N.1 Dewmini Roti Shop

We finally made it to the beach! If you're hungry I recommend you to either read this post with something to eat or just postpone the reading and have a bite first.....

The highlight of Mirissa is without doubts the awesome N.1 Dewmini Roti shop! What a gem!!!! Merit goes to Conny who specifically recommended we stop there to try it when we're in Mirissa.

So first night we decide to go there a bit early as we've had he 5 hours bus ride no lunch and were super hungry...we're actually the first customers around 6pm and we notice a cooking class taking place in a corner. To be honest you wouldn't really give a dime to this place at first glance. You get into a backyard through a massively heavy sliding door and the view is that of a bunch of dark brown plastic tables with 2 fans and a couple of rainbow coloured umbrellas. You can have a partial view of the kitchen when you come in and a smiley lady comes to the table and gives you 2 menus one regular and one with today's special (which we calculated probably haven't changed for about 5 years at least).

First night we obviously ordered the Rotis as this is supposedly their specialty. So one avocado, tomato & cheese Roti and one olive mushroom and cheese Roti. Andy obviously prefers mine (the avocado one) as I always order the tastiest food (must be my Italian 6th sense). I also ordered a peanut butter shake oh myyyy so good. The Rotis come folded into a square, similar presentation to what a crepe would be in France, the taste is delicious but with 2 foodies is definitely not enough. So we ordered another avocado on and finished with a "Banoffi" sweet Roti wish was composed of banana, chocolate cookies crumbles and ice cream on top: an explosion of well matched flavours and soooo many calories.

Day 2 in Mirissa: " we should try breakfast at the Roti shop" and so breakfast it is! We tried the hoppers with coconut sambol & Dahl curry and the European breakfast. The coconut sambol was sooo flavourful I couldn't help eating it with a spoon once my string hoppers were finished. I'm not gonna hide it: I cried!!! The sambol is a dish made of minced coconut, garlic, chilli, onion and some other herbs and spices I couldn't identify. It's got different levels of spicy, this one I would say was medium spicy. Problem is that it is so tasty that before you realise your mouth is gonna go on fire you've already eaten half of the portion and are literally crying from it...but that's how I made another discovery which was the lime or tiny lemon on the fruit plate, so tasty and fresh and deliciously sour! The day at the beach goes by and we decide to skip lunch as I started my day with spicy food and feel guilty about it. So we get to dinner time and are both quite hungry..and...Roti shop it is again.

This time we tried the Kottu, or as I renamed it from its size the Kottu mountain. This is a typical Sri Lankan dish made of veggies, chopped Roti, egg and anything else you want to add(cheese or meat) and stir fried and chopped with two metal utensils that make very peculiar sounds on the iron board.. Sri Lankan percussions! The Kottu was sooo fresh and extremely light, despite of the huge portion, compared to others is way less oily and you can taste fresh veggies and all the flavours. This time no space for dessert, I come out of the restaurant in a food coma.

Day 3 (today)..breakfast again we were the first customers this morning and the guy literally woke up as the old man put menus on our table. We kept some space cause Andy will do a cooking class at the Roti shop and make curry, so exciting! Unfortunately they cancelled the class so we decided to pre-book or 6 curries for dinner and went for dinner at 7 instead. Tonight the atmosphere was even greater: typical Sri Lankan/Indian music was on in the kitchen and the ladies were dancing and laughing while cooking. We were warmly greeted by Gayani, the woman who gives the cooking class, who explained that 2 people cancelled and she didn't have our number to let us know. We have a quick chat and she's laughing and smiling and telling us that there's cooking class in Unawatuna as well. I joked that I was counting on her to eat curry at home and she asked if we were husband and wife...ahaha. I made the "butterfly move" in the attempt to show her that I have no ring (Andy particularly loved this moment). The curry was great and we ordered two lemon juices and a mango chocolate sweet Roti to finish with. Needless to say, everything was extremely delicious and we will be back tomorrow for breakfast.

There are a few things I loved of this place..it has a soul and it grows on you if you give it a chance. Food is delicious and such great value for money (cheapest place we've been to so far). There's an old guy who's clearly part of the family who is helping out and he is incredibly funny and sweet. In the three days we've been there he dropped the butter, he took off the upper part of a water pipe and couldn't put it back and dropped a couple of cutlery on the way. But each time he was secretly laughing about his clumsiness and i thought it was so extremely sweet and caring in the way he wanted to help. This morning he was walking among tables with his sandalwood incense to make an offer to Buddha, so cute. There were always a bunch of cute doggies waiting outside the restaurant and in the streets close by and two light brown ones in particular were very eager to get cuddles and I could tell they were friends with the family who's running the restaurant.

You keep going back to the Roti shop and you will notice that after the second day, people keep coming back and it becomes and even more familiar and warm gathering of people.

If you are ever in Mirissa, you cannot miss it! N.1 Dewmini Roti Shop!!!