Little Star is a not-so-little bakery in Mount Lavinia with a reputation for their Sri Lankan sweets. While all their offerings may not be brilliant, if you order the right stuff, you’ll be leaving with a smile on your face.
The Food
There are a very few places in and around Colombo to get Sri Lankan sweets that actually taste good, and Little Star is right up their with the best of ’em. While they’re well known for local confections and cakes, they also offer a wide range western desserts as well as a large repertoire of savories.
What made us really happy was that they actually offer pork based savories, which is becoming increasingly rare at bakeries. Their prices are also very reasonable with pretty much everything priced under Rs. 100, so we went ahead and grabbed a whole bunch of stuff. We suggest you drop in either early in the morning or around noon, since that’s when they restock the shelves.
The chicken samosa (Rs. 40) were some of best we’ve had in a while. Most places tend to stuff these with potatoes, and very thick, doughy shells. In this the crust was thin and crispy, with the center packed full of well spiced minced chicken. The same goes for their chicken pie which had ample creamy filling with a well baked, slightly flaky pastry.
However, the best of the savories was the cheese and bacon bun (Rs. 80). At first we assumed they meant chicken bacon (yuck), but we were surprised to find out that it was in fact pork bacon. We were further delighted when we bit into this one because there was so much bacon in the center. They hadn’t really done much with it, but you know bacon is bacon. The cheese, while not the best, was still good enough add a bit of texture and creaminess.
On the sweeter side, we got a couple of eclairs (Rs. 60), some halapa (Rs. 30) and a few macarons (Rs. 70), which we weren’t really expecting. The eclairs were decent but not one of the better ones we’ve tried. The filling was thick and chocolatey but the dry pastry was the letdown.
We’ve had their halapa before and they were just as good this time around. We barely managed to get them since these were the last ones on the shelf. One thing they do differently is that they add bits of coconut to the halapa which add a nice texture.
Their macarons looked very pretty and well constructed so we thought we’d give it a shot. While the looks were appealing the taste unfortunately didn’t follow suit. The main issue was the texture of the biscuit which was just too hard. The center was creamy and had a distinct saltiness, which oddly enough worked quite well.
Conclusion
Little Star has been around for a while now, and judging by the crowds, they aren’t going anywhere. From our experience we’d say that you can’t go wrong with their savories and a local sweets.
