13.5/20

Updated October 26, 2026,first published November 11, 2024

13.5/20

Kurumba

Sri Lankan$$

Where a tropical bounty of bold island cooking and well-crafted cocktails await.

The restaurant-raised De Hoedt family aren’t shy to share their treasures: generational recipes rooted in Sri Lankan heritage, reworked for a contemporary wine bar. Pickled plums glint like gems in a peppery black curry of Berkshire pork from Bundarra Farm, smoky and rich with roasted spices.

The gravy is perfect dipping material with hoppers, those deceptively complex bowl-shaped crepes that here are lacy-edged and soft-centred with a sweet tang from fermented rice flour and coconut milk. Desserts prove the family’s pastry-chef pedigree: the coconut-scented watalappam is light and lush, the custard pudding finished with a lick of dark, woody kithul.

Service isn’t the smoothest, but the cocktails are, and reason enough to come; the Kurumba Sour is a textural mix of aquafaba and arrack, a Sri Lankan spirit distilled from fermented palm flower. Calamansi and pandan-laced sips beckon another round. Why not? You’re on island time.

Good to know: Skip snacks and save space for more curries and hoppers.

Good Food reviews are booked anonymously and paid independently. A restaurant can’t pay for a review or inclusion in the Good Food Guide.

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Last visited: April 2026

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Source: The Age

At a glance

Topic
World
Country
🇦🇺 AU
Publisher language
EN
Added to Allnira