Toast to Sri Lankan spirits at Kotuwa

UPON moving from Little India to the trendy New Bahru development in May, Sri Lankan restaurant Kotuwa opened an outdoor bar to celebrate Sri Lankan spirits.

Tucked away in a ground-floor corner of the hip destination, the 80-seater restaurant presents a contemporary take on Sri Lankan decor, with clay bricks, polished cement and bric-a-brac evoking a local living room. 

Its outdoor patio-style bar seats 20 people, mostly on so-called “plantation chairs”. These low-seated wood-and-rattan chairs are a staple on the porches of Sri Lankan estates, where families chit-chat with drinks, says head bartender Ashaka Harith, a native of the country’s capital Colombo.