When Hove’s first Sri Lankan restaurant describes itself as a family business it really means it. Moonstone is run by husband and wife team Dimuthu and Caroline Mendis, using recipes created by Dimuthu’s mother and cooked by two of his cousins.
The idea for the restaurant came from the six months the now Lancing-based Mendis family spent living in Sri Lanka.
“Dimuthu comes from Sri Lanka. We met there in 2000,” says Caroline.
“Ever since Dimuthu has lived here he has been cooking Sri Lankan food at home. Friends would come around and say we should open a restaurant. “We took six months off to live in Sri Lanka as a family before our two children started school, and while we were there we decided to open our own restaurant.”
Dimuthu worked in five-star hotels in Sri Lanka, and has spent seven years working at Brighton’s Grand Hotel, including four years as manager of the hotel’s lounge and bar, so customer service is high on the agenda.
And the influence of his Sri Lankan home is everywhere in the restaurant, from the hand-loomed fabrics on the tables and menus, to the decoration on the walls.
“We wanted to have a strong brand image,” says Caroline. “The moonstone is one of the gems that is mined in Sri Lanka.”
Moonstone is also the name of a traditional carving found at the doorsteps of Sri Lankan temples, one of which is on the wall of the restaurant.
The same design is picked out in their menus, which reflect the light blue colour of the moonstone gem.
Although food eaten at home in Sri Lanka is generally quite hot, the restaurant has consciously tried to follow Western tastes, while still using imported Sri Lankan spices and ingredients where possible to keep the authentic flavours.
“All the spices are home-roasted and blended in Sri Lanka,” says Dimuthu.
“There are light curries, delicately spiced with an abundance of fresh herbs and coconut, available from mild to hot according to customers’ requests.”
The mild version of the traditional chicken curry, which costs £6.50, is somewhere between an Indian and Thai curry, beautifully flavoured with lemon grass, cinnamon and coconut. Eaten with garlic and lemon rice imported from Sri Lanka (£2.50), and a gorgeous vegetable dish of aubergine and capsicum ratatouille (£5.95), the curry is delicately flavoured without being too rich.
Moonstone’s menu has been kept deliberately simple and features basic explanations of each dish. The only unrecognisable name on there is the rotti, a bread made with coconut and flour, which tastes like a combination of a chapatti, a pancake and a peshwari nan.
The restaurant also offers the authentic Sri Lankan beer Lion, and an extensive wine list, drawn up using Dimuthu’s experience at the Grand Hotel. Dimuthu and Caroline are now drawing up a set menu for Tuesdays to Thursdays, offering two courses for £9.99. They also offer all their dishes to take away at a 10% discount.
In the next few weeks they are launching a light lunches menu, starting at about £5.50, offering bitesize dishes including vegetable noodles with egg or lentil curry, hot vegetable salad including aubergines, okra beans and mushrooms, marinaded beef with cucumber and tomato on a rotti and warm chicken salad with mango and melon and a tangy cream dressing.
Review by Duncan Hall
