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It's Sri Lankan New Year. Here's where to eat and celebrate in NYC.
By
Walter Wuthmann
Published Apr 14, 2026
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Walter Wuthmann
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Walter Wuthmann
Published Apr 14, 2026
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Sri Lankans across the world celebrate the Sri Lankan New Year on Tuesday. The holiday marks the ceremonial end of the harvest season.
On Staten Island, that means big family gatherings and lots of good food. The borough is home to one of the largest Sri Lankan diaspora communities in the world, formed during and after the country's protracted civil war.
Staten Island’s “Little Sri Lanka” is renowned for its restaurants and grocery stores – New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani recently declared Staten Island the “place where you can get the best Sri Lankan food in New York City.”
Though the teardrop island of Sri Lanka is just a few dozen miles off the coast of southern India, the two countries’ cuisines are very different. While many Indian styles of cooking use cream, yogurt, and clarified butter in their curries, the base of Sri Lankan food is typically coconut milk.
In that way, “it’s almost more similar to Thai cuisine,” said S.H. “Skiz” Fernando, author of the cookbook “Rice & Curry: Sri Lankan Home Cooking.” “ Sri Lankan food really has its own character.”
Fernando said another key distinction is that many Sri Lankan cooks roast their blend of curry spices in a pan before building up the sauce. “It's a very deep, complex flavor,” he said.
And then there’s the unique way it's served.
“ Instead of eating it in courses as they do in the West, everything is served together on the table and it makes for a very colorful presentation,” Fernando said. “When you eat food, you're not just eating with your mouth, you're seeing it with your eyes, and that stimulates the taste buds. You're smelling it. It’s all designed to be like a kind of multi-sensory experience.”
For your own multi-sensory experience, we recommend you check out these five New York City spots:
New Asha
New Asha
Walter Wuthmann
New Asha is the anchor of Tompkinsville’s “Little Sri Lanka,” and the same family’s been dishing out its spice-packed rice and curries for nearly three decades. It’s a tiny spot, fluorescently lit, the only soundtrack a televised cricket game blaring from the kitchen.
“Our success is only in the home cooking,” said Subhas Chandraboase, one of the restaurant’s owners. “When you come, you are hungry, you eat something, you like it.” Subhas told me that after the late television host Anthony Bourdain filmed an episode at New Asha for his show No Reservations, he returned by himself two weeks later for more. New Asha’s menu changes every day, based on what’s fresh and available. To order, you’ll be asked if you want “veg or non-veg,” and the meal goes from there. On a recent afternoon, I had a spicy chicken curry surrounded by a sweet and sour red cabbage stew, sauteed spinach, coconut milk and lentil dhal, and pickled onions. The meal comes with a side of roti flatbread, hot off the griddle. Subhas’ sister Viji makes all the restaurant’s yoghurt in-house, and New Asha’s mango lassi is a perfect pairing for their fiery curries. Finish off your meal with a hot, frothy cup of masala chai.
Lakruwana
Lakruwana
Walter Wuthmann
About a mile south of the Staten Island ferry terminal lies Lakruwana. The restaurant’s giant brass doors are a portal to another world; the place is absolutely saturated with Sri Lankan art and handicrafts. Pottery, paintings, massive woven ceremonial fans, and hand-carved raksha masks line the walls and hang from the ceiling. An upbeat tourism video plays on a loop on a tiny TV above the front door. But the main attraction here is the weekend buffet.
If you’re new to Sri Lankan food, this buffet may be the best place to start. The restaurant makes a wide variety of dishes and keeps its clay pots hot and full. Some stand-outs are the “devilled” chicken, a kind of chicken stir-fry in a sticky chili sauce, the sweet caramelized eggplant, and the pol sambol, a garnish made of flaked coconut, red onion, chili powder, and lime juice. There’s even a dessert bar with homemade tapioca pudding and mango mousse. The buffet is $22.95 a person, but come prepared – Lakruwana is cash-only.
Randiwa
Randiwa
Walter Wuthmann
You’ll have to travel deeper into Staten Island for the strip mall gem that is Randiwa. Nestled between a pho restaurant and a gym, Randiwa serves up Sri Lankan staples and also has a buffet on Sundays. Their signature dish, though, is their banana leaf-wrapped lamprie.
Lamprie, or lamprais, is a dish that traces its origins back to Dutch colonial rule of the island. It incorporates some of the elements of lemper, a sticky rice and banana leaf dish from Indonesia. Lamprais consists of rice cooked in stock, a meat-based curry, various stews and relishes, a meatball or fritter, and sometimes a deep-fried hard-boiled egg, all wrapped up and steamed in a banana leaf. The family that runs Randiwa says their lamprie recipe has been passed down for over 300 years. Those generations of knowledge and technique are on full display: Randiwa’s lamprie is full of deep, smoky flavors. A mild cashew curry balances out the spice of the meat. Sweet caramelized onion sambol wonderfully contrasts the richness of the stock-simmered rice.
Lanka Grocery and New York Lanka
Lanka Grocery
Walter Wuthmann
Little Sri Lanka is home to two small Sri Lankan grocery stores on opposite sides of Victory Boulevard. They serve up tastes of home to Staten Island’s roughly 5,000 Sri Lankan residents, and offer opportunities for newcomers to explore unique imported products. Lanka Grocery opened first and its windows are so plastered with Sri Lankan flags and decals you can barely see inside. Its aisles are chock full of Sri Lankan curry powders, pastes, sauces, tea, cookies, and frozen food.
Across the street, New York Lanka grocery is a bit smaller but carries a similar variety of imported goods. Both stores carry fresh produce you won’t find at ShopRite – like banana flower, green papaya, and bitter gourd. If you’re passing through, stop in either and grab some crunchy lentil murukku or treacly-sweet milk toffee, and a box of premium Sri Lankan tea for good measure.
Sigiri
Sigiri
Walter Wuthmann
If you can’t make it out to Staten Island, there’s a great Sri Lankan restaurant in the East Village called Sigiri. This second-floor, cash-only joint has a wide-ranging menu, from chicken curry to biryani.
One specialty is the kotthu roti, a kind of street food. That’s roti flatbread that’s chopped up like noodles and then stir-fried with chicken or beef, vegetables, and a spicy curry sauce. If you’re feeling really brave, order the cheese-drenched kotthu, Sri Lankans’ favorite late-night snack.
The New York Cricket Club is throwing a big belated Sri Lankan New Year celebration on Staten Island on Sunday, May 24.
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Walter Wuthmann
Walter Wuthmann is a reporter covering public safety and the legal system.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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