Last time, we explored how Sri Lanka's deep-rooted culinary tradition has always made space for plant-based eating, whether or not the label was ever attached. This time, we went looking for something slightly different: restaurants that have made plant-based eating a deliberate part of their identity, rather than simply a byproduct of tradition. Three restaurants, three distinct approaches, and a continuing conversation about where Colombo's plant-based dining scene is headed.
When the classics get a complete overhaul
Hidden away in Reid Avenue, Kemara wears its mission on its sleeve: to show that plant-based food can be satisfying, creative and free from compromise. That philosophy is on the menu, and you get to taste it. We tried the Grilled Tri Colour Peppers and Olives Pizza topped with nutritional yeast and cashew cheese, alongside the Vegan Peppers Lasagna, layered with roasted carrots, bell peppers and cauliflower in a creamy vegan cheese. Both dishes were 100% plant-based and responsibly sourced, and what stood out was how thoughtfully the kitchen approached familiar ingredients and flavours. The pizza base was made with alternative flours and had a texture and character that marked a clear departure from a conventional pizza base, while remaining distinctive in its own right.
Dishes like these require more care than they often get credit for. Creating a convincing vegan cheese from cashews and nutritional yeast requires a careful understanding of flavour, texture, and what diners expect from familiar dishes. . Kemara appears to understand this balance well. The purpose of making plant-based eating seem uncompromisingly delicious comes through constantly, and it’s an ambition that’s harder to achieve than it sounds.
Homegrown and unhurried
While Kemara’s method feels architectural, Life’s Good Kitchen follows a different path. The interior sets the tone: low lighting, surfaces piled high with plants and other artefacts, the sort of place that doesn’t feel designed so much as accumulated over time. It is homely in the best sense, and that applies to the food too.
With its mushroom and pumpkin filling, the vegan burger isn’t aiming to be a meat burger. It has its own taste and texture and is different enough that you would not want to compare it to a regular patty at all. The lemongrass tofu rice is similarly confident, with flavours that are unabashedly bold and distinctly South Asian . It’s the sort of dish that doesn’t try to prove a point about plant-based eating; it simply is what it is. The falafel and hummus rounded out the meal well: dependable, done with care, just what you want from a cuisine that lives or dies on consistency.
What’s left after a lunch here is less any particular dish and more a feeling that this is a kitchen genuinely invested in what it delivers.
Fast food, but make it intentional
Bowl’d falls into a category that’s tougher to find done well: nutritious fast food. The idea is based on the Hawaiian poké bowl and plays nicely with plant-based eating, because it’s inherently built on fresh vegetables, complex flavours, and adaptability. We tried the kale and shiitake mushroom fried rice, and it delivered exactly on its promise: clean, well-layered, unfussy. The shiitake gives a depth that works especially well here, the kind of umami that makes you forget the dish is asking nothing of meat.
What Bowl’d does well is demystifying plant-based food in a fast-casual manner. Vegan alternatives are clearly labelled and the build-your-own format means you’re not picking from a small section of the menu that seems like an afterthought– you’re dealing with the complete toolkit. That integration means more than it might appear in a dining landscape where plant-based options are typically segregated as though to apologise for their presence.
A scene with growing intent
Across Kemara, Life’s Good Kitchen and Bowl’d, an increasingly intentional plant-based dining scene is emerging. These are not restaurants that fell into offering plant-based meals because Sri Lanka’s culinary legacy made it simple, though that backdrop is always there. These are places that have thought about what they are delivering and why. The spectrum– from Kemara’s reinvented classics to Life’s Good Kitchen’s unhurried warmth to Bowl’d’s fresh, fast-phased approach– reveals that Colombo’s plant-based scene is not coalescing around a single paradigm. It’s growing, which is exactly what a maturing food culture should do.
Last time, we explored how Sri Lanka's deep-rooted culinary tradition has always made space for plant-based eating, whether or not the label was ever attached. This time, we went looking for something slightly different: restaurants that have made plant-based eating a deliberate part of their identity, rather than simply a byproduct of tradition. Three restaurants, three distinct approaches, and a continuing conversation about where Colombo's plant-based dining scene is headed.
When the classics get a complete overhaul
Hidden away in Reid Avenue, Kemara wears its mission on its sleeve: to show that plant-based food can be satisfying, creative and free from compromise. That philosophy is on the menu, and you get to taste it. We tried the Grilled Tri Colour Peppers and Olives Pizza topped with nutritional yeast and cashew cheese, alongside the Vegan Peppers Lasagna, layered with roasted carrots, bell peppers and cauliflower in a creamy vegan cheese. Both dishes were 100% plant-based and responsibly sourced, and what stood out was how thoughtfully the kitchen approached familiar ingredients and flavours. The pizza base was made with alternative flours and had a texture and character that marked a clear departure from a conventional pizza base, while remaining distinctive in its own right.
Dishes like these require more care than they often get credit for. Creating a convincing vegan cheese from cashews and nutritional yeast requires a careful understanding of flavour, texture, and what diners expect from familiar dishes. . Kemara appears to understand this balance well. The purpose of making plant-based eating seem uncompromisingly delicious comes through constantly, and it’s an ambition that’s harder to achieve than it sounds.
Homegrown and unhurried
While Kemara’s method feels architectural, Life’s Good Kitchen follows a different path. The interior sets the tone: low lighting, surfaces piled high with plants and other artefacts, the sort of place that doesn’t feel designed so much as accumulated over time. It is homely in the best sense, and that applies to the food too.
With its mushroom and pumpkin filling, the vegan burger isn’t aiming to be a meat burger. It has its own taste and texture and is different enough that you would not want to compare it to a regular patty at all. The lemongrass tofu rice is similarly confident, with flavours that are unabashedly bold and distinctly South Asian . It’s the sort of dish that doesn’t try to prove a point about plant-based eating; it simply is what it is. The falafel and hummus rounded out the meal well: dependable, done with care, just what you want from a cuisine that lives or dies on consistency.
What’s left after a lunch here is less any particular dish and more a feeling that this is a kitchen genuinely invested in what it delivers.
Fast food, but make it intentional
Bowl’d falls into a category that’s tougher to find done well: nutritious fast food. The idea is based on the Hawaiian poké bowl and plays nicely with plant-based eating, because it’s inherently built on fresh vegetables, complex flavours, and adaptability. We tried the kale and shiitake mushroom fried rice, and it delivered exactly on its promise: clean, well-layered, unfussy. The shiitake gives a depth that works especially well here, the kind of umami that makes you forget the dish is asking nothing of meat.
What Bowl’d does well is demystifying plant-based food in a fast-casual manner. Vegan alternatives are clearly labelled and the build-your-own format means you’re not picking from a small section of the menu that seems like an afterthought– you’re dealing with the complete toolkit. That integration means more than it might appear in a dining landscape where plant-based options are typically segregated as though to apologise for their presence.
A scene with growing intent
Across Kemara, Life’s Good Kitchen and Bowl’d, an increasingly intentional plant-based dining scene is emerging. These are not restaurants that fell into offering plant-based meals because Sri Lanka’s culinary legacy made it simple, though that backdrop is always there. These are places that have thought about what they are delivering and why. The spectrum– from Kemara’s reinvented classics to Life’s Good Kitchen’s unhurried warmth to Bowl’d’s fresh, fast-phased approach– reveals that Colombo’s plant-based scene is not coalescing around a single paradigm. It’s growing, which is exactly what a maturing food culture should do.
