Araliya - St Kilda

Great serviceThe food is wonderful however I'd venture to say a little over priced.

This place is more Sri Lankan meets Asian fusion It's new to the Fitzroy Street scene but definitely should be a lot busier.

*Review incomplete Beautiful food, wonderful presentation, friendly service, but very cold inside.

It was a very disappointing experience at this restaurant. Food is no where near authentic and lacks in flavour which is the signature for Sri Lankan cuisine. I would look elsewhere as Melbourne has a great range of Sri Lankan restaurants spread across the city and suburbs.

A last minute catch up with my Cousin resulted in three of us having dinner here at Araliya.At first we were a bit taken given we were the only three in the restaurant apart from the staff. We were eventually joined by other customers and it was a Tuesday night after all.The staff greeted us warmly and were very helpful. The layout of the restaurant was good, it was clean and modern with a relaxing feel.The wine selection was sufficient, not extensive but plenty to choose from. The staff had basic knowledge of the wine although we did not test them on matching the wine with our food. A note though if drinking more than 4 glasses of wine purchasing a bottle may be the better option.The menus were presented, easy to read with a good selection, not too much but sufficient. Vegetation options available.The staff explained the selection excellently. As we were in a Sri Lankan restaurant we opted for the traditional style dishes which consisted of seafood and lamb for starters and curry's for main.Given our pellets do not enjoy overly spicy foods all three of us settled for medium spice, which was actually quiet mild.All our meals were beautiful, great mix of spice with a wide variety of ingredients. The only comment, not a bad comment though, was that they were served in separate dishes 5 to 6 per person.This was sufficient although the dessert menu had us intrigued with a chocolate moose with sweet potato custard, so we ordered one to share. This dish looked amazing and although sweet potato in a desert was a strange taste to get used it was something that grew on you with each mouthful.All in all great little spot on a strip that is on the pick up with great cafes and restaurants alike. Well worth a visit if you are in the neighborhood.