Court Lodge - Sri Lankan****
Shinjuku

Address 2-10-9, Yoyogi, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo Open Daily from 11pm to 23pm Map - Read directions Telephone 3376-7733 Menu - In English and Japanese CC - ??

Court Lodge is an old acquaintance of mine: I had been wanting to eat there for at least six years, mostly out of curiosity, but also because I had heard good things about it, and at last I went with some friends. Not only: I went directly from famine to feast, and all of a sudden I found myself eating there three times in a month.
Sri Lankan restaurants are rare in Tokyo. I know of just four: Ebisu's excellent Palete, Shin Nakano's mediocre Sujatha, and CL's two branches, in Shinjuku and Shin- Nakano respectively.
Sri Lanka (a.k.a. Serendip and Ceylon), like Japan, is and island and therefore likes to do things its own way. Do not think that its food is just an Indian food variant: the first time I ate at defunct Sri Lankan restaurant Athara Petara, my Indian friend Sohan, who owns Cajun restaurant Bourbon Street, felt just as completely lost as I.
While Court Lodge's menu is much more limited than Athara Petara's, it has more than enough to make your dinner pleasant.
My partner wanted to try some coconut milk-based dishes, and we chose a Dahl curry which, while excellent, was very different in taste from what I knew, a mixed vegetable curry, samosa, rice and tuna dumplings. To close the meal, a dish based on Goya, the famous bitter gourd Okinawans use in their Goya Champuru.
Don't forget to order their bread (Gotamba)
, excellent, soft and buttery, of a kind I had never had before.
After several meals there, I can guarentee you that everything is excellent, service impeccable but friendly, charges moderate. Recommended.

By the way, in the same building there is also a restaurant called Espana which should also be interesting.

To get there, get out of Shinjuku station's South Exit, cross the street and turn right. You will see Court Lodge's sign after about 400 meters. And Yes, the Shibuya-ku is correct.