Restaurants in Colombo
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Gallery Cafe
The historic building that houses Gallery Cafe used to be an office for Sri Lanka’s most famous architect, Geoffrey Bawa. The open-air cafe area looks over a pebbled courtyard, while the lounge bar is where Bawa’s old office used to be – in fact, his desk is still there. The decor is stunning and the Sri Lankan–inspired dishes focus on fresh ingredients and bold, clean flavours. As a cheaper option, come for an afternoon coffee.
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Green Cabin
This place is a bit of an institution in the local restaurant trade. It’s well known for both its baked goods and its inexpensive Sri Lankan, Indian and Chinese dishes. The lunchtime buffet is excellent value – the mango curry, if it’s on, is very good. For a snack try the vegetable pastries or the cardiac-arrest-inducing bacon-and-egg pies.
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Delifrance
Filling sandwiches for shoppers on the go. It’s on the ground floor of the very popular Odel Unlimited store.
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Beach Wadiya
Renowned for its seafood, Beach Wadiya has attracted a popular following for decades, including an impressive list of celebrities: Princess Anne and Richard Branson, among others. Come early to pick a table inside the weather-beaten beach shack or outside in the sand, order a chilled Three Coins beer while a waiter fills you in on the day’s catch, and receive your specially customised grilled or fried seafood platter. Reservations are recommended. Also, take care when entering the restaurant: you have to cross the railway tracks and there is no signal when trains approach.
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Shanti Vihar
This place's deliciously spicy vegetarian food and very reasonable prices make it popular with locals and foreigners alike. It's a basic, well-worn eatery, though there is a fancier air-con section. The menu's South Indian offerings are especially good: masala dosa (curried vegetables inside a paper-thin lentil-flour pancake)for Rs 60, curd vadai (a deep-fried lentil-flour patty with yoghurt) for Rs 25 and Madras thalis for Rs 90. Shanti Vihar also has a home-delivery service.
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Chutneys
Decked out in black furnishings and pastel colour schemes, this chic-but-cheap restaurant offers some of the best South Indian fare in town. Try the signature dish, a ‘cap dosa’, one of 30 types of dosa (paper-thin rice- and lentil-flour pancakes) available. The dress code requires long pants. Despite the upscale atmosphere the prices make this place accessible to midrange budgets.
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Bu Ba
With candlelit tables right on the sandy beach, this seafood restaurant is a wonderful place for an evening meal. In the heat of the day you can retreat to the interior, little more than a grove of palm trees. Call ahead to find out what’s on as weekend dance parties are sometimes held here. To find it, walk along the beach south of the Mount Lavinia Hotel.
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Chesa Swiss
This classy restaurant serves delicious (and pricey) Swiss and French fare made from the freshest vegetables and meat imported from Australia. Lamb chops, duck breast, salmon fillet and beef tenderloin are a few of the menu items offered by European owners Catherine and Michael. A good selection of imported wines and beers is also available.
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Majestic City
A good spot for a cheap but reasonable quality lunch is the food hall in the basement of this shopping centre, where you can choose from Malaysian, Chinese, Sri Lankan, Western-style fast food and Indian. There's a play area for young children next to the eating area, and the complex also has a good Cargills Food City on the ground floor.
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Chettinad
Enjoy cheap South Indian and Sri Lankan food at this place in the heart of Pettah. The downstairs dining room is open to the street, and the menu is vegetarian only. Upstairs is air-con and offers both veg and nonveg meals; prices are about Rs 40 more than those downstairs. Bombay sweets are sold from a glass case in the lobby.
reviewed
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Sakura
The food at Sakura, Colombo's oldest Japanese restaurant, is simply prepared yet very tasty. If you sit at the bar you can switch between watching the sushi chef and the delightfully weird Japanese game shows on the TV. Occasionally there are karaoke videos. There is also a private dining room with tatami mats.
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Cricket Club Cafe
This older-style bungalow with a garden and veranda is one of Colombo’s most popular places to meet, drink and eat. It is packed with cricket memorabilia, needless to say. Options range from pasta to seafood to burgers with salad and chips. There’s a good bar and an excellent selection of beers and wines.
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Fab
Upper-middle-class Colombo residents fill the Fab in the afternoon for tea, pastries, cakes and Western and Eastern snacks, all of which are cut above the similar fare at Green Cabin and Pagoda Tea Room. There are four other branches around the city, but this is the original and the most popular.
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Greenlands Hotel
Despite its hospital-ward-like interior, Greenlands whips up very good, fresh South Indian food. Divided in to a busy semi-open-air canteen area and a separate air-con dining room, this place is popular with locals. The prices are so low you won't mind that you may have to beg to be served.
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Amaravathi
Amaravathi offers some of the best South Indian cuisine in the capital for very reasonable prices. The menu includes three different vegetarian thalis (‘all-you-can-eat’ plates of rice, curries and accompaniments), plus a varied selection of veg and nonveg Madras- and Andhra-style dishes.
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Commons
This cafe has a strong following among Colombo’s upwardly mobile. Customers lounge in soft seats arranged around low tables and feast on an array of Western dishes, including baked crab, burgers, pastas and wraps. The pancake and bacon breakfast is very good and the desserts are spot on.
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Crescat Boulevard
A few steps from Cinnamon Grand Hotel, this shopping centre has a good food hall downstairs. You have a choice of Sri Lankan, Chinese, Malaysian or Indian cuisine – or burgers. Service is efficient, the surroundings are clean (with clean toilets nearby) and the prices are moderate.
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Palmyrah
In a nondescript kitchen in the basement of Hotel Renuka a chef is whipping up some of the finest Sri Lankan curries in Colombo, along with a selection of South Indian specialities. Don't miss the stellar wattalappam (coconut milk, egg, cardamom and jaggery pudding).
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Curry Leaf
Hilton Colombo has arguably the best array of upscale international restaurants in the city. Curry Leaf, tucked behind the main building in a lovely garden that recreates the atmosphere of a traditional village, serves excellent Sri Lankan food. It also has an arrack bar.
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Barefoot Garden Cafe
Located in the courtyard of the well-known Barefoot gallery, this cafe serves sandwiches, snacks such as falafel in pita bread, and daily specials that usually include one Sri Lankan, one Thai, one Malay-Indonesian and several Western dishes. There’s also a wine list.
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Golden Mile
Well-heeled visitors to Mt Lavinia often wash up at this open-air restaurant on the beach. The setting is romantic and you’ll often get live music in the evenings. It specialises in Western-style seafood, with a variety of cooked prawns and a tasty seafood platter.
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Number 18
The menu here is a mix of Asian and Western dishes, with items such as Japanese tempura and pastas. For a local treat, try the Sri Lankan beef smore stew, which includes beef smoked for over seven hours. Film buffs will appreciate the cinematic theme.
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Pagoda Tea Room
Hungry like the wolf? Duran Duran filmed its classic 1980s video for that very song in this venerable establishment. Although there’s a variety of Sri Lankan, Malaysian, Chinese and Western dishes, the main focus is on inexpensive pastries.
reviewed
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Harbour Room
Overlooking the city harbour from the 4th floor of Grand Oriental Hotel, this blandly decorated hotel dining room is worth visiting for its superb views. It has breakfast, lunch and dinner buffets, as well as an à la carte menu.
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Bayleaf
In a beautiful old mansion in one of Colombo’s most exclusive streets, this place specialises in first-class pastries and baked goods, and has an à la carte menu with European fare. The management is friendly and engaging.
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