Six To Try: Melbourne’s Best All-You-Can-Eat Sri Lankan Buffets

As a Sri Lankan, the sight of a buffet brings me utter joy. Stainless steel bain-maries take pride of place at our family gatherings, spread across a set of trestles or a kitchen bench. They’re loaded to the brim with glistening short-grain fried rice, chicken drumsticks swimming in an unctuous curry gravy, with bowls of puffy pappadums and prawn-y “Chinese-style” chilli pastes waiting to be scooped with coconut spoons. Melbourne has a bounty of Sri Lankan buffet restaurants representative of our culture. Here are my top picks of the lot.

Maalu Maalu, Brunswick

If you’ve tried kottu roti, you’ll know the familiar “tuka tuka” sound of dual cleavers hammering a hotplate to cut up a combination ribbon-like roti, chicken curry and veg. At the three-year-old Maalu Maalu, co-owner Minuri Adams’s amma (mum) dishes out tray after tray of kottu; meat, seafood and veg curries; rices (yes, plural); and sambols. Come for happy hour lunch and you can eat as much as you want for $15. Otherwise, all-you-can-eat is $23–$27, with hoppers available on Friday and Saturday nights. 246 Sydney Rd, Brunswick

Mr Hoppers, Melbourne

Never did I, an outer-suburbs kid who was often food-shamed at school, think a hopper buffet would land in the CBD. These crisp-edged, bowl-shaped wonders – made from fermented rice flour and coconut milk – are soft-centred and the ideal match for curry and sambol. Visit Mr Hoppers on a Monday night for unlimited plain and egg hoppers, plus meat and veg curries. Call ahead to book. 303 Exhibition Street, Melbourne.

Citrus, Fitzroy North

The Somaweera family – mum, dad and two adult kids – opened Citrus just before Covid, and it’s still going strong. Don’t be put off by the crowds. The tables turn over quickly thanks to the restaurant’s 10 bain-maries, filled with Lankan staples including silky chicken curry, coconut dal (get Citrus’s recipe here) and yellow rice. But the real stars are condiments like zesty coconut (pol) sambol and the sweet, sticky eggplant moju, each bold enough to steal the show. 252 St Georges Road, Fitzroy North

Cha’s Cabin, Hallam

Lankans love nothing more than a drink (Scotch on the rocks, maybe) and singing karaoke into the wee hours. At Cha’s Cabin the husband and wife owners are liable to take over the mic on Thursday nights during their all-you-can-eat Sri Lankan buffet, with dishes including yellow rice, kottu roti, thosai (dosa), pittu (coconut and rice rolls) and hoppers. They change things up on Fridays and Saturdays with an “Eastern and Western buffet”, perhaps the only time rice and curry will ever share your plate with lasagne. 10 Spring Square, Hallam

The Brick House, Berwick

There’s nothing like Sri Lankan crab curry; crack claws and soak up a gravy enriched with curry leaves, mustard seeds, chilli and more at The Brick House’s Sunday buffet, alongside a live hopper station with plain, egg, milk and even chocolate hoppers. On Thursdays, swap crab for fish curries and add on a post-dinner karaoke session upstairs for the full Lankan experience. I wasn’t exaggerating about the karaoke. 17 Blackburne Square, Berwick.

House of Ceylon, Oakleigh

This all-you-can-eat Sri Lankan buffet runs at both lunch and dinner, with unlimited egg and plain hoppers, a myriad types of rice (don’t sleep on the egg fried rice), and a rotating line-up of curries. Keep an eye out for the breadfruit curry, a jammy, starchy, potato-adjacent fruit that feels purpose-built to soak up coconut milk and spice. Speaking of coconut milk and spice, they also feature in my desert-island dish: cashew curry, brimming with al dente nuts. Check its availability ahead of time to avoid disappointment. 97 Atherton Road, Oakleigh.