Uber’s 2023 Cravings Report: Sri Lankans like to keep it spicy

We bit into details on what you ordered on Uber Eats last year and discovered Sri Lanka’s love for everything spicy. Most prominently featured top instructions on orders placed on the Uber Eats app were “make it spicy”, “extra spicy”, and “spicy” – proving that Sri Lanks love their daiyya (spice) !

The Uber Eats Cravings Report 2023, a snapshot of the country’s favourite cravings and the most popular binge-worthy dishes, threw up some interesting revelations.

Having become an intrinsic part of everyday life, Sri Lankans made use of their favourite food and grocery app when they needed it the most. Over 8000 orders were placed on Uber Eats with ‘Birthday’ as part of the delivery instructions .

Uber Eats fulfilled sweet tooth cravings too with Pancakes, Chocolate Eclair, and Chocolate Doughnut, emerging on top as Sri Lanka’s favourite desserts. It also turns out that Sri Lankans remained impeccably polite, as nearly half of all instructions included the word ‘please’ .

Sri Lanka’s long love affair with Short Eats continued with Smoked Chicken Roll, Ulundu Vadai, and Fish Patty topping the list of most popular items ordered to fulfil snack hunger-pangs or Podi Badaginta.

Interestingly, in the island nation that is one of the world’s largest tea exporters, iced coffee trumped milk tea as the most popular beverage. This was followed by strawberry mojito and cappuccino.

The list of most popular dishes confirmed what we all know – Sri Lankans love their rice. 3 out of 5 most ordered dishes, clocking thousands of orders, were rice-based. Here’s the list of ‘2023 Menu Royalty’:

Spicy Chicken Submarine
Chicken Burger
Nasi Goreng
Mixed Fried Rice
Chicken Biryani

Grocery orders on the Uber Eats app were along expected lines with focus on vegetables for home-cooked meals and milk for popular beverages. Here’s the list of ‘2023 Grocery Royalty’:

Fresh Milk
Eggs
Tomatoes
Sandwich Bread
Carrots

Local delicacies continued to score big: beloved Achcharu (Sri Lankan pickle) was a hot favourite with over 17000 orders placed during the year. Kottu (Sri Lankan minced roti dish) and its many variations were among the most ordered type of dish too with Chicken Kottu, Roast Chicken Kottu, and Chicken Cheese Kottu, taking the laurels.

The age-old battle between Fried Rice or Biryani was also settled – at least for the past year – Biryani won with 20,000 more orders in 2023.

The oddball edition of unique delivery instructions deserves a special mention. Some of the most unique delivery instructions included:

Please put a lot of RICE and BIG chicken please

Can you please weigh the chicken leg and let me know? I’m on a diet, it wud be amazing if it is above 300 grams

This is for a patient who doesn’t have an appetite to eat. Appreciate it if you can make it appetising

Delivery partners delivering your loved meal always brings a smile to your face. This love and appreciation across Sri Lanka translated into more than LKR 100,500,000 in tips to delivery partners last year.

So, we now know that Sri Lankans love their food extra spicy, and love their share of chicken and chocolate, preferably with a bowl of rice! No matter what your cravings are, we will continue to deliver your order just the way you love it.