Ceylonta Restaurant

Ottawa, Canada

3.3

Open now

20 reviews

Contacts

QR code, vCard

Telephone:
+1 613-237-7812
Website:
ceylonta.ca
Address:
403 Somerset Street W, Ottawa, ON, K2P 0K1
Nearby public transportation stops & stations:
690 ftBank/Lisgar
0.2 miBank/Gloucester
0.3 miGLADSTONE / KENT
Categories:
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Bussiness info

Takes Reservations
Yes
Delivery
Yes
Take-out
Yes
Accepts Apple Pay
No
Accepted Cards
Credit, Debit
Good For
Lunch
Bike Parking
Yes
Good for Kids
Yes
Good for Groups
Yes
Attire
Casual
Noise Level
Average
Alcohol
Full Bar
Outdoor Seating
No
Wi-Fi
No
Has TV
No
Waiter Service
Yes
Caters
Yes

Today

Today 11:30 am – 2:00 pm
5:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Open now
Local time (Ottawa) 13:07 Friday, 18 July 2025

Business hours

Monday 11:30 am – 2:00 pm
5:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Tuesday 11:30 am – 2:00 pm
5:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Wednesday 11:30 am – 2:00 pm
5:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Thursday 11:30 am – 2:00 pm
5:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Friday 11:30 am – 2:00 pm
5:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Saturday 5:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Sunday 12:00 pm – 2:00 pm
5:00 pm – 9:00 pm

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Nearby

Near this location:
70
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20 reviews of Ceylonta Restaurant

No registration required
Place rating: 1
Ottawa, Canada
After being asked by the proprietor many, many times to bring my family (and only doing so once) I was asked to stay away. I guess the buffet is a loss-​leader to get nighttime customers and if you’re not going to be a regular one of those, your lunchtime business isn’t valued.
I’ll miss the place, but I don’t like how I was treated. In retrospect, perhaps it would have been better for me to just be honest. «Sorry Ranjan, my family hated it.» But now I won’t be back either.
Place rating: 4
Perth, Canada
I have eaten here for years and always love the food. I appreciate that they cook with coconut oil instead of cheap vegetable oil. My husband lived in Sri Lanka for a while and he claims the food is very authentic to the region. The staff are always so warm and friendly.
The masala dosas are top notch! The chicken and lamb curries are wonderful. I also enjoy the simple cabbage dish. They make a great lentil dal.
Place rating: 3
Ottawa, Canada
After avoiding this place for 6 months after my really, really disappointing experience last July (see previous review), I received a tearful apology from the server via my husband.
Last week, a colleague arranged a lunch meeting here. I figured there would be little harm since it was a buffet. It turned out to be a good experience. The server didn’t hover and brought drinks, including Chai, promptly (!). We had a nice time and the food was delicious. The day we were there some of my favourites were on offer: curried green beans and curried beef (too salty) and curried chicken (delicious). I tried the soup but it was also too salty. The naan was plentiful and cooked to perfection, and there was a nice array of desserts from which to choose.
Place rating: 4
Ottawa, Canada
I had the lunch buffet, it wasn’t very large but the food is very good and some of it had some wild heat, I will go back here for sure.
Place rating: 1
Ottawa, Canada
I went here for the lunch buffet with a friend, because I’d heard so many good things about it. It was the worst Indian meal I’d ever had in my life. The quality of the food was awful. It was as if they reheated things out of a can, and served it up to customers, and then charged 15 dollars for it. Just ridiculous.
At the most I would give it a 1.5, because the service was not terrible.
When you go somewhere for the food, and it turns out like this, I would not recommend it to others.
Place rating: 4
Stamford, CT
Vegetarian thali is good… I like 3 out of 5 curries and both subzi are good. Me and my wife are impressed with veg food as we were searching for about week…
Place rating: 3
Ottawa, Canada
I’ve been here a few times for the dinner because its a very convenient place to take vegetarian/​vegan friends and family.
I find the food/​service to be very hit or miss. Each time I’ve visited I’ve gotten the vegetable thali. For roughly $ 16, you get enough food to feed two people easily. The only problem is that sometimes the curries are piping hot, spicy, and delicious and other times, they have been cold and bland.
I quite like the roti but my absolute favourite thing in the entire restaurant is the coconut sambol. If you aren’t one of those people who hate coconuts and spicy food, give it a try.
The service here, while friendly, is often quite slow so its probably not the place to go if you are in a rush.
Place rating: 3
Oakville, Canada
This is the only Sri Lanka and Indian buffet restaurant I could find in the area. With my girlfriend being Sri Lanka and me being Indian, it was nice to have a restaurant that catered to both of our cultures. The location isn’t that great, it is not a fancy restaurant by any means. In fact, it does feel a little crowded especially where the food is kept at.
The quality of the food was average but nothing out of the ordinary. The staff were friendly which is a nice plus.
Overall, I would recommend this location to a friend.
Place rating: 1
Beverly Hills, CA
Went to the lunch buffet. Pretty disappointed with the selection and quality of the food. None of the food seemed freshly made. The nan is not crispy at all. And our favorite butter chicken is not there… Even among Indian buffets the food is below average. Don’t understand the good reviews this gets on Unilocal
Place rating: 4
Edmonton, Canada
This is one of those places in Ottawa that every second person I spoke to had a rave review for.
After calling it quits on making myself dinner on Sunday, a friend and I decided to try this place.
We walked in and waited a moment at the front before we decided to poke our heads in and see where we could sit. We wandered a bit before it was made clear that we could sit anywhere.
It took them a few minutes to recognize we were sitting there before they brought over the menu. We looked for a few things to share and then waited a bit before we ordered.
We ordered a variety of things and the server then informed us that we should try other things instead. They brought us an appetizer platter a mutton rotti and a shared dish with a variety of things. It wasn’t clear to me what the shared dish was called.
The rotti was great, a bit heavy but it was really tasty. The appetizers were good, in the future I’d probably just order samosas as they were the best of the mix.
The mixed dish that we had featured a variety of items including eggplant, chicken, some sort of lentil purée, spinach, beans, squash, cabbage and some other mixed veg dish. Unfortunately of all the items we really only liked a couple of them. Good to know for the future, but I think too had we fully understood what we were getting we probably would have chosen something else.
To be honest, the place didn’t totally live up to the hype. It was good, and the food was decent but I was expecting more distinctly Sri Lankan.
It’s right down the street from my place, so perhaps I’ll head back and try some other items.
Place rating: 5
Toronto, Canada
Excellent food. The vegetarian thali is amazing. Be sure to add the Kuthu Roti and Stringhoppers to your order. They are both incredibly tasty and interesting dishes.
Place rating: 4
Ottawa, Canada
Excellent! What can I say, it was inexpensive, authentic and quick (did the lunch buffet)
Place rating: 5
Austin, TX
One of the best Sri Lankan (with South Indian slant) food I have had.
I was visiting Ottawa on business and ended up having food here multiple times. My personal favorites were Kothuroti, Deviled chicken and Kothu string hoppa.
If you can take some spice request the spicy version. I preferred Goat in my «kothu».
Wish Ceylonta was in my home town.
Place rating: 5
Ottawa, Canada
The best Indian food I’ve ever had. In addition to the amazing food, the service was exceptional and the atmosphere was very comfortable. At the end of our meal, I asked for a doggy bag and our server went above and beyond and practically gave me a complete meal (more than what I left on my plate).
Place rating: 3
Halifax, Canada
I’m not sure why I was so generous with my first review, probably because it was one of the first ones I ever made.
Anyway, I’ve tried their curry chicken, their kothu roti and their devilled chicken. The curry chicken was so gross my dad and I sent it back, their excuse was at the end of the night the food quality can decline too. So apparently if you’re coming at the end of the night expect your food to suck.
The kothu roti was also disgusting. It was mushy and it was obviously reheated. I don’t know if I just find the dish to be gross or if it’s the way this restaurant makes it but I’d say it’s probably one of the nastiest things I’ve eaten.
I feel like I’m being so harsh, so I’ll cushion the blow a bit… The devilled chicken is good, really good. Although I find the chicken kind of tough the sauce it comes in is mighty tasty, delicious on rice. Their samosas and vegetable rolls are also fantastic and I would recommend them.
The service is also wonderful, so I feel bad giving them a bad review. They’re so polite and are happy to explain what goes into the dishes. The décor is also pretty neat.
Place rating: 2
Ottawa, Canada
A text came in to meet at Ceylonta and I really wish I declined. I love Indian and Sri Lankan food but this place was far from good during this visit.
The place is on Somerset on the bottom floor of an apartment/​condo across from Hartman’s on Somerset and beside Basmati.
I arrived at 8pm and saw my friends had arrived a few minutes early and ordered some appetizers. I sat down for a few minutes and when our server come over a few minutes later we were told the kitchen would close in 15 minutes as they close at 9pm. We ordered the chicken palandi, string hopper kothu and kothu rotti.
The chicken planandi was probably the best dish we ordered and didn’t have great flavours. The other 2 dishes looked identical (with different colour) and I’ve had a lot better elsewhere. I wasn’t the only person at our table who felt like the last 2 dishes tasted reheated. They tasted like food that was made a in large batch earlier in the day and reheated, then brought out during dinner service. We ordered naan and it was eerily similar to store bought naan and not like the in house naan a lot of the restaurants in Ottawa make.
This review pains me to write as the staff are super friendly!
Place rating: 2
Ottawa, Canada
First things first, if you’re the type of person to be put off by the location of a restaurant, you might want to steer clear of this one as it’s nestled in the basement of a high-​rise apartment building.
As for the food and the service, the food was not spectacular and the service was great until we received our food, but as soon as that part of the dining experience was over, the wait staff wanted nothing to do with us. Trying to pay was a lesson in patience and culminated in one of us actually leaving our table to find someone to hand a credit card over to.
And as a side note, the restaurant was oven-​hot on a summer night and the lighting was much too dark, so it doesn’t even get any ambiance points.
I would try one of the many other Indian/​Sri Lankan restaurants in town before heading back here again.
Place rating: 4
Pickering, Canada
Food here was flavourful and the owner was friendly and helped us wtih picking what to eat, we went here for the lunch buffet.
I have never had Sri Lankan food before and I’m glad that I tried it out, I actually liked pretty much everything that I tried here.
Lots of vegetarian and vegan options were available at this restaurant.
We all had the chai here and it was amazing, probably the best tea I’ve had in a long long time.
I would highly recommend trying this Sri Lankan — Indian Fusion mix restaurant to anyone who is in the mood of trying something new. I will definitely go here again, this is one of my new favourite restaurants for Ottawa.
Place rating: 4
Montreal, Canada
One of my favorite places to eat in Ottawa. The Sri Lankan cuisine is very much like Indian with a fruit twist — i.e. a lot of fruit sauces and garnishing, such as coconut and mango.
Also, if you like hot, they have hot if you want. And you should definitely have to check out the lunch buffet. It’s a great price and assortment.
Place rating: 4
Ottawa, Canada
This is a charming, unique place that is a favourite amongst Vegetarian’s and meat-eater’s alike.
Sri Lankan cuisine has a lot of similarities to Indian food, but has its own distinct features that makes it worth checking out.
They take their time in preparing the food carefully, and go per location tradition of bringing all the dishes out together, so the wait can be long, but undoubtedly worth it.
The servers are polite and friendly, and will even provide helpful informative instructions on how to eat the traditional Sri Lankan way!
As for the menu, the Vegetable Thali is a must-​have for vegetarians (and non vegetarians too); it consists of six separate scintilating vegetable dishes combined with basmati rice and pappadum.
The curried chicken is a favourite of mine, as you can taste the spices such as coriander, cumin, and fennel that have been pre-​roasted to a deep brown coffee colour, making it uniquely Sri Lankan.
Cap off the night with a galub jamun dessert and Ceylonta’s special tea, and you will have yourself a lovely evening!