The Colombo-born brand’s first international restaurant lets diners pair four varieties of prawn with curries, hot butter sauces and rice or parotta.
Sri Lankan seafood restaurant Isso Prawn Crazy has opened its first international outpost in Canary Wharf, bringing its prawn-focused menu to London for the first time.
Named after the Sinhala word for prawn, Isso was founded in Colombo by Apinash Sivagumaaran in 2016. What began as a 16-seat restaurant has since expanded to several locations across Sri Lanka, with the new 90-cover Canary Wharf site marking the brand’s first move overseas.
The restaurant’s build-your-own format places Sri Lankan prawns firmly at the centre of the meal. Diners begin by selecting from Black Tiger, Flower, Giant Freshwater or Colossal Freshwater prawns, sourced directly from fishing communities in northern Sri Lanka.
Next comes the important business of choosing a sauce. Options include garlic and chilli sweetened with kithul, Isso’s signature Hot Butter sauce, Sri Lankan Turmeric Coconut Curry, Jaffna Curry and Negombo Curry.
Each combination can be completed with ghee rice, curry leaf and garlic rice or flaky parotta. It is essentially a choose-your-own prawn adventure, only with considerably better consequences than those books generally offered.
The wider menu includes isso wade, crisp Sri Lankan lentil fritters topped with prawns, alongside coconut-crumbed prawns, cuttlefish fritto and vegetable pakora.
Drinks span classic and signature cocktails, wine, beer and spirits, as well as homemade lemonades, iced teas and a selection of what the restaurant describes as “heritage Colombo pours”.
Isso was created to showcase Sri Lanka’s seafood through accessible, flavour-led cooking, using the varieties of large prawns for which the island is known. Its London opening arrives amid growing interest in the regional diversity of Sri Lankan food, moving beyond the generic curry-house shorthand through which the cuisine has often been presented in Britain.
With four prawn varieties, five distinctive sauces and three possible carriers, diners could make several visits before having to repeat an order. Frankly, that sounds less like a problem than a plan.
Isso Prawn Crazy is now open daily in Canary Wharf.
For menus and bookings, visit the Isso Prawn Crazy website.