Hopper Hut Ambience and Service 2 Stars Food 4
1/2 Stars (Out of a possible 5)
880 Ellesmere Road
Scarborough, ON, Canada
(416) 299-4311

Hopper Hut specializes in Sri Lankan Tamil Cuisine of the fiery
kind.You enter a shop front that looks like a take
out with a counter. You then are about to ask for the dining room when
you detect a side entrance into the
dining room. There is also an entrance from the back which might be
considered by the restaurant
to be front entrance.The dining room has about 10 tables with modest
plastic table covers with floral designs.

You have the standard Sri Lankan Tamil fare, the Kutthu
Rottis(Devilled Cut up Rotis mixed with your choice of
meats,chicken,fish and vegetables sauteed in a hot and fiery
concoction, String and Plain
Hoppers(rice cakes with egg both plain and stringed with a mild
sweet
cocout milk accompaniment, Tongue scalding chilli hot curries with
choice of meat,fish,chicken
and vegetable etc. These have generous helpings of tamarind and hot
spices and are all delicious.

But,their Piece de Resistance, is their Lampreis dishes: This has
faint glimmers of Rijstaffel because
of Sri Lanka's Dutch colonial past The Sri Lankan Tamils have
apparently transformed this dish by adding
their own ethnic genius calling these dishes Kattu Shoru( or 'Tied Up'
Rice) which to an Indian palate is a
kind of Biriyani, that is cooked rice in a scalding chilli hot sambhal
sauce with three seperately prepared
vegetable of like hotness along with a side dish of Karuvadu(or dried
fish) and your choice of
meat, chicken,fish or vegetable are all packed together in a large
bannana leaf and then steamed. These
dishes come to the table piping hot tied in thick wrapping paper. You
untie the paper wrapping,
then unravel the plaintain leaves and you are presented with a
generous portion of the steaming contents.
One dish could suffice for two persons with average appetites.
Desserts and drinks are acceptable but nothing
special. Hopper Hut is also most kind to the wallet: a $40-$45 bill
for a dinner party of five.

Faint hearts with delicate palates will find Hopper Hut much too
overwhelming, but for a practiced hand at hot food seeking gastronomic
adventure, this restaurant is
worth driving a long distances to. Go to it !
Gopal