Picture of Adchaya, SW19 1AZ

Historical version 6 of Adchaya, SW19 1AZ (view current version)

Small Sri Lankan canteen-style restaurant and takeaway near South Wimbledon Station. The food here is cheap and very tasty.

If you're by yourself, try one of the lunch specials, but make sure you're hungry or you'll never finish it! These change depending on the day of the week: "rice and curry" on Monday to Thursday (a big plate of rice with either a main meat or fish dish plus three small vegetable dishes, or four vegetable dishes and rasam); a vegetarian thali on Friday (rice with something like eight different dishes, plus poppadom and vadai); special fried noodles (with chicken, mutton and squid) and mutton curry on Saturday, and [something else]? on Sunday. These are all great value at less than £5 for a very filling meal (some as little as £3.00).

(Although listed in the menu as "lunchtime specials", the Monday-Thursday one seems to be available all the time, including evenings, by asking for "rice and curry" and specifying the type: mutton, chicken, fish or vegetable.)

If you're with a group, the best thing to do is to order a lot of different things and share them. The staff are very helpful and can advise on the quantity to order. Some Sri Lankan specialities to try are the string hoppers (rice noodles steamed in a flat patty, served with sambol (coconut with lime juice and spices) and sothi (onions and chillis infused in coconut milk)); plain hoppers (a sort of rice flour pancake, cooked in a domed pan so the edges are crispy and the centre is thick, soft and fluffy); the "fried fish" starter (infused with spices and wonderfully tender); the kothu dishes (cooked with torn up roti); and the "Ceylon" dishes (hot and sour curries with coconut milk).

The South Indian dishes on the menu are also very good. A masala dosai is big enough as a lunch in its own right.

The starters are all under the counter at the back. Go up and have a look, and point out ones you like the look of, even if you don't know what they're called!

If you prefer your food milder, be aware that much Sri Lankan food is significantly hotter than you may be used to!

Vegetarians should find plenty to interest them here (much South Indian food is vegetarian, and the vegetarian rice and curry is always available). The situation for vegans is unclear.

The Watch Me is another Sri Lankan restaurant nearby, that also serves beer. In my (Martin's) opinion, the food is better at Adchaya, if you can live without the beer. If you're going for a curry after a night in the pub, go to the Watch Me rather than here - they're rather more used to it.

Archive copy of OGL page - some of the text here may sound familiar, since I wrote most of both.

Last visited by Martin on 2008-01-02. Forgot to check opening times, sorry, though they sound about right.
OS X co-ord: 526058 OS Y co-ord: 170101 (Latitude: 51.415400 Longitude: -0.187049)
This is version 6 (as of 2008-02-04 15:00:57). View current version. List all versions.