Araliya

8.5 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  8      Service  8      Value  9     

Visited Araliya recently after hearing good things from my friends. My partner and I thoroughly enjoyed our meals. We are local to the area but this was our first time and definitely not my last. Standouts for me were the baked crab and the jaggery beef curry.

P.S. A recent blogger said the prices here were more than Rockpool. I am a frequent Rockpool diner as I work near Crown, and while I am a fan of both restaurants, Araliya does not charge anywhere near the same prices.

Dec 14, 2010 

8 Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  7      Service  8      Value  8     

Been dining here for more than 24 yrs. It's not your usual srilankan restaurant. Chef here is very passionate with what he is doing.he uses top quality meat and fresh sea food & you can taste it. Average person will not dine here as its not cheap. But if you want quality you must pay. They have a high profile clientele following them for over 25 yrs. That says something. Whenever I am there I see some one important dining there. So don't go there if you are on a budget as its not your style of a restaurant. We love it here. Being srilankan born I think the food is truly amazing. Well done Dee & Sam keep it up. Many of us will keep coming back for more ditch the rest.

Nov 21, 2010 

3 Below Average

Food  6      Ambience  2      Service  3      Value  1     

What a disappointment! Went to this restaurant on a wednesday night and we were the only diners. The senior waitress was a 'try hard'. She was unable to disguise arrogance although smiling right through even when no smile was required. My entree and mains order was clear and concise. However, it was clear that she was not listening to the customer, instead being absorbed in her own importance.

The portions are small and insanely expensive. The food was good, although not outstanding, and the presentation average. The restaurant is trying to emulate a fine dining restaurant and failing miserably. They lack the sophistication and training to carry it off and the result is laughable. The bill was ridiculous for what we had and the whole dining experience. It was more expensive than the Rockpool restaurant that we had been to the previous night, which is truly a sophisticated, fine dining restaurant.

This place lacks the ambience, style and value that the menu prices would indicate. They need to stop trying so hard to be what they are definitely not and maybe then, their clientele will increase. Not surprising that there were no other diners in the restaurant even though our week of dining at various restaurants in Melbourne proved that people are definitely eating out a lot. Will never go there again and we will spread the word around.

p.s. If you have ever eaten love cake before, do not order the love cake at the Araliya. Nice attempt at presentation but the cake was awful.

Oct 31, 2010 

4.3 Below Average

Food  5      Ambience  4      Service  5      Value  3     

The chicken dish I had was not cooked through, in fact quite pink in the middle and very difficult to cut, i.e. tough, and the piece of Blue Eye in Banana leaf was not exciting despite the $34.00 price tag. The best dish was the beans in a cashew nut gravy. In hindsight both dishes probably could have benefited from a longer cooking time, giving, in particular the flavours of the fish marinade to come through.

To charge $5.00 for a meagre bowl of rice is also unacceptable in view of the less than generous serves of fish, fowl and vegies. I did not enjoy my dining experience.

Jun 09, 2010 

5.3 Average

Food  5      Ambience  7      Service  6      Value  3     

We decided to give this place a try after reading some positive reviews, especially on this site, while ignoring negative ones.

Although the food was average, the best things about this place were its ambience and its friendly staff, although most of the waitresses looked a bit amateur. We felt somehow they were not happy with what they were doing but trying to be nice at the same time.

Along with how funny the senior staff looked to think high about the quality of her restaurant (that was obvious from her behaviour), the worst thing was of course its value which was absolutely disappointing considering the variation of the food and what we paid (~$200). One thing I personally did not like about the menu was how confusing was the set menu section. We could not make heads or tails of it and there were no explanations for any of them.

Also there was a choice of prawns or scallops on the menu, but apparently since they do not serve the scallops any more they did not bother asking. We usually choose set menus every time we try a new restaurant for the first time to taste different flavours. This time we almost thought maybe they do not want to encourage guests to order the set menu.

We spend almost the same in best restaurants in Melbourne and usually get first class food and service, so I cannot really understand what all this hype is about?!

Feb 15, 2010 

8 Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  7      Service  9      Value  8     

Very nice food and good service. Loved the chicken curry and string hoppers. Highly recommended.

Jan 31, 2010 

7.5 Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  5      Service  7      Value  9     

Its a great place to grab a bite to eat, and the staff are just lovely. We often go here with friends, service can often be a bit slow when they get busy, but otherwise a great curry house.

Jan 30, 2010 

4.3 Below Average

Food  8      Ambience  5      Service  3      Value  1     

Great food, but I agree with others too little food, service poor. Will not recommend to others.

Jan 20, 2010 

8.5 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  8      Service  9      Value  8     

Araliya was our first taste of Sri Lankan cuisine and we were very impressed. Lovely flavours, delightful vegetable dishes and fragrant curries. The service was excellent.

Jan 18, 2010 

2.5 Not Recommended

Food  5      Ambience  3      Service  1      Value  1     

I had been wanting to try Araliya for sometime now. I visited the restaurant on the weekend and was extremely disappointed. The food is priced as if it were 'fine dining' but our table didn't even have a table cloth (only some tables seemed to have the white table linen), ambience was poor, food was ok, but again, not worth the price.

Portions were extremely small. Service was bad, had to ask after about 15 minutes of being seated if they would take our drinks order and the same with ordering starters. Had to prompt them if we could order starters and even then it took them another 10 minutes to come over to the table to take the order and when they did finally turn up they wanted us to order the starters and mains together so it was rushed.

We were given a table in the corner, and the speaker was just above us the music was quite loud. Overall, an extremely bad experience. I know Sri Lankans to be friendly cheerful people, and apart from one of the waiters, the rest of the staff didn't even smile and were totally inefficient. Will not be recommending this restaurant to anyone.

Nov 25, 2009