Now I know there are a large number of places that do a decent rice & curry in the area, and I haven’t by any means tried them all, but near the mosque on Bauddhaloka Mawatha near Bambalapitiya Junction is my contender for the bath kade that sells one of the best budget lunch packets in Colombo 4 (what the hell, maybe even the whole city!).
The café itself is a little dingy, and can get extremely busy around lunch-time (mainly due to the college next door), but it’s clean and the rice and curry here is excellent. They do large, tasty portions with enough variety (both per meal and day-to-day) to keep me coming back for lunch, time-and-time-again. It’s cheap too at Rs. 140 for the chicken and around Rs. 110 for fish.
They serve all the other dishes you’d expect find: fried rice, kotthu, and short-eats. Friends of mine who eat here swear by the kotthu, and from what I gather (having never been able to tear myself way from the rice and curry) the other options are pretty good too.