Moonstone Sri Lankan Restaurant

What a find! We just stumbled upon Moonstone when we were out and about after Xmas and decided to try it as we had never had Sri Lankan food before. It was delicious - nothing like the usual curries we have had before - really delicately flavoured and almost felt healthy to eat! The restaurant has a lovely atmosphere and the staff all seem to be Sri Lankan - they were really helpful in explaining the dishes as we were not sure what to order.
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Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Tuesday, January 03, 2012

We went here after several of our friends recommended it. We were not disappointed! It has a great atmosphere and the staff are attentive and welcoming. The food is superb, freshly cooked with wonderful spices , full of flavour and prepared according to your taste as to how hot you like it. There is a great variety of vegetarian options as well as meat and fish - we tried a bit of all three variations and loved them all!
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Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Thursday, November 24, 2011

We were very impressed by this restaurant. We rang them before we went and asked if they did aubergine moju and Kottu which were not on the menu. These are typical traditional Sri Lankan dishes. They made these dishes very well, exactly as you would expect in Sri Lanka. I hope this will be good news for all Sri Lankans!!
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Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Friday, October 28, 2011

Visited yesterday for lunch. We were the only visitors, but this is unsurprising on an early week day. We were welcomed in and first impressions were good. The decor is nice and our waitress very pleasant. There was a placard outside offering a taster menu for £6.99 which was interesting to my oh. We were not offered this option, only given the a la carte menu and had to ask for the taster menu. To his disappointment, this menu stated that it was for a minimum of two people, which it did not say outside!

For starters he had the capsicum stuffed with spicy shrimp, served with a dip and thick roti bread. I had the tuna fish balls with pineapple chutney. Both of these were very nice, although the shrimps were not much in evidence. I had a large glass of shiraz, which tasted a bit fusty and old. Not good at £4.90! After a requested pause, I had the king fish curry and my oh the devilled prawns, both dishes ordered spicy hot. Our waitress advised us to share a rice and roti with these, which we did. We ordered the savoury roti, but they unfortunately, tasted exactly the same as the plain roti that came with the starters. Initially, I enjoyed my curry, but found that it and the garlic and lemon rice began to leave a cloying oily unpleasant aftertaste in the mouth. The devilled prawn dish was very dry and tasted overwhelmingly of caramelised soy sauce and wasn't so good, and most of it was left. The place had become very stuffy also, which didn't help.

Considering the glowing reports I had read, for two starters, two mains, one glass of wine and tap water totalling over £40.00 the overall experience was very disappointing and I don't think we will bother to return.
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Anne Bond
Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 1
Wednesday, August 17, 2011

My first trip to Moonstone was also my first try at Sri Lankan food. I'm not a fan of Indian cuisine, so I was a bit worried. BUT, it was wonderful! Everything that Dimuthu (the owner) and his staff brought out was fantastic. I particularly enjoyed the Kingfish, as well as the Hoppers and pineapple chutney. They also serve Sri Lankan "Lion Stout" beer, which was really, really good (but order a taxi home!).

The atmosphere was good. The restaurant is small and cozy, nicely lit, and intimate. Ask about the pictures on the walls: most of them are of Dimuthu's family, sorting and preparing the spices to ship to Brighton from Sri Lanka. A great touch and a good story.

If you're hesitant because you've never tried Sri Lankan, you won't be disappointed!
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Darryl Yoes
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Tuesday, August 09, 2011

A small but well presented restaurant where the service is very good and the food of a high quality. My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed our meal and will definitely be visiting again, in future.
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Frank
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 10
Saturday, June 25, 2011

Ate here for the first time tonight. We asked the waiter to recommend a mixture of starters and mains for us. We got to choose if we liked curries and how hot. We selected low to medium. All of the food was delightful - a very pleasant cross between Indian and Thai - not too sweet and salty like many Indian dishes. The only dish not to our liking (the adults) was the pancake dessert - which was just too sweet and a litlle sickly for us. The kids devoured up the left overs. The Wannappen (sic) was wonerfully light. Service was great. Music was not intrusive. Restaurant was packed. £125 for 5 with tip extra.
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John
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Saturday, March 19, 2011

My husband and I have just got back from having a meal at Moonstone and we must confess to both having a great dining experience. This was our first time to the restaurant although we live about 15min away. I am not a huge fan of curries so we both ordered the special red snapper with sweet potatoes and rice and thoroughly enjoyed it. The fish was tender and well flavoured and the dish included ingredients I was unable to identify, but which worked well together. My husband had the light dessert beginning with T flavoured with cardamon which was another hit.

The service was very friendly and helpful and the staff took pride and pleasure in serving.It was a light and bright space unlike many such restaurants and it would be wish to book in advance especially on a Saturday night as all the tables were taken when we left. We are also free of that uncomfortable churning sensation in the gut one can get after a curry. The only downside is that we have found this great restaurant a week before we plan to move out of the area. What poor timing!
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Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Saturday, September 18, 2010

Had an excellent meal, was blown away by the food, service and flavors! Would reccommend this restaurant to anyone, a definite must for anyone visiting Brighton. What a gem.
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Nick Orton - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Friday, September 03, 2010

We had a great family meal here on a dull and rainy Brighton summer afternoon!

The wonderful variety of tastes, textures and colours of the food certainly took our minds off the conditions outside! The calm and welcoming atmosphere enveloped us from the moment we stepped in off the busy street outside. We sampled a wide range of dishes from the menu, all of them with distinctly different flavours and textures - it says something when, at the end of the meal we were each trying to decide which had been our favourite dish, we couldn't narow the choice down to less than three each!

All members of the family enjoyed the meal - experienced foodies and junk food teenagers alike - the subtle flavours appealed to everyone and there was nothing too spicy for younger members of the family - one of our sons, not known for willingly trying new foods, was really enthused by the whole experience and loved tasting so many different things.

We would thoroughly recommend this restaurant - incidentally, none of our party was a vegetarian, but the outstanding tastes of the vegetable dishes we enjoyed were enough to persudade us that we really could exist on vegetables alone!

My (the mum!) personal three favourites were the string hoppers (what a great name!), the lemon and ginger rice and the cabbage mallum!
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Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Sunday, August 29, 2010