[CLOSED] BLVD Café & Juice Bar

SRI LANKA 🇱🇰

[UPDATE: CLOSED]

At the beginning of October, a new Sri Lankan restaurant opened on Victory Blvd, a bit closer to the ferry and down the hill from most other restaurants of the country. From the outside, it would be hard to know anything of its vast Sri Lankan menu, as the awning simply states "Asian & American Restaurant." We did in fact see a man sit down here for a burger and fries, and the "Western" menu has quite a lot to offer, as well as the juice bar in the front.

But the main reason to come here for most will probably be South Asian fare from the small island nation off the coast of India's southern tip. We were full from another incredible meal at favorite New Asha, so on first visit could only sample the desserts. Like a couple other popular Staten Island spots, BLVD Café is offering a Sunday buffet with all you can eat meals and desserts for $12 per person. I will update this post after trying it.

Reason enough to visit here is for a bowl of kiri pani ($4, above), a yogurt dish served with treacle, a boiled down jaggery. There is just enough of this sweet syrupy sauce as to not be too sweet, because the delight is the delicious creamy yogurt.

The most significant of many spices in the watalappam ($6, below), is cardamom. It pervades the coconut custard pudding, a dense cool block with a burnt top skin. The tastes here are not all that sweet, more nutty and milky.

On our brief visit, the place is obviously finding its legs. A flustered male chef comes out of the kitchen and goes to buy things every now and again, while two younger girls that I take to be his daughters run the front with their New York accents. I am not sure if the place will lose one or more of its current ambitions and settle on a distinct theme once they find their niche, but if they do I will hope for their Sri Lankan menu to win out on the rest.

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TOMPKINSVILLE Staten Island

98 Victory Boulevard