Top 7 · updated 2026
Best Restaurants in Haputale
The top 7 restaurants in Haputale, ranked by real reviewer feedback.
- 7
- Restaurants listed
- 4.5★
- Average rating
- 50
- Reviews aggregated
- Mint of
- Top-rated
Haputale is a ridge-top tea-country town on the scenic rail route between Ella and Kandy, sitting at roughly 1,400 metres above sea level with views that sweep across the southern plains on clear mornings. Travellers who stop here — many doing the slow-train journey in either direction — find a quiet highland town where the restaurant options skew toward honest local cooking rather than the tourist-facing menus that have taken over Ella. The seven restaurants ranked here cover the main options: small rice-and-curry lunch houses near the rail station, a handful of cafes catering to the modest but growing backpacker crowd, and a few guesthouses with attached kitchens that feed guests and walk-ins alike. The region's tea-country heritage shapes what's on the menu — strong Ceylon tea is a constant, and the curries tend to be earthy and warming in a way that suits the cool, often misty highland climate. Budget travellers will appreciate that Haputale prices remain lower than Ella for equivalent food quality.
- 1
Mint of The Mist
5.0(9 reviews)Restaurants 148/01 Temple Rd, Haputale 90160
- 2
The Green Paradise - Haputale
4.9(9 reviews)Restaurants QXC6+GR2, Beragala-Hali Ela Highway, Haputale
- 3
Crispy Restaurant
4.7(9 reviews)Restaurants QX96+J33, Haputale
- 4
Olive View Point - Haputale
5.0(3 reviews)Restaurants Haputale
- 5
Hamine's kitchen
4.8(4 reviews)Restaurants Blackwood, Blackwood Hotel, Beragala Hali-ela, highway, Haputale 90170
- 6
Royal Top Restaurant - Haputale
4.4(9 reviews)Restaurants Haputale
- 7
Olive's City Center - Haputale
2.7(7 reviews)Restaurants QX95+598, Haputale
Frequently asked
- What's the highest-rated restaurants in Haputale?
- Mint of The Mist is currently the highest-rated restaurants in Haputale on Review Guru, with an average of 5.0 out of 5 stars from 9 reviews.
- Which restaurants in Haputale has the most reviews?
- Mint of The Mist is the most-reviewed restaurants in Haputale with 9 customer reviews. A higher review count typically means a more reliable signal — a 4.5★ rating from 50 reviewers is stronger than a 5★ rating from 3.
- How many restaurants are listed in Haputale?
- Review Guru has 7 restaurants listed in Haputale, aggregating 50 customer reviews across them. We only include a business on a "best of" page once it has at least 3 reviews so the ranking is meaningful.
- How are these restaurants ranked?
- We use a Bayesian-weighted average score that combines the business's own star rating with the volume of reviews it has received. This prevents a single 5-star review from outranking 30 consistent 4-star reviews. Read more on our methodology page.
- Are the reviews verified?
- Reviews on Review Guru come from two sources: native submissions written directly on our platform, and imported reviews from Google Maps that we rewrite for clarity while preserving the original rating, sentiment, and named entities. Source is tagged on each review for transparency.
- Which Haputale restaurants are close to the train station for slow-train travellers?
- Haputale station is at the top of the town's main street, and most of the listed restaurants are within 5–10 minutes' walk along that street or on the parallel lanes below it. The slow train between Ella and Kandy stops at Haputale long enough to step off, stretch your legs, and grab tea or a short-eats snack at one of the stalls near the platform — but for a full meal you'll want to budget 20–30 minutes in town. The majority of lunch houses open from 10:30 AM and serve through 2:30 PM; arrivals on morning trains have the most options. If you're planning a meal stop, check the train schedule and arrive when the kitchen is fully running rather than at opening or closing.
- What is tea-estate dining and highland food culture like around Haputale?
- Haputale sits inside one of Sri Lanka's most productive tea-growing districts — Dambatenne Tea Factory (built by Sir Thomas Lipton) is just 8 km away and remains an active working estate. While there is no formal 'estate dining' experience open to casual visitors in the way plantation hotels offer in Kenya, the highland food culture is very much shaped by tea: every meal ends with a cup of strong black Ceylon tea, tea is offered before and after food at even the humblest kade, and several guesthouses prepare a traditional high-tea spread in the late afternoon. The food itself draws on the Malabar-influenced cuisine brought to the region by South Indian Tamil estate workers — hoppers, string hoppers, dal-based curries, and coconut sambol appear more commonly here than in coastal Sri Lanka. Haputale's food is quieter and less celebrated than Ella's, but for travellers interested in regional culinary traditions it offers a more authentic window into highland Sri Lanka.
- What is the price range for food in Haputale, and what are typical opening hours?
- Haputale remains one of the more affordable stops on the Ella–Kandy route. A full rice-and-curry set meal with a drink typically costs LKR 300–550 at the local lunch houses. Café-style breakfasts (eggs, toast, hoppers, or roti with a coffee or tea) run LKR 200–400. The few more-tourist-facing spots charge LKR 600–900 for a plate, which is still well below Ella equivalent pricing. Opening hours follow highland rhythm: most lunch houses serve from 10:30 AM to 3 PM and reopen briefly for dinner from 6 PM to 8:30 PM. During the cool season (December to February), when mist and cold set in by early evening, several smaller places close earlier — a 7:30 PM arrival for dinner may find options limited. Peak tourist months (December–March and July–August) see the most reliable evening hours.