menu: you tell him how you like to eat and he builds the days around it. Most guests settle into a rhythm of chef's dinners with two or three evenings out.

Keep reading

Hiriketiya, the bay itself What the horseshoe bay is, when to come, and how a day there actually runs.

Surfing Hiriketiya A learner wave and a point break in the same small bay, four minutes from the door.

Around Dickwella The blowhole, the giant Buddha, a rock-top monastery: the sights within half an hour.

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