The 10 Tastings Of Kandy With Locals: Private Street Food Tour

Rashid made this tasting tour great in Kandy. We went to the local food plaza where local artisans prepared authentic Sri-Lankan food. We actually were swamped with food - highly recommended

I enjoyed the fresh food market tastings except I don’t think it’s necessary to taste all 6 banana varieties. It was filling but not the most interesting aspect about Sri Lankan food surely. I also don’t eat a lot of sugar so didn’t enjoy the sweet tastings. The savoury food tastings were all deep fried things. I don’t eat deep fried food normally. It would have been better if one of the lady cooks at the food stall came and explained how they made the dishes. The experience would have been better if the guide asked more questions about what types of food I wanted to taste. I was expecting more detail about the ingredients and how dishes were made. Perhaps add some curries and other savouries besides deep fried things. It was a very wet evening, the guide had an umbrella for himself but did not provide one for me. He also asked me to pay for some snacks as I was catching the train the next day. Given the gist if this tour I would expect the guide to offer the snacks as a gift. I didn’t feel it was value for money at all. I was asked at the end what was I going to eat for dinner. I was surprised by this question because this food tour was intended to be my dinner given the high cost of the tour. I had paid enough money for this to be a full dinner. I was full but not very impressed or satisfied. The best food tour guides I have experienced in various countries around the world are passionate and knowledgeable about the dishes they cook. They also go out if their way to make you feel taken care of. Both of these elements were missing in this case. I would like to request a refund.

Our street food tour with Buddhima was wonderful. Buddhima is so lovely, generous and knowledgeable, it was like spending the evening with a good friend, who took great care of us. Buddhima introduced us to lots of different foods, answered all our many questions, and shared so much about life in Sri Lanka. She also gave us some great tips for the rest of our trip. If we return to Kandy we would definitely do the tour again - there is always more food to discover. We have already recommended Buddhima's tour to other travellers.

My mother and I were in Kandy for our first night in Sri Lanka so opted for a food tour with Chandana and had a lovely evening. Chandana is very knowledgeable, friendly and kind and his choice of food was perfect. We had the opportunity to try many local Sri Lankan dishes at a variety of restaurants and markets, learned a lot about Sri Lanka, the culture, people and history and enjoyed getting to know Chandana. By the end of the tour, we were full and happy!

The food was great and there was plenty of it but all the locations that’s in the itinerary we did not go to we just walked around the city for 3 hours

Really enjoyed this tour, great tastings of local foods and a look around the markets. Chandan was a great host and provided a great commentary.

Omir (our guide) was great. We learned about the different foods and the Sri Lanka culture. You definitely need to come hungry!

Me and my wife really enjoyed our food tour with Buddhima. We had asked her to take us to places that served food with a spice level the locals eat, and she really delivered. The food was delicious and Buddhimas company and our conversations with her throughout the tour was a highlight of our stay in Sri Lanka. Would highly recommend to anyone passing through Kandy.

Fantastic evening with Buddhima, with a wonderful warm welcome to Kandy right from the start. She is so full of knowledge about Kandy and Sri Lanka and we had time for really in depth conversations too, which we loved. And then there was the food! So much and so delicious - the experience at the fruit stall was especially entertaining! We cannot recommend Buddhima highly enough (and this is from 2 off-duty guides on holiday who know what it takes and really respect what a high quality experience we received :) )

Buddhima gave me and my boyfriend a great food tour of Kandy :) she showed us some amazing food spots but also shared her knowledge about the history of Kandy during the day too. The amount of food you get on this tour is great value for money and we went home with lots of leftovers. Buddhima is so friendly and you won’t regret booking this tour - we had a great day thank you :)

Chandana was punctual, patient and kind. We had been in Sri Lanka for over a week so had tasted many foods already and he was able to listen and adjust as needed. We loved visiting the local market! We appreciated Chandana talking to vendors and helping us taste fresh mango. We really enjoyed watching and tasting large crepe-like pancake and dipping sauces at Balaji Dosai - very local experience. We visited a British teahouse: basic black tea and many foreign visitors. Not my favorite stop. We were disappointed not to try any local drinks (besides tea and King coconut) nor any local desserts. We would enjoy having the last stop be a dessert. It was great to walk around the city experiencing all the sights, smells and sounds.

Buddimas lovely personality shines through and totally makes this a worthwhile trip. Great insight into the town and country and she is FUN too!

My friend and I booked the 10 Tastings of Kandy tour with Buddhima, and it was perfect from start to finish. Buddhima is absolutely lovely, joyful, and happily answered all of our questions about Kandy & Sri Lanka. The food we tried was amazing - and there was SO MUCH that we ended up taking some away for the next day as we just couldn't eat everything! Do not hesitate to book this tour, or any tour, with Buddhima!

Filled with… wonderful experiences, great conversations, delicious food, friendly encounters and exotic delicacies. Buddhima gave me a fantastic experience with her open and cordial manner and her great knowledge.

Thanks Chandana, this was a fun tour around some eateries in town. Handy to have someone explain what the names of foods were that I hadnt experienced, as well as what was in them. The trip to the market for fruit at the end was a nice way to finish up. Was way more food than I could handle. Very interesting tour.

Umair was a great host who was super-flexible about our very specific timing requirements. We were unable to do the whole tour so Umair squeezed in as much as we could in the time we had available. He was charming and fluent in English and we enjoyed our experience despite the torrential rain. The sweet treats and egg hopper were highlights!

. Chandana, is a lovely, gentle, well spoken man. Very clean and smart, speaks excellent English and is not pushy. The very first eating place was The Bake House. The food was delicious. We had to stop eating, to save ourselves for the next corses. We walked around the centre of Kandy, chatting to Chandana, about the area, food, and general thinks of the country. It was very relaxed and a great experience. Chandana was very helpful and a pleasure to be with. We can recommend his tours.

Buddhima is an absolute gem. She was so friendly and welcoming that we felt instantly at home in Kandy. She showed us around the market and took us to restaurants run by different nationalities so we got a real taste of the variety of the city. The spicy samosas are the best thing I’ve eaten on our trip so far! The tour price includes the food you’ll be trying so it’s 100% worth it (more than, in my opinion!). Buddhima also shared really interesting facts about the city so it’s more than ‘just’ a food tour; it’s a cultural experience. Fully recommend…and would definitely suggest you start the tour hungry! We wish all the best to Buddhima and her family.

We had a really great day with Buddhima, she explained everything very well, gave us great insights of Kandy and we got a lot of different typical Sri Lankan food to try. We can totally recommend her!!! Big thanks to Buddhima! :)

Buddhima showed us some amazing food places where you can taste the true Sri Lankan food. Also she was great company we could talk about all sorts of things and she told us a lot about the Sri Lankan culture.

My travel buddy and I adored Buddhima. A consummate host and all round excellent ambassador for Kandy and its multiple cultures and traditions. A truly worthwhile tour and if I'm back I intend to enrol in one of her cooking classes too !

We loved the amount of different tastes, like all kinds of fruits, sweets and snacks. It was a pity that we didn't go to the Boeddha statue and weren't given much of historical and cultural information, but it's been a good way to quickly explore Sri Lankan flavours at local sites and Umar is a kind guide who offers lots of tastings.

It was totally worth the money! Nice guide & very nice food. If you want to try the real srilankan food, you have to do this tour. You also get a little info about the city 🫶 Thank you very much Buddhima 🫶

The highlight of our trip to Kandy! We had such a fun time. It was like hanging out with a friend. We got to sample a lot of different food and learn about the local history and culture. Highly recommend.

Our family of 4 saw the sights of central Kandy while touring thru the markets and food stalls, ending in a very authentic local restraunt. Delicious food, and no belly aches over the following days! We enjoyed getting to know our guide Umair and his passion for travel. Cheers, Nick, Prue, Millie and Finn.

We had a wonderful experience with Buddhima on her food tour. Buddhima is from Kandy and that is demonstrated through her knowledge of the history of the area and even better through taking us to all the best food spots in Kandy! We have been on many food tours around the world and in Sri Lanka, and this has been one of our favourites. It is a really fun afternoon full of incredible food and Buddhima’s great company. Would highly recommend!

We had a great time with Buddhima. She is a very nice, humorous and intelligent woman. We not only learned a lot about Sri Lankan cuisine, but also about the country and its culture. It was a highlight of our trip. Thank you very much, Buddhima!! 😊🙏🥰

We did an evening food tour we the lovely Buddhima. An enjoyable evening of traditional Sri Lankan foods, and good because we tried foods from Singghala and Tamil and Muslim traditions. We stopped by the fresh food market and had a tasting of the local fruits and a range of bananas! This was a meal in itself. Buddhima is an excellent guide for the night, but be warned, she will feed you till you burst. Highly recommended.

Buddhima's food tasting tour was a treat. She has a sparkling personality and a clear passion for food. She genuinly enjoyed introducing all kinds of traditional food, modern food, fruits and desserts to us. Buddhima tailors the experience to the wishes of her guests. 10 types of food? We tasted eleven types of fruit alone! We felt at home exploring Kandy with Buddhima, and she gave us great advice too. If you want a real authentic experience, this tour is the one for you.

Had a great day with Buddhima sampling all sorts of delicious food. She really made the effort go out of her way to provide us things we hadn't already tried! Really interesting to discuss day to day life and understand the history of Sri Lanka. Would highly recommend.

We had an amazing time with Buddhima and she made sure we had plenty to try. We took her advice to come with an empty stomach a bit light, so make sure you haven't eaten before the tour because you'll won't need anything the rest of the day!

Buddhima was amazing. The tour was so much fun and we got to try so many foods we would not have thought to try and visit so many places that we would have just walked past. We learnt so much about Sri Lanka and Kandy and just had a great time overall. I would not hesitate to recommend this to anyone visiting Kandy.

We loved our food tour with Buddhima! Buddhima was a wonderful guide, lovely to chat to her and experience Kandy with all her insight and knowledge. We went to places we would never have tried by ourselves. Highlights were the ladies street food market, the fruit and veg market and the prison! We were just sad we couldn’t manage to eat everything, start hungry! Thank you Buddhima, we loved meeting you!

Very disappointed. We booked this tour off the recommendations. Our guide met us and immediately rushed us off to a fruit and veg market. We sampled lovely fruit. However our guide was preoccupied and on his phone permanently. Another man turned up to assist and we proceeded quickly to our next stop. They both stood over us while we ate seemingly in a hurry. There was no information on food or history of Kandy. We were then offered a short cut to our last stop where we were given a chicken curry. Wed all ready informed the company at the time of booking that we were vegetarian. We were told to pick the chicken out of the curry. Thst meal lasted 10 minutes snd we were then told they eere leaving. They waited for a tip which of course we didn’t give and they left. The whole tour took 1 hour and 30 minutes.

We gave this one star because it was a total waste of money. We booked this tour on the positive reviews. We have done many amazing foodie tours all over the world, this was honestly the worst one ever. Our guide met us ( a young man named Umaire ) we were rushed along to a fruit stall, he was very distracted and was on his phone most of the time, another guide turned up and shadowed him, they weren’t interested in talking with us unless we asked them a question. Everything was very rushed and they stood over us impatiently while we were eating. We pre advised the company that we were vegetarian in advance. At the last stop we were told we getting chicken curry. When we reminded him that we didn’t eat meat they suggested we pick the meat out. We were given literally 10 minutes to finish our meal. The whole tour took 1 hour 25 minutes, we were informed it would be around 3 hours with a knowledgeable guide. We went round one block and were not informed about Kandy at all. We don’t like to complain about local people and we are always ready to tip however this was exceptionally bad and we wouldn’t want anyone else to go thought this disappointment. We feel thoroughly ripped off at £30 per person. You could do this tour for yourself for around £8.

We have a lovely afternoon touring Kandy and all it has to offer from the food scene. Buddhima was a lovely tour guide and very knowledgable. She had answers to all our questions.Thanks so much Buddhima!

We had a fantastic 3 hours with Buddhima. She was very knowledgable about Kandy and its food. She was also great company. We laughed a lot. Make sure you are hungry if you take this tour, there is a lot of food to try in Kandy! Buddhima also sent us details of everything we tried and recipes for us to try at home. We will try to recreate some of the dishes. A great tour, I would recommend. Who knew there were so many different types of banana?

Buddhima goes out of her way providing superior customer service. She arranged for a vegan food tour for my family and coordinated for a birthday cake for my daughter. She also gave her flowers on her birthday. She is very thoughtful and knowledgeable about Sri Lankan’s cuisine. My family had a great time! Highly recommend her :-)

I’d heard such great reviews about this tour so was really excited. Instead was left as a solo traveler to get hasseled on the street and the tour guide didn’t turn up, after half an hour I left.

I have complained 3 times to Viator, and they have never responded. The Experience I had was: The 10 Tastings of Kandy With Locals: Private Street Food Tour Right through the time the local guide was with us he was either on his phone or talking to someone who was shadowing him. He made no attempt to engage with us, tell us what to expect, what the program would be or enquire about our expectations. He took us to a fruit market stall, gave the owner a few rupees, and in return, the owner gave us 3 fruits to try, that we had already eaten before. He then took us to a public eating food place, told us to sit, and got us 4 small little bites of food, which were frankly not cooked well. This was NOT street food. He never even offered us a drink. At no time did he explain what we were given until we asked. He was totally pre occupied, and did not want to be there. The following is what we expected as detailed on your website, and under each item I have detailed our experience in RED: What To Expect 1 Kandy Municipal Central Market Fruity Flavors: Find your first tasting on the Kandy market, the perfect place to see the life of the locals and also the best spot to try some delicious local fruits Open Sesame: YES BUT NOTHING DIFFERENT, MANGOES, BANANAS AND GRAPES. What better way to satisfy your sweet tooth than by enjoying some Sri Lankan candy, which is known to be a healthy sweetmeat containing sesame seeds and jaggery Buffalo Curd: Try some buffalo curd, a thick and smooth snack that’s perfectly complemented with a special sweet syrup and served on a clay cup - it is simply divine! 30 minutes • Admission Ticket Free WAS NOT PROVIDED 2 Bogambara Cultural Center Buddha Statue: Follow your host to this giant statue, rising from a hill and built in 1972. The locals have several stories about the statue, and how it came to be 15 minutes • Admission Ticket Free WAS NOT PROVIDED 3 Bogambara Prison Prison Break: While making your way to the next delicious tasting, pass by this historical spot of which your local host will tell you the story behind, including the colonial architecture 15 minutes • Admission Ticket Not Included WAS NOT PROVIDED 4 Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe Mawatha Food Project: Enjoy 3 tastings of Hela Bojun from wade (fried dumplings) to cutlets, stuffed with fish and potato, and dosa, a pancake made from rice and black gram, while discovering more about this empowering movement 30 minutes • Admission Ticket Free THE ABOVE FOODS WERE NOT PROVIDED. INSTEAD WE WERE GIVEN SOME DRIED SNACKS AND A SAMOSA THAT WAS DRY AND TASTLESS. 5 Kandy Lake Amazing Viewpoint: Join your local to this breathtaking viewpoint over the lake, where it’s optional for you to take a ride in one of the Joy Boats! 15 minutes • Admission Ticket Free WAS NOT PROVIDED 6 Colombo Street Delicious Chips: Taste some cassava chips, renowned for its ability to survive extreme droughts, and thrive in rainy conditions. It’s a delicious substitute for potatoes and the locals love it 15 minutes • Admission Ticket Free WAS NOT PROVIDED 7 Cross Street Roti Time: Take a bite out of this signature food, made with chicken or veggies that started out as a street food favored by the locals and is now served in local restaurants 15 minutes • Admission Ticket Free WAS NOT PROVIDED 8 Balaji Dosai King Coconut: This famous drink is the water contained in a variety of bright orange-colored coconuts, and is indigenous to the tropical island of Sri Lanka. It’s refreshing, healthy and delicious! 15 minutes • Admission Ticket Free WAS NOT PROVIDED 9 Mlesna Tea Centre Cozy Tea: Take a sip of the famous Ceylon tea, which is the number 1 tea around the world. The tea production of Sri Lanka is one of the main income sources of the country! 15 minutes • Admission Ticket Free WAS NOT PROVIDED 10 Bahiravokanda Vihara Bu ddha Statue Steep stairs lead to hilltop views from this Buddhist place of worship with a souvenir shop. 15 minutes • Admission Ticket Free WAS NOT PROVIDED I would like a full refund please. This local tour guideis on the take. He did as little as possible, did not spend more than $10, was totally uninterested in being with us, spent a lot of his time on the phone,(I have pictures to prove this), was talking to someone shadowing us when he was not on the phone. Did not provide most of the experiences above that we so looked forward to. This was the only Local Tour Guide we chose to do on our travels after this experience.

Buddhima is an excellent, friendly, charming and helpfull guide. We did the foodtour in Kandy. Make an appointment with her and you will have a top experience. Rob and Miranda

My wife and I had a great food night tour with Buddhima. She was very knowledgeable about both the local food scene/produce, but also Kandy and Sri Lankan history more generally which was a real value add. The food was all delicious, and I’d really recommend it if you’re looking to get a sense of the food scene but also Kandy as a city. Thanks Buddhima!

We had a wonderful time with buddhima who shared a lot of Information about food,culture and history as well as introducing us to some delicious foods. She had catered especially for us as vegetarians. Most of all she was excellent company and we spent a lot of time laughing as well as learning. I cannot recommend this tour highly enough - do not miss.

Wonderful experience with a very friendly entertaining guide. We really recommend walking around the city with Buddhima

Such a good food tour. It was amazing to try all new things, really enjoy the local fruits and getting to experience the market! Definitely recommend!

Our food tour with Buddhima was absolutely amazing. We ate our way through Kandy and the Sri Lankan food culture, explored the market and learned a lot about the various traditional foods, spices and fruits. Buddhima was a wonderful host, always happy to answer our questions and ready to make changes to our tour. It felt like spending the day with a new friend and we can highly recommend booking an experience with Buddhima!

We had a great tour and were full with delicious food by the end (with some food even packed to enjoy tomorrow)! Manoshi was such a friendly host and took us to a wide variety of vendors selling traditional Sri Lankan food whilst also showing us some fab sites around Kandy - the market was really interesting and so colourful - much more to this tour than simply sampling food. A must-do when visiting Kandy!

We enjoyed the tour with Umair but we found it too expensive for the incredibly cheap prices that the local food has in Sri lanka (we paid 44 euros and a local lunch costs around 6 euros with beverage). He took us to the market to try all the fruits, the sweets and to smell the spices. Afterwards, we ate a local crepe-like lunch. We missed the hopper because it was closed due to the petrol crisis of the country. 2h in total. Umair was a nice tour guide, answered our questions, but we were expecting some historical background from the tour description.

We spent a wonderful afternoon with Buddhima, trying an array of delicious food from places we never would have found ourselves! Our highlights was the beef kottu and the jackfruit short eats - we even went back the next morning to pick up some snacks for the train! This was the perfect way to get to know Kandy outside of the usual sights and we would highly recommend to anybody passing through!