Where to Eat in Galle Fort: The Restaurants Worth Finding

Galle Fort has one of the most concentrated collections of good restaurants of any small area in Sri Lanka. The combination of serious travellers with spending power, a local population of creative people who have settled inside the walls, and the extraordinary setting has produced a dining scene that is genuinely thoughtful rather than merely well-priced for tourists.

The Poonie's Kitchen is the Sri Lankan home cooking that the Fort does better than anywhere. Run from a beautifully restored Dutch building, the menu changes daily based on what came in fresh from the market that morning. The rice and curry spread here is considered by many regulars to be the best in the south. Arrive hungry and order everything that is available.

The Old Dutch Hospital area just outside the Fort walls has its own cluster of options including The Tuk Tuk restaurant and several small cafes. Inside the Fort, the Pedlar's Inn Cafe on Pedlar Street is the place for breakfast: good coffee, fresh fruit, eggs done properly, and a courtyard that catches the morning sun in exactly the right way. The kind of breakfast that makes you sit longer than you intended.

For the most atmospheric dinner in the Fort, find a table on one of the rampart-facing terraces at sunset. The light changes quickly here and the ten minutes either side of the sun dropping into the ocean are genuinely spectacular. Order seafood, order a cold Lion, and watch the sky go from gold to pink to dark. Whatever you eat will taste better for the context.