Tip Top Senitha is the tiniest takeaway spot around Kalubowila, that dishes out Chinese fare with a Lankan touch. Now they’re available for delivery too – on both PickMe Food and Uber Eats.
Food
The menu here is quite big for a takeaway joint. We spotted rice centred specialities, soups, seafood and chicken-based accompaniments, a few veg dishes, as well as set menus. Our Seafood Fried Rice (Rs. 350) was a hefty portion of fried rice made with properly cooked fluffy basmati rice, and served with the helpings of chop suey, chilli paste, and sauce. The seafood counterpart of the rice was limited to a few pieces of dry, batter-fried calamari, while the whole thing seemed to be doused in some sort of flavour enhancer.
The Chicken Set Menu (Rs. 280) didn’t live up to our expectations either. On the bright side, the portion of rice here featured bits of carrot, spring onions and egg, and was enough to feed two hungry bellies.
But, the veggies in the chop suey tasted old, while the chicken was smothered in a sauce that presented weird salty notes and the chilli paste was too oily for our liking. The chicken seemed like it was over fried/refried. There was a layer of batter around the pieces and the meat itself lacked the taste. At Rs. 500, this portion of Hot Butter Cuttlefish seemed like a good deal, but it didn’t deliver in terms of flavour. It was plentiful with chunks of onions and capsicum, which did not overpower the cuttlefish-to-veggies ratio.
However, the pieces of cuttlefish were too rubbery, so there was quite a bit of chewing involved. Plus, it was way too oily to the point it sogs up the batter, so it wasn’t crispy as one would expect. The salty flavour was too much to handle here as well, and the spiciness was almost nonexistent.
We weren’t happy with the Diced Chicken with Hot Garlic Sauce (Rs. 480) as well. The chicken was wrapped in a coating which shielded the chicken-y flavours from emerging through, while the sauce was too watery with bits of garlic swimming about.
Conclusion
Our experience with Tip Top Senitha wasn’t the best. Their spread is massive, and it’s indeed an affordable option for Sri Lankanised Chinese food if you’re around. But given how they lack the taste, we wouldn’t recommend it.