Spicy Zest - Restaurant & Bar

Reviews

• FI

  FoxCavern “Ivy”

  3 days ago
  5.0
  stopped by with some friends on a day where they happened to be closed and they insisted on feeding us anyway!! so nice and great chill atmosphere. super yummy food and good portions; my friend could barely handle the medium spice level and i LOVED the spicy spice level. about $15 per person, very affordable for the yumminess :)
• EC

  Enabling Positive Change!

  4 days ago
  1.0
  Went to the Sunday buffet today. We had high hopes since we have been here a couple of times years back ( I had given a five star review via a different Google account ) This is the first time we came here after the expansion and adding the bar. To tell you how much of and excitement that we had we came a few minutes before the buffet is ready. Open time is 11 AM but the buffet was ready around 11:30. While waiting, we ordered a bunch of other side items in addition to buffet and also ordered some items to go since we traveled from far away. After tasting the buffet, unfortunately I immediately canceled all the extra items and to-go items because the authentic Sri Lankan taste was not there at all. To explain a few pointers : the coconut sambal was salty .. milk rice was salty chicken curry was made in sweet sauce. Shrimp was made in a sweet sauce. Cutlets were not the usual fish cutlets. They were with some sautéed onions. The famous dall Curry was pale and no much taste. No chicken dishes had any good authentic Sri Lankan taste. Egg kottu was Giving a little bit good flavor. The live hoppers station was there, but the hoppers did not have the right taste I think it was lacking the proper coconut milk. There wasn’t any authentic Sri Lankan Lunu miris instead they had open Chinese chili paste can and put on banana leave. When this place was run smaller, the food items had some authentic Sri Lankan flavor. Still at that time, it was not perfect. However since it is rare it was good enough and we appreciated it so much. Now with the expansion looks like the foot taste has gone down or they have lost their mission. Maybe it is an attempt to mix of different food cultures to bring a larger audience. So maybe there are some non-Sri Lankans, who like it - if that is the market objective, I can’t blame them and this review can be ignored. One of the girls ask us how is the food and everything and the second time she asked seriously I give some of these as constructive feedback. She was very professional and she took it very well. I also told her that we do not give up easily we will be back sometime in the future and hopefully Some of the feedback will be taken and things will get improved because it’s rare to have a Sri Lankan restaurant and we want it to be better and more enjoyable.
• AM

  Arun Mahendran

  Oct 8, 2026
  1.0
  "Good Food, but Poor Service and Serious Safety Concerns" The food was good, and the ambience was decent, but our overall dining experience was extremely disappointing. We visited around noon. Despite being almost empty, the service was poor. Our waiter was unavailable when we needed drinking water, and we had to get up and serve ourselves. The most concerning incident happened while we were having lunch. Two kitchen staff members started arguing loudly and aggressively. The argument became so heated that we genuinely feared it might turn into a physical altercation. Unfortunately, the owner or manager appeared unable to control or de-escalate the situation. The shouting and tension made us feel extremely uncomfortable and unsafe, forcing us to leave the restaurant. Good food alone doesn't make a good restaurant. Customer safety, professionalism, and basic service are equally important. No customer should have to witness aggressive confrontations between employees or feel unsafe while dining. Despite the good food, we cannot recommend this restaurant, especially to families. We hope the management takes this incident seriously and improves both staff conduct and customer service.
• MS

  Mahnaz Smith

  Oct 8, 2026
  5.0
  Had catering at work, and the service was amazing! Such a nice person with great energy. They even gave me complimentary samosas! I got the grilled chicken bowl, and it was very fresh and tasted really good. Definitely recommend!
• DD

  dfs

  Sep 15, 2026
  4.0
  We came to Spicy Zest Sri Lankan Restaurant for Friday dinner and decided to try the buffet since it was our first time there and we weren’t sure what to order. It was a great way to taste a variety of different Sri Lankan dishes. The food was good, and we especially enjoyed the sweet pittu and hopper. It was $25pp on Friday night’s buffet. One of the staff members was very nice and helpful. Since it was our first time, he explained how to eat the food with coconut milk and brown sugar and even brought some for us to try. It tasted really good and made the experience even more enjoyable. The ladies making the hoppers were also very nice and kept offering us fresh hoppers. We were a party of five and wanted to try all the different types, so we ordered each kind to share and taste. However, only a few hoppers were brought to our table, so we didn’t get to try as much as we hoped. Overall, we had a good first experience. The food was enjoyable, and the staff were friendly and helpful. We appreciated their hospitality and look forward to coming back to try more Sri Lankan dishes!

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