A TASTE OF SRI LANKA IN EWELL #REVIEW…
Posted by Juliet Wheater on 01 Mar 2026
The hub of the village of Ewell is surely the popular All Things Nice café, run by two local ladies Nicci and Sara. A bustling, warm and friendly café, serving delicious dishes using fresh, locally sourced ingredients. Pop in with the dog for coffee or enjoy lunch with friends and family or celebrate with an indulgent afternoon tea. All Things Nice embodies warmth, sustainability, and culinary excellence, solidifying its role as a community cornerstone. Always collaborative, the café served recently as a wonderful pop-up venue for Stoneleigh based, Manny’s Kitchen.
It was a real treat for my husband and I to meet the lady herself as well as her business partner Ruby and taste their delicious Valentines menu. Manny’s Kitchen is operated by qualified nutritionist Manny and is a Surrey-based catering and food service business specialising in authentic, Sri Lankan-inspired cuisine with a focus on health and, often vegan/low-allergy options. Operating as a Community Interest Company (CIC) Manny’s Kitchen offers bespoke catering menus and exciting popup events, restaurant nights as well as delicious takeaway services.
My husband and I visited Sri Lanka many moons ago and one lasting impression of the country is the warm and friendly nature of its people as well as its incredible cuisine! To my mind it’s similar but lighter than traditional Indian dishes with a sophisticated and varied ingredient palate, a kin to Thai and Malay cooking. A superb blend of all these differing cultures! Key influences include South Indian, Dutch and Indonesian traditions.
Sri Lankan food is a vibrant, spicy, and coconut-centric cuisine centered on rice and curry, featuring intense flavours enhanced by spices like cinnamon, pandan leaf, and curry leaves. It is characterised by diverse, aromatic dishes, including fresh seafood, fiery sambals (relishes), and unique vegetarian options.
Some typical ingredients include coconut, tamarind, with a main of protein of fish or chicken, served with several vegetable curries. Sri Lanka is famous for its high-quality cinnamon, along with cloves, cardamon, turmeric and dried red chilli paste.
Each mouthful of the evening meal we sampled from Manny’s Kitchen was sensational! Comforting I would say but quite complex too. The labour of the love that goes into creating these meals had not gone unnoticed.
My husband and I were lucky enough to sample: an appetiser called Phool Makhana which immediately surprised us both. Looking like straight forward popcorn, they were much more elevated than that! They are a popped lotus crunchy snack, lightly spiced in chaat masala, cumin powder and turmeric.
Our vegetarian main was called Kaju Maluwa, a rich, creamy and aromatic vegetarian mild curry featuring plump cashews simmered in coconut milk with fragrant spices such as curry leaves, turmeric, chilli and rampe. So flavourful! We also enjoyed the chicken called Kukul Mass.
Differing types of dahl served as sides and they included: Parripou, slow cooked and lightly tempered with mustard seeds, cumin seeds with dried red chillis and pandan leaves. Bonchi is a green bean lightly spiced and stir fried in mustard seeds, with garlic, sliced onions and turmeric. Batu Mojo (my favourite!) are aubergines lightly fried in turmeric and cooked in sliced onions, curry leaves and chillies. Also, we enjoyed Seeni Sambal which is made up of red sliced onions which is cooked very slowly over a low heat and spiced with the warming heat of cinnamon and tamarin.
Although I was full, I really could have enjoyed eating that entire plate of food all over again immediately!
Obviously there was room just enough for a Trio of Desserts. Love Cake (very apt for Valentine’s night!) is a traditional aromatic Sri Lankan cake. Very light but bursting with flavour (I’d actually really love to have the recipe!) is made with semolina, cashews, rose water, honey, cardamon and lime zest. Accompanying this was a Chilli Chocolate Brownie with Raspberry Coulis and finally a delicious Mango Cheesecake, made with cream cheese, fresh mango, ginger biscuits, butter plus that Sri Lankan cardamon for that extra special and authentic flavour!
Do follow the ladies at Manny’s Kitchen to keep up dated with all the events and special events and evenings that they put on across our community. For example:
Kitchen Roots Community in Chessington is where you’ll find delicious and different menus as well as scheduled masterclasses, so you can learn to cook some of these delicanices yourself. Manny’s Kitchen work sregularly with other local businesses as well as All Things Nice you can shake things up a bit with the collaboration with The Grape Variety in Chipstead and enjoy a Sri Lankan Sunday Roast dinner! The next date is the 29th March, you can book your table here.
Follow Manny’s Kitchen on Instagram: @mannys.kitchen.stoneleigh
https://www.instagram.com/mannys.kitchen.stoneleigh/
To enquire about parties & events & private catering email: food@mannyskitchen.co.uk.
Enjoy!
Juliet
