Restaurant in New York City, United States
Michelin-recognised Sri Lankan for under $30.
Sagara is a Michelin Bib Gourmand Sri Lankan restaurant tucked into the back of a Staten Island grocery store, priced at the $ tier and serving communal-style dishes including the standout lamprais. It earns the ferry trip from Manhattan for anyone serious about Sri Lankan cooking. Straightforward to book, easy on the wallet, and harder to find a better value for Michelin-recognised cooking in New York City.
Sagara is the right call if you want Sri Lankan cooking at its most honest, priced low enough that you can order broadly and try everything on the table. The Michelin Bib Gourmand recognition in 2024 confirms what regulars on Staten Island already knew: this is serious cooking at a price point that removes any hesitation. If you are planning a casual celebration dinner, a low-key date where the food does the talking, or a deliberate food pilgrimage to one of New York's most overlooked boroughs, Sagara earns that trip. It is not the place for a formal business dinner or a night where ambiance is the point — it is the place where the food is the point, full stop.
Sagara operates out of the back of a local grocery store at 98 Victory Blvd, Staten Island. The dining room is small. The energy is neighbourhood-casual , quiet enough for conversation, close enough to the kitchen that you are aware of the cooking happening around you. This is not a loud, scene-driven room. The mood is unhurried and grounded, which makes it genuinely good for a meal where you want to focus on what is in front of you. If you are coming from Manhattan, budget the time for the Staten Island Ferry plus a short ride , it is a real commitment, and that context matters for planning. For those already on Staten Island, it is an easy, affordable weeknight option.
Timing matters here. A weekend visit gives you the full breadth of what the kitchen is doing, including lamprais, which is the dish that most warrants the trip. Weekday evenings tend to be quieter. Given the small room size, arriving early or with a reservation (where available) is the practical move , this is not the kind of room where waiting around is comfortable.
The format is worth understanding before you sit down. Dishes arrive together, not in sequence, which means your table fills up fast. You will be eating fish cakes, mas paan, and dhal vade alongside your main dishes simultaneously. That simultaneity is intentional , it reflects how Sri Lankan home cooking actually works, and it gives the meal a communal, generous quality that suits a group of two to four people well.
The lamprais is the centrepiece order. Wrapped in banana leaf and opened at the table, it contains rice with cashews and a braised protein option including mutton. Traditionally a special-occasion dish in Sri Lankan cooking, it translates well here as the anchor of a meal. The hoppers with chicken curry are a close second and a strong introduction for first-timers who want something approachable but still distinctly Sri Lankan. The Basmati rice with curries rounds out the table and handles the role of comfort and depth.
On the drinks side, Sagara sits in a grocery-adjacent context, so expectations should be calibrated accordingly. This is not a venue with a developed cocktail program or wine list to speak of , the editorial angle of a bar program simply does not apply here. Sri Lankan cuisine at this price tier and format is typically paired with direct soft drinks, tea, or light beer. If a thoughtful drinks pairing is part of what you are planning a meal around, Sagara is not that experience. What it offers instead is a level of cooking quality and cultural specificity that makes the absence of a drinks program easy to forgive. Bring your own if the option exists, or save the drinks for elsewhere in your evening.
Sagara is priced at the $ tier, making it one of the most affordable Michelin-recognised Sri Lankan meals you can find in New York City. At this price, ordering generously , lamprais, hoppers, a rice dish, and appetisers , keeps the bill low enough that the cost of the ferry or the detour to Staten Island feels entirely justified. Booking is direct, and walk-in access is plausible given the neighbourhood setting, though calling ahead is sensible given the small room. Google reviewers rate it 4.5 across 156 reviews, which is consistent and high for a casual neighbourhood spot.
For context on the Sri Lankan dining options in New York: Lakruwana is the other reference-point Sri Lankan restaurant in Staten Island worth knowing, and Lungi is a newer Brooklyn option for those who want to stay in a more central borough. Sagara's Bib Gourmand is the differentiating credential in this set. If you are interested in how Sri Lankan cooking performs at the high end internationally, Ministry of Crab in Colombo and Aliyaa in Kuala Lumpur provide the global context.
| Venue | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Sagara | $ | — |
| Le Bernardin | $$$$ | — |
| Atomix | $$$$ | — |
| Eleven Madison Park | $$$$ | — |
| Masa | $$$$ | — |
| Per Se | $$$$ | — |
Key differences to consider before you reserve.
Sagara is in the back of a grocery store at 98 Victory Blvd, Staten Island — walk past the shelves to reach the dining room. Dishes arrive all at once rather than in sequence, so your table fills up fast. Come hungry, order broadly, and budget for the lamprais; the price point means you can try several dishes without stress. The Michelin Bib Gourmand (2024) is your quality assurance at this tier.
Come as you are. Sagara is a neighbourhood spot inside a grocery store, so casual clothes are entirely appropriate. There is no dress expectation here beyond being comfortable enough to linger over a table covered in dishes.
The lamprais is the dish to order: banana-leaf-wrapped rice with cashews and braised protein, including mutton. The hoppers with chicken curry are the other essential. Because everything arrives at once, start with the fish cakes, mas paan, and dhal vade while you work through the rice and curries alongside them.
Sagara does not operate a tasting menu format. Dishes arrive simultaneously rather than in a curated sequence. Think of it less as a tasting progression and more as a spread: you order what you want, it arrives together, and the table becomes the full picture.
Yes, without qualification. At $ pricing, Sagara holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand (2024), which recognises good cooking at reasonable prices. You are getting Sri Lankan cooking serious enough to earn Michelin recognition for less than the cost of most mid-range NYC meals. The value case here is straightforward.
Sagara's closest competition for affordable, award-recognised cooking in NYC is within the Bib Gourmand tier rather than among tasting-menu restaurants. If you want to compare it against Atomix or Per Se, understand the format and price gap is enormous — those are $200-plus tasting-menu destinations. Sagara is the right call when the goal is honest, flavour-forward cooking at a fraction of that cost, with a Michelin stamp to back it up.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
