A Sri Lankan entrepreneur has opened his first international outpost in Canary Wharf – Prawn Crazy, which he has ambitions to turn into a global brand.
Apinash Sivagumaaran launched Isso (meaning prawn in Sinhala) ten years ago as a 16-seater dining spot in central Colombo, and has grown it to a group of five across Sri Lanka.
He says he was obsessed with prawns from an early age. “You find chicken restaurants, crab restaurants, lobster restaurants, but there’s no specialised prawn restaurants, and I personally as a kid loved prawns.”
Apinash grew up in Sri Lanka and studied finance in Australia before recognising that his passion lay in hospitality. He worked in hotels and resorts in Singapore, meeting up with friends to eat seafood on his visits home – which was how he came up with the Prawn Crazy concept.
“Basically we’ve taken one of the best proteins you can find in Sri Lanka and we’re serving it to the mass market.
“We work directly with 150 fishers in the north and north-east of the island who use small boats to catch prawns. They go out to sea for four hours, chill their catch and then we quick freeze it to minus36ºC as soon as they return which means the shellfish you’re eating in our restaurant are as fresh as it gets.
“I call them the wagyu of the sea and when you eat at Isso, you’re supporting a fleet of sustainable, small-scale day boats in Sri Lanka because we import all the prawns we serve in the UK from them. We make sure we pay them fairly and I’d love to grow this business until we’re working with 1,000 boats.
“Sri Lanka has gone through a lot – a two-decade civil war, back-to-back recessions and political unrest. There isn’t a lot of time to dream big because there are many problems to focus on.
“For me, I want Isso to be a motivation for all of our entrepreneurs on the island. You don’t have to be born in New York, Paris or London to dream big. You can have those aspirations from Sri Lanka and take over the world.”
Prawn Crazy’s menu offers sea-caught flower prawns at £19 a plate up to showstopping ‘colossal’ freshwater prawns at £45. They are cooked in a choice of five styles, from Jaffna curry to hot butter, and served with two styles of rice or parotta bread. Beyond prawns there are mutton roll starters, rotis and a vegan cashew nut and pea curry.
Prawn Crazy will also be operating a month-long pop-up at the Pavilion Cafe in east London’s Victoria Park throughout August.