A Tropical Haven for Design and Seafood Is Back on the Tourist Map

New York Times

28-03-2025

After a tumultuous few years, Colombo, Sri Lanka's largest city, is once again beckoning tourists. Shaking off the political upheaval that followed the country's 2022 economic collapse, the city is proving its resilience and putting on a more democratic and left-leaning face. While most visitors know Colombo, with a metropolitan area population of about four million, for its monumental lotus-shaped tower and sprawling array of temples and mosques, there's now a distinct interest in the revival of its cultural heritage. The recent arrival of new fairs like the Ceylon Literary & Arts Festival and the Matara Festival for the Arts have brought a more international focus to Colombo and the southern fort cities of Sri Lanka. And in February, Jagath Weerasinghe, one of the country's leading authorities on art and archaeology, co-founded a new gallery called MIAC, or Millennium Art Contemporary, just outside of Colombo, in the suburb of Athurugiriya.
There's also more appreciation internationally these days for the art and design that have emerged from Sri Lanka's unique circumstances over time, from the Tropical Modernism style of the late architect Geoffrey Bawa to the male erotica of the Colombo-born photographer Lionel Wendt. Among the country's many contemporary talents is the fashion designer Amesh Wijesekera, who works with artisanal craft textiles and dead stock fabrics left behind in Sri Lankan factories to produce boundary-breaking pieces that address South Asian gender and sexual identity. Sri Lanka's first international tourism campaign in more than a decade and the expansion, since 2023, of its visa-free entry program have contributed to a rebound in visitors, with more than two million arrivals last year, a 38 percent increase. Many of them are finding Colombo's gallery and restaurant scenes and its newer designer hotels to be as tempting a draw as Sri Lanka's famous tea trails and southern surfing beaches.
Here, four Colombo insiders offer a tour of the places that are driving a renewed sense of optimism in the city. 'As an archaeologist, I can tell you this island has been receiving international people since at least the third century B.C.,' Weerasinghe says. 'This has been a cosmopolitan place for centuries, for millennia, so it's written into our cultural genes.'
Trained as an architect, Shayari de Silva is the chief curator of the Geoffrey Bawa Trust. She also runs a ceramics practice called Clay Bodies.
Colombo-born Rishi Naleendra is the chef behind Singapore restaurants Cloudstreet, Kotuwa and Station by Kotuwa, the last of which opened in the first week of March.
The artist and archaeologist Jagath Weerasinghe co-founded the Colombo-based Theertha International Artists Collective, which promotes experimental art in Sri Lanka, in 2000.
The fashion designer Amesh Wijesekera moved back home to Colombo in 2024 after five years in London and three in Berlin to set up his own studio.
Stay
'The Geoffrey Bawa Trust is a nonprofit that generates its operating income through visits and stays. It's very special to stay at Lunuganga, Bawa's former country estate [about two hours' drive south of Colombo] and to experience the garden at different times of day; it's magical at sunrise in one spot, and then later you see the sunset from across the lake. There are 14 bells located on the property, each of which has a distinct sound, that Bawa used so that staff in the main house could locate him as he moved through the garden over the course of the day.' (Rooms from about $410 per night)
'There are also some really interesting homestays throughout Colombo, including Number 11, Geoffrey Bawa's former home, which has a guest suite containing two bedrooms. Staying here is such a special and immersive way to understand Bawa and his world. Highbury Colombo is a homestay with a wonderful urban garden. There are also homes that have been converted into charming boutique hotels, like Ishq, a beautiful house that was designed by Channa Daswatte.' (Rooms from about $250 a night at Ishq; rooms from about $70 at Highbury Colombo; suite from about $350 at Number 11) — Shayari de Silva
'A newly built hotel called Cinnamon Life at City of Dreams has more than 900 pieces of Sri Lankan art in its collection, including one of mine. It's a wonderful hotel in a building designed by Cecil Balmond, who was part of the team that engineered the Bird's Nest stadium in Beijing. (Rooms from about $138 per night) — Jagath Weerasinghe
'Tintagel is a boutique hotel in a historic house where a lot of important political moments took place. The interiors are very grand [and are] by the family behind the Paradise Road Gallery Café.' (Rooms from about $250 per night) — Amesh Wijesekera
Eat and Drink
'About a year and a half ago, three brothers opened a restaurant called Gini, [whose name] means 'fire' in Sinhalese. Most of the food is grilled or features a fire component in the way it's prepared. They serve dishes like oysters with herb-infused coconut cream and Malay-style beef cheek pie, and there's sometimes a fancy version of a s'more on the dessert menu. They have the best arrack sours in Colombo [arrack is a liquor made from the fermented sap of coconut flowers].
'The Gallery Café, located in a fantastic space that was Geoffrey Bawa's old office, has been a Colombo favorite for decades. The black pork curry is one of their best Sri Lankan dishes. I think they also have the best desserts in Colombo.
'Palmyrah Restaurant is in the no-frills basement of the Renuka City Hotel, but it has amazing food, including lots of northern dishes such as kool (seafood stew) and Jaffna crab curry. The best crab and shrimp dishes are from the north. The spices tend to be roasted more, and there's less coconut milk or grated coconut in the dishes.' — S.D.S.
'You can't talk about Colombo without talking about Ministry of Crab. Sri Lanka is well known for our giant mud crabs (also known as lagoon crabs), but funnily enough, we don't often get to eat them in Sri Lanka because [most of the catch] gets exported to Singapore, Hong Kong or Taiwan. So if you want to try the highest quality of Sri Lankan crabs here, Ministry of Crab is the place that you should go — sometimes, if you're lucky, you'll get a crab that weighs one and a half or two kilos.
'Club Ceylon in Negombo is convenient to the airport if you're catching a flight. Liz Norris is a half-English, half-Sri Lankan chef cooking in a colonial house a four-minute drive from Lellama, which is the best fish market in the country. She handpicks whatever she wants to cook that day and prepares it with a Mediterranean feel.
'In Sri Lanka we call everyone an uncle or an auntie, so it's hard to not want to go for a drink at a bar called Uncle's. The drinks change often and [the bartenders] use a lot of local ingredients. It gets really busy some nights, and the music is always good — it's a vibe.
'There's this crazy tradition we have at Galle Face Hotel when a bagpiper, dressed in a kilt, comes to play at the lowering of the flag every day when the sun goes down. I'll go to In on the Green, a pub in the hotel, and have a beer and a little bite — we never have a drink without a bite — and usually it's hot butter cuttlefish or spicy fish croquettes. It's not the most Sri Lankan experience, but it's a tradition that's been going on for over a hundred years.' — Rishi Naleendra
'If you want good Jaffna food [Jaffna is the largest city in northern Sri Lanka], Olai in Wellawatte is a small family-run restaurant. Many Jaffna people are vegetarians, and Olai's dishes include puttu — a cylindrical rice cake made of steamed grated coconut and rice flour — served with different curries.' — J.W.
Shop
'Barefoot [originally called Colombo Gallery] was started [in the 1960s] by Barbara Sansoni, a textiles designer who had been approached by Mother Good Counsel of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd [an order of Catholic nuns] looking for ways to promote social empowerment projects in rural parts of the island. It's one of the most interesting places to take somebody to understand Sri Lankan crafts. There's a gallery and a fantastic cafe as well.' — S.D.S.
'Several stores support young Sri Lankan designers. PR is a very high-end concept store started by Annika Fernando of Paradise Road, which is the iconic store that has a bit of everything. The Design Collective (the main entrance is inside Gandhara, a high-end furniture and interior design store) has a wide range of designers.' — A.W.
Take Home
'The country is really known for producing black tea and spices. The best cinnamon comes from Sri Lanka as well. You can get beautifully packaged ones at Paradise Road and Barefoot, but you can also find them in grocery stores. There are certain canned condiments that I still take for my friends every time I go to New York, like pol sambol, which is grated coconut with spices and umbalakada, or Maldives fish — dried, cured tuna that has a distinct taste.' — S.D.S.
'My wife loves the tapioca chips salted with chili and roasted cashew nuts [found at supermarkets] and I always bring home lamprais — short-grain rice cooked in stock and then added to mixed-meat curry, ash plantains, caramelized onion and a fish cutlet. It's all wrapped in a little packet with banana leaf. The best place to get them is from the Dutch Burgher Union, [which will sell them to you] ready frozen. Preorder in advance and they'll have them ready for you to pick up. They'll keep for a couple of months in the freezer. Whenever I miss home, I'll steam one up in the oven and when I open the banana leaf, it's an amazing smell.' — R.N.
'Urban Island [sells] homewares, organic spices and a bit of everything, almost all [grown or] designed in Sri Lanka.
'Kala Pola is a big open-air art fair that happens on the street once a year [normally in February] where all the artists from across Sri Lanka come to show their work in booths set up around the Viharamahadevi Park. You can meet the local artists and find their work at its raw source, before it gets to the shops.' — A.W.
Explore
'The Colombo National Museum is one of my favorite places because you could literally be the only person in this massive building. A lot of national museums tend to be pretty heavy on narrative, but somehow here, you can take it in more on your own terms.' — S.D.S.
'The best places to see art are the Sapumal Foundation, which was the home of one of the members of the '43 Group, the avant-garde modernists of Sri Lanka, and the galleries of Saskia Fernando [PRSFG] and Dominic and Nazreen Sansoni [Barefoot].' — J.W.
'Kelaniya Temple is a beautiful Buddhist place with lots of 18th-century and early 20th-century Buddhist murals by Solias Mendis. In Thimbirigasyaya there are two temples, Asokoramaya and Isipathanaramaya, built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries [and] fully painted by M. Sarlis, whose teacher, Richard Henricus, was a painter of murals and theater backdrops. The results were extremely kitsch and colorful renderings of ancient palaces. Also from the early 20th century is Gothami Viharaya, a 15-minute drive north, with murals by George Keyt. Mendis's work in Kelaniya, the temples in Thimbirigasyaya and Gothami Viharaya were all painted during the same period for the same audience but in three different styles, showing the cosmopolitan nature of Sri Lankan society.' — J.W.
'Getting lost is the best way to explore the Pettah Market because you never know what you'll find. One alleyway leads to little toy shops, another to electronics shops with the craziest things. Then you'll randomly go upstairs and enter a bridal boutique. In the center of the market is the Red Mosque, which combines Islamic, Gothic and Neoclassical influences. The surrounding architecture is also historic, with many British colonial constructions, like the Cargills Building.' — A.W.
These interviews have been edited and condensed.