08-08-2025
Discover Smoke & Bitters in Hiriketiya, Sri Lanka's celebrated cocktail bar
It is not often that the barkeep of a restaurant recommends that you go to the restaurant next door. But that is exactly what happened on my first evening in Hiriketiya, a small beach town in Sri Lanka. In small towns, when someone makes it big, everyone becomes part-owner of their success story. Maybe that is the reason I was directed to Smoke & Bitters — not just as a place to drink, but also as a place of pride.
Ranked 14 on the list of Asia's top 50 bars in 2025, Smoke & Bitters, an open-air bar on Sri Lanka's southern coast, was founded by Don Ranasinghe and Lahiru Perera (Lalla) in 2020. The bar is built with local materials, and furnished with mismatched chairs and tables. 'This place has come together with the help of many friends. It was designed by one friend, another printed the menus, some helped us make the furniture, and everything is rustic. Nothing matches anything,' says Don.
By the time the sun sets, a light chill settles in, and candles are placed at every table. Drinks are poured without pause, and plates move quickly from the kitchen to tables under the watchful eye of Lalla. 'When we first started, the menu was all about creating something smoky, about going back to our Sri Lankan roots. In Sri Lankan cuisine, smoking is a way of preserving food. Neither of us had any experience in the technique of smoking, but we wanted to cook with wood fire,' he says.
I walk to the small smokehouse right by the bar. It adds not only to the ambience, but the rhythm of the place. 'We did not have access to smokers in Sri Lanka, and importing one would have been too expensive. So we decided to build one out of a barrel, modelled after a Texas barbecue smoker. It went through trial and error, we added temperature indicators, customised it for our needs, and here it is now,' says Don, looking proudly at their smoker Gini Raja, which translates to the king of fire in Sinhalese.
The conversation halts briefly as a plate of warm, house-made sourdough and smoked onion butter is placed in front of me. There are few pleasures in life as fine as warm bread and butter, and This smoked, spiced and aromatic butter with the tangy warm sourdough is an indicator of the things to come. I sip on Pepper Potts, a spiced gin and pineapple cocktail, as a sudden burst of rain sends everyone scrambling towards the covered bar. It is off-season for tourism on Sri Lanka's South coast, and yet every table is occupied. The rain simmers down, and the staff moves quickly to mop the floors and relight the candles. Within minutes, the evening resumes.
From the podi plates (small plates) section of the menu, I try the kurumba calamari, which is a tempura king coconut, served with a smoked corn salsa, and a chilli lime vinaigrette. It is sweet, savoury, smoky, tangy in right measures. The smoked cauliflower, served with wild potato purée, and cafe de Paris sauce is subtle, and could use a kick, but the confit leeks more than make up for it with the wasabi mayo, leek oil and mushroom a la crème.
The next drink I try is the Coco B'Smash, an unusual mix of gin, coconut cream with garden basil and cinnamon, but it pairs perfectly with the charcoal cabbage served with kiri hodi, a Sri Lankan coconut milk curry, and chilli paste. For a smokehouse by the sea, vegetarian dishes might seem like an afterthought, but here, they feel just as considered. For the seafood and meat lovers, the bar also has options like the smoked Lankan burrata that comes with house cured anchovies and grilled mango, and a smoked pork shoulder with kalipol (roasted coconut) glaze, among others.
The plates keep coming, the cocktails keep surprising, and the conversation keeps flowing. What stands out the most is a sense of care without performance. Don pauses to pet his dog Benjamin, who is walking around the open lawn, unfazed by the flow of people. There is an ease to the space. Nothing feels rushed, and yet everything moves like poetry in motion.
Smoke & Bitters is located at Pehebiya Rd Dickwella South, 81200, Sri Lanka. A meal for two costs LKR5,000 (Approx ₹1,500) and is open from 5pm to 11pm. For reservations WhatsApp +94 769902389
