KJ’s Curry Bowl

Kj’s has the best Sri Lankan food anywhere!
There’s a buffet or you can order from the menu.
We love the chicken satay with spicy peanut sauce for appetizers, and I always seem to get the chicken and potato curry and my boyfriend gets the beef teriyaki bowl. Both never disappoint.
The owners are so polite and welcoming you feel like you’re in their home.
The first time we went I asked about some of the tapestries and art displayed and they put a beautiful documentary type of movie on the tv for us to get a better understanding of the celebration taking place in the art. Wow!
They were so nice and the food so amazing we will always come back again and again!

Amazing food, I ordered a fried rice with chicken and shrimp and it was delicious. The attention is really good.

Every time I go by KJ’s Curry Bowl I’m reminded of the episode of «Seinfeld» where Jerry hopes for the restaurant across the street to succeed, though it’s in a location with a history of restaurant failures. The variety of cuisines, menu changes, pleasing host/​chef, it’s all too familiar!
Through my two years I’ve only had KJ’s Teriyaki Tuesday take out (steak and chicken) and a pleasant surprise of Taste of Madison something Sri Lankan, a layered veggie thing. That at the last day of Taste they recognized me (after a half dozen restaurant stops, so I wouldn’t say I’m that much of a regular) speaks to the service level. This husband and wife duo do it all and the food tastes good. They aim to please and that is to be commended.
Ample parking, convenient location five minutes off the beltline for those traveling from anywhere but the west side, quiet atmosphere, would be great for booking off site lunches for work and groups!
My only negatives resulting in one star off is for a bit small portion sizes for the price.

The food was amazing! I got the tofu curry, which had the perfect amount of spice. There were very little people there, and the food came quickly.

Finally a subcontinental joint with some spice. They also have the distinction of being a bit different than every other Indian place in Madison. You can still get your chicken tikka, but they have other options for the more adventurous. The eggplant curry is my favorite
The menu is a bit strange and I couldn’t tell you about the Chinese or other food they make. I mean if the owners are from Sri Lanka you should probably get Sri Lankan food
Oh and when they say spicy, they mean it. The chef came by and laughed at me for having a runny nose. Joke’s on him though because I was enjoying every minute of it

This is my favorite restaurant in Madison, and given the quality of the competition, that is a high honor.
At first I was skeptical, since the menu is a strange amalgam of their specialty — Sri Lankan curries — along with teriyaki bowls, fajitas, gumbos, and stir fry. Such an odd mixture lends to skepticism about the quality of the food, but that’s not justified here. Actually, the presence of the other items on the menu is a great strength, because it means you can take your non-​curry-​loving friends and they’ll still find something to eat.
The curries are the star attraction. The Sri Lankan flavors are very different than what you’d get at an Indian restaurant (and, from what I’m told by someone who would know, authentically Sri Lankan). My first time there, it took me a little while to get used to it (there’s a certain complexity to the flavor that requires some acclimation), but I was soon hooked.
They will adjust the spiciness to order. If you ask for spicy, you will get it; I’m a confirmed spice-​lover that orders food spicy almost everywhere else, but I often go for medium here. However, I can confirm that if you ask for your curry mild, it will indeed be as requested, and it will still be very good.
Family-​run place with friendly, thoughtul service.
I’ve always thought this place would do fabulously well downtown; the quality of the curries, and the rarity of Sri Lankan restaurants, would attract a lot of people, while the rest of the menu might appeal to the late-​night college crowd. Being on the far west side, the restaurant is too far to attract these people (and living downtown myself, I don’t get here as often as I’d like), but it does mean that this is generally a nice, quiet place to enjoy your meal.

When they tell you it is Spicy, they mean it is Spicy. Good Food and decent prices Great Service, I drank a lot of Water, Spicy. Like the Variety.

Done Right! Wonderful service, we are always greeted with the kindest smiles and «how are yous?» because they actually remember us. It feels like home. My son and I have been going to this place for years. It is «our place» because it is always fairly quiet and private so we can enjoy a meal out without a huge crowd or wait. We feel important too. The sczechun beef and broccoli is my favorite (perfect spice) and my son says it’s the BEST chicken teriyaki EVER but has finally branched out to chicken curry marsala. I really hope all the best success for KJ and his wife. They are wonderful people.

Absolutely fantastic. The flavors and aromas are divine. Very friendly staff. You owe it to yourself to give the buffet a try on Fridays and Saturdays.

KJS is not going to be your typical Indian food restaurant. This is genuine Sri Lankan food. The tastes are much deeper, flavors are quite a bit more difined and the use of actually curry leaf is there.
This is a special treat found ony on the coasts of this country. I know most have not tried Sri Lankan curry, but this is the real deal. If it is your first time to have curry, particularly, Sri Lankan curry, you really should try going during the buffet on Friday and Saturday at lunch time.
As for the portion sizes mentioned in other reviews… huh? This is typical size portions for Indian/​Sri Lankan food. The 3 of us went, got three orders, overate, took home lefovers.

To keep it concise: amazing food (try the batu curry!), friendly staff, pleasant pan flute covers on the speakers, efficient + quick seating/​ordering, an extensive menu.
Every time I bring someone new to KJ’s, they tell me they wish they’d known about it sooner. It’s just an overall pleasant experience, and there are always leftovers!

Tried out the buffet at this place after hearing people having enjoyed dinner here.
One first look this place looks like any other Indian buffet but on closer inspection they serve dishes I had never tried before so it was a nice change of pace.
Some unfamiliar options offered were asparagus curry, plaintain curry, milk rice (like regular rice just a little bit creamier– tasty!), carrot salad, fish and potato fried balls, pork curry, and pistachio pudding. The pistachio pudding tasted kind of like whipped cream, which made me wonder if it was whipped cream and how many calories I was ingesting.
The buffet was good but I don’t know that I would crave it. I think I would like to try their dinner at some point since there are some dishes on there that seemed more interesting than the buffet options.

I was really disappointed in this place after seeing so many good reviews on Unilocal.First, the service was bad — waitress didn’t give us any water and we had to ask for it, plus when it did come we were lacking one. When I asked for the missing cup of water the waitress looked surprised and didn’t even apologize. The service just got worse throughout the meal.
Next, the food was terrible. I got the dhal curry which had zero dhal and a few tiny pieces of onion and carrots. It was mostly just diluted sauce served with plain white jasmine rice — not the usual long-​grain basmati rice. It was so bad I couldn’t finish the dish even though I was starving afterwards since I basically just had curry sauce and white rice.
My SO had the same complaint — very little chicken in his tikka masala curry. This place is overall cheap, tries to cut corners, and offers bad service. There are many other better restaurants in the area, so avoid this if you can!

Probably closer to a three-​point-​something star place but I’m rounding up because as other reviews have noted, the people there are all so nice.
Have been here for dinner or lunch several times, and just tried out the new lunch buffet. As others have noted– the regular menu is all over the map, which is frightening, but I’ve just stuck with the Sri Lankan curries which are good (but a bit on the salty side). They also have quesadillas, so it checks the box for being a place that my pickier kid will eat at without too much protest.
The lunch buffet however was a surprise! While I am not an expert on Sri Lankan food, there was a great variety (more than is on the regular menu) and it was actually appropriately SPICEY, unlike your typical Indian buffet. They also had a couple of desserts– again, different from Indian, but similar in that the overwhelming characteristic was sweet (which I actually like). Our server said that they switch the dishes Fri/​Sat/​Sun from the rest of the week. Lunch Buffet was a bargain @ $ 9.99, and I think weekends are $ 12.99.
I hope they continue to make it at this location– it’s been a location of doom for several restaurants, with the one before them being especially good…

An Absolute treat!
This is a treasure-​trove of hearty, heartwarming Indian-​fusion delights!
The menu is vast, with all of your favorites and plenty of surprises to keep you coming back, trying new things. The bold, rich layers of flavor KJ’s was able to create in my dish was several steps above my expectations. Their wonderful spin on curry dishes is an incredible balance of seasoning and spice. Additional options, like brown rice was a nice treat as well.
Highly recommended!

Oh, KJs… you have gotten good reviews in general, so we gave you a try – twice. We really, really want to like you.
First off, let me say that the owner?/server/woman who greets you when you walk in is very pleasant and friendly, so major points for that. :)
Otherwise, meh. KJs tries to be a lot of things to many people, with dishes ranging from teriyaki/​stir fry to quesadillas to burritos to cajun food to curry. As a result, nothing excels. In our first visit, my partner had a teriyaki meal that did not reach beyond the level of frozen-​dinner-​heated-​up, and which was so doused in teriyaki sauce that it was totally unappealing. We also ordered potstickers that were good, I suppose, but were overpriced for how few you get (4, if I recall correctly). On our second visit, he ordered a chicken masala that lacked the cream and complexity I have always found in that dish – the sauce was thin (liquid rather than «gravy») and the spices seemed one-​dimensional and over… cinnamoned, perhaps? In both cases, my partner – a big believer in «quantity over quality» most of the time – didn’t finish his food.
For my part, I ordered two slightly different, vegetarian curries in my two visits. They were ok, but also not as complex and flavorful as I would have liked, and they had very few vegetables in them (the potato curry pretty much was just potato). Additionally, neither of them came with any kind of protein (I wanted tofu); adding it was an additional $ 3, which brought the price up to closer to $ 13 or $ 14 – pretty pricey for a semi-​fast-​food-​style place.
Finally, the booth where we sat for our second visit had a chunk of base board missing, so there was a big hole in the wall and lots of visible drywall otherwise – a state that always leaves that question of «what’s back there?» lingering in one’s mind.

Still dreaming of their string hopper kottu and chicken curry ,
Very friendly staff and delicious food. I just wish it was closer to Milwaukee so i can eat here more often

After reading the Isthmus review for their Sri Lankan curries, I made the trek out to the west side with some friends. The curries are indeed on the last page of their menu, hidden away a little bit. The rest of the menu is an odd mixture of «Southwestern» offerings (burritos, quesadillas, etc), Cajun food (gumbo, pulled pork), and pan-​Asian food (stir-​fry, teriyaki). I can’t vouch for any of those other cuisines, since we all got curries, but let me tell you, the curry is where it’s at.
We all asked for our curries hot, and that was a pretty manageable level of spiciness (maybe not if you are a native Midwesterner). Among the four of us, we had the dhal curry, mixed vegetable curry (one of that night’s specials), and the eggplant dish (do not remember what it was called, one was a curry and one was fried eggplants). The eggplant dish was a bit on the salty side, but the dhal (lentil) curry was really tasty. You can get brown or white rice on the side. One of the things I found odd about KJ’s was the pricing for their curries. The chicken and potato curry was $ 14, and the potato curry was about $ 12. A little pricey, compared to the green bean curry ($ 8) and dhal curry ($ 7).
Aside from that, the curries are definitely worth checking out, and they have a different special every weekend. Go get you some spice.

This place is misfiled, thanks in no small part to the authenticity of the place. This is an authentic Sri Lankan, Sinahlese restaurant, and the young couple owning-​operating it have much to learn about American-​Midwestern mainstream culture. First, they obfuscate the fact that they are Sri Lankan, dishing up not just very authentic, but also very tasty Sri Lankan curry (my aunt Kamala makes authentic Sri Lankan curry, but it’s not actually that good). And yet, there is nothing on the menu, on the storefront, anywhere here that would tell a potential customer that this is a Sri Lankan place. I’ve tried explaining to the owners that there is a subset of Americans who are looking for different, unique, exotic, foreign and authentic, there’s a market for culinary adventure. They think they need to hide their background, so they don’t scare off potential customers. Staggers the imagination, this is Madison Wisconsin. They play this canned smooth jazz that would be too cruel to use on prisoners of war, because it’s called «restaurant music.» Last time I was in there I brought in some traditional Sinhalese music for them to play, and a White family at a nearby table was enthusiastically encouraging them to play it, to no avail. They have all this peculiar stuff on the menu, burritos, some pseudo Chinese stuff, because they want to entice the teenagers from the nearby school to come after classes. Sweet Lord Shiva, they think American teenagers are a good thing to have in a restaurant. Well forget all that, the sincerity of the owner-​couple is part of the charm of this place. They may not know a lot about American culture, but they sure have bought into the American dream. Once you meet them, you’ll want them to succeed too.
The weekday menu is limited, in terms of authentic Sri Lankan, but the green bean, chicken, and dal curries are delicious. Unless you know what you’re doing, do not ask for it Sri Lankan hot, but if you want authentic Sri Lankan hot, they will bring it on. I am actually salivating as I type this. This place is so good, not once, not twice, but three times, I’ve hopped on the bus to Madison during the week, from Milwaukee, just to eat lunch. The prices are low, the food is unique, only order from the curry section, and order one more entrée than you have people, bring some food containers (they will pack the leftovers in Styrofoam otherwise, environmentally unsound, and not smart as these are gravy dishes), and bring some food home. That’s what I do. Weekends they add some special Sri Lankan dish that’s not usually on the menu, look for lamprais (not an eel, it’s a rice dish in a leaf), hoppers (it’s not like anything you’ve eaten before, don’t listen to anyone comparing them to crepes or pancakes), and get yourself on their email list. This is the best Sri Lankan restaurant outside of New York City or Toronto in North America. I know this for a fact, as I’ve been to them all.
Note: The interesting chairs are actually too low to be comfortable. Go for the standard chairs or booths instead. Also note, Sinhalese food should be eaten with the right hand. It tastes better that way. If encouraged, the owner-​waitress can show you how.
Outside of a handful of Indian-​Americans (they like this «ethnic» food which is similar to but not the same as what they get at home), some South Asian scholars, and a few of the overeducated suburban types within walking distance, this place is still largely undiscovered. You totally get bragging rights if you come here with the sort of friends who will be impressed when you say, «I found an authentic Sinhalese restaurant!» Greet them with a hearty «Ayubowan,» when you come in, and tell them Rohan sent you. Like most Sri Lankans, they know so many Rohans, they won’t actually know who you’re talking about, and they would give you the same wonderful service they give any customer, but I think you should tell them anyway.

Be sure to check in at the front desk. Neat space. You want hot curry – as in SPICY? You got it! Dumplings are amazing. Be sure to order as the appetizer.
If you are expecting the curry with coconut to be somewhat sweet, this is not the case. However, it has a flavor that can be appreciated. I would order it again.