How did you come up with the concept?
My parents actually travel a lot and when they go for a couple of weeks the food in my freezer runs out and I used to venture myself out a lot. So what I used to do was to get a couple of rotti’s and get some kind of dish from outside or preferably make it at home, like a portion of devil chicken and put a few mushrooms in it and make my own Koththu at home. Sometimes I used to make a curry or a Chinese dish and mix it in to it, so when the friends used to come over they used to say, “Machan quality stuff.” Then my best friend one day came up to me and said, Rae why don’t you turn it in to a business. So one day I actually took up the idea, and I have been planning this for a year together with my best friend who is also my business partner. And then we put our heads together as well as our money together and we just started it. We started on May 2 and have been experiencing an overwhelming response by the people who come to the station.

How has the response being?
The response has been crazy! The first day of course we had a big crowd, mainly our friends and family and it’s been just upscale. Every day we can see the sales increasing and during the weekends there is a great response. Friday, Saturday and Sunday are the best days for us and it has just been really good. People just love the whole idea of going and having something different. And this is the best place for the Koththu loving people of Sri Lanka as it offers something to anyone with a large array of selection.

I have two chefs and one guy has come down from Japan and he specializes in Chinese food and a little bit of Indian food and then I have the traditional Koththu Rotti guy on the Koththu machine. This is called fusion cooking, this is the current trend. For the first time in Sri Lanka you can go and have a Koththu of a very high standard at a very nominal rate.

Our very own sausage Koththu is made by using a one of kind sausage which is only distributed in two places in the whole of Sri Lanka. The sausages we serve are Halaal and there is a huge response from the Muslim community.

Any particular reason why you chose the location?
Well one reason is that I live in Dehiwela, but apart from that why I picked this location because Hill Street is known for its food and has a lot of food outlets along the way. And there is a 20% Muslim population in Dehiwela who eat from out and there is 20% population of Muslims living in Dehiwela and there are only two shops that cater to them.

The other thing is that a lot of people use the hill street as a short cut to get to Maharagama, Dehiwela, Welawatte, Ratmalana etc. it’s mainly because a lot of people pass that way and we cater to a totally different crowd. Hill Street is becoming popular and is almost like Hawkers street.

Do customers get the freedom of making their own Koththu?
Definitely! Well earlier we didn’t have that option but gradually we learnt the likings and the disliking of the customers and amended the menu accordingly. It started when one customer who came in, asked for a Cuttle-fish and a prawn Koththu which was not on the menu. So we introduced something which is called the mixed Kothu. The mixed Kothu is where you can have any three items mixed in your Kothu. This is at a flat rate of 400/= and is enough for two people which also includes a homemade cheese sauce. All our Kothu dishes are enough for a minimum of one and a half people which would ideally be an adult and a child. We also offer very big pieces of meat and we can guarantee that no place will give as much as meat as we do.

Can you run us through the vegetarian menu?
Well most of my friends are vegetarians so every time we go out they can’t seem to find a proper meal for themselves. So we all sit down and eat while the vegetarians don’t have a good meal. I remember one of my friends saying, ‘machan I wish there were mushrooms in the Koththu’, so that’s why we have a mushroom Koththu. And then we have a dish which is a ‘Kehel Muwa Badum Koththu’, which is one of our main dishes for the vegetarians. We also have a dish called the ‘cauliflower Koththu which will be out in the September menu for all those who love the greens. We also have a ‘Soya Kothu’ which is the first in the country and is constantly growing for demand.

What has been the customer’s favourite dish so far?
Well most of the customers love the BBQ chicken Kothu, because we BBQ in wood and also on traditional charcoal and the Smokey flavor once you mix it in to the Kothu it gets in to the Rotti and the taste is amazing. People go crazy for it. The pepper beef Kothu is also a hot moving dish. We also have a lot of sea food Kothu’s in our menu which includes, crab, Lobster, prawns etc.

The other thing about our menu is that, if one day we have battered prawn Kothu, the next day we will have devilled prawn Kothu. So we keep on changing. Chili chicken we keep it standard since there is a big demand for it, and also some days we switch from pepper beef Kothu to devilled beef Kothu. We try a few different dishes with the meets that we have. Also people love the chillaw style curry crab Kothu. One of our key points is that we do not keep the food for more than a day and try to sell out as much as possible. We buy the meat items every other day so that the dishes are fresh and to keep the flavor intact.

We also have another option where you can have the Kothu with Rotti, String Hoppers or Macaroni (A must try dish according to Rae). The Macaroni is made with a special tomato sauce and mixed with your favourite meats or your favourite veggies and is mixed on the plate. In other words, it’s a Sri Lankan version of the Macaroni which people love.

What’s the story behind the name “Kothu Station?”
One reason behind the name was the people used to refer the ‘Hill Street’ as the ‘Station road’ those days because of the railway station down the road, but that is not entirely why we call it the Kothu Station. We call it a station because in your mind set it’s a place where Kothu is made.

What is your main target in the future?
Our logo has a map of Sri Lanka. I have big plans for this and I wish to spread it out in the country as well as take it to other parts of the world like Australia, England and New Zealand where there is an abundance of Sri Lankans living. We also do a lot of catering and we take the live station to events. And hopefully by the end of the year we will start our delivery service which I think will extend the boundaries of the Kothu Station.

How frequently do you get one customer visiting the Kothu Station?
Well we have about fifteen customers who have been coming every other day since it started. They started off by coming every day, since every day we have at least six meats and I suppose they wanted to try everything.

Future plans for the Kothu Station
We plan to enter in to Colombo and hopefully tie up with some of the well known shops; stores etc and expand our business. People are coming from all parts of the Island to try our food which is a remarkable experience. We hope to be THE place where people can come to when they want to sooth their Kothu taste buds.