Ministry of Crab
Additional Information
Sri Lankan cuisine is hard to find in Manila. Ask a Filipino where to score great Sri Lankan seafood fare, and you’ll probably get blank stares in response — which is why the buzz around Ministry of Crab’s opening in Shangri-La at The Fort has been pretty intense since its debut a month ago. The collective curiosity of Manileños has been through the roof, and we kept getting asked what the place had to offer Filipino diners.
Ministry of Crab was founded by Sri Lankan chef Dharshan Munidasa and cricket players Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara. The restaurant, which opened in Colombo, Sri Lanka in 2011, has since gotten an impressive amount of praise — it placed 25th in Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list last year, up from the 29th spot in 2017.
Ministry of Crab does offer a solid overall package — beautiful interiors, a stylish bar, and an overall fine place to try Sri Lankan cuisine, especially for first-timers. Apparently most of the ingredients are sourced in the Philippines, too, so the foundational flavors here won’t come across as completely foreign to Filipinos.