This blog reviews places to eat. However, there are times when a lengthy review is unnecessary as usually the food is great but the menu is limited and the ambience is non existent. This is one of those times. We’ll start with a place where the ambience is defined by a white cord and a red paper label. The Lamprais ...
Breakfast may be the most important meal of the day. But even at luxury hotels, you get the same old, same old: a choice of English (meat, eggs, toast, coffee), continental (English minus the meat and eggs) and Sri Lankan breakfasts (string hoppers and such).I was complaining about this to my wife when we went to the Sun House in ...
(Click here for more posts about hotels in Sri Lanka)(Updated Sep 2010) When people in Sri Lanka go to watch cricket in Dambulla, where do they stay? Habarana or Kandalama or Sigiriya are the usual answers. Recently, we visited Thilanka Resort and Spa in ...
Sometimes, when visiting places in Sri Lanka, multiple days aren't required. The island is small enough that a 3 hour drive out of Colombo can take you somewhere completely different.Yapahuwa is one of these places. In the 13th century, one of our kings, seeing how well Sigiriya had turned out for King Kasyapa, (Tangent: Actually if King Kasyapa had just ...
We Sri Lankans eat Chinese food till MSG bubbles out of our ears. And we love chilli and coconut. Put these together and you have Singaporean food. Recently, to my particular joy, two Singaporean places opened up. Prima Taste I've reviewed here and didn't like much. This review is of the second one, Long Feng at Trans Asia, which after ...
(I've added other burger related posts here) We've been passing BARS quite often as it's right on Duplication Rd though the address is 24 Deal Place. The ambience is promising with the option of outside dining, overlooking the splendor of Duplication Rd. The other thing in its favour is the music: cool, chill, soothing and groovy music that complements the ...
I’ve always liked Singaporean food. Liked it enough that I used to plan day long stopovers in Singapore just to eat at hawker centers. The Malay ingredients, the Chinese methods and the Indian spices that make up Singaporean cuisine go to show that Asian fusion is not something Western chefs invented recently.Recently, two Singaporean places opened up. Prima, probably the ...
I’ve been working on a rural development project. In the course of work, we travel a lot and, given our budget, only resthouse-style accommodation is allowed. This is not usually a problem as I was boarded in a Sri Lankan private school as a child and I can ...
Driving on Sri Lankan rural roads is heaven. The main roads are usually carpeted, well maintained and traffic-free. But I also mean it in an aesthetic sense: rural roads here are surrounded by lush greenery, ancient trees, flowers (which I struggle to grow in my own garden) growing wild, lakes, sea, beach, cloudless blue skies and sunsets.But what is usually ...
Sri Lanka’s miles of beachfront are something us locals (both guests and restaurateurs) use far too sparingly. Thankfully, the Mount Lavinia Hotel is an exception. Seafood Cove is a restaurant set on the Mount Lavinia Hotel’s private beach. Accessible through the hotel, it’s a simple setup. The décor itself recalls the beach movies of the 50’s with wood planks nailed ...
Recently, we visited Hikkaduwa. Hikkaduwa, north of Galle, Sri Lanka is a town known for its accommodations for backpackers. Usually, this means cheap, small hotels, with cheap, small rooms, unexceptional food and few amenities (save the beach which is usually on the doorstep.) This ...
The hotel trade in Sri Lanka is an odd business. Down south, cookie cutter hotels with blue pools and blah buffets next to a sliver of beach are full every weekend while one in gorgeous low country tea land, right next to a waterfall in an intensively green, landscaped environment languishes, empty.Bopath Ella Rock Chalets Hotel is in Kuruwita, just ...
Quick, where does anyone stay in Puttalam district? Apart from Dhammika Holiday Resort which does not overcome its unpromising name and Puttalam Rest House, there's pretty much nothing. Just before a monitoring visit to Puttalam, however, a friend told me about the Mudhouse which is in Anamaduwa off the Puttalam Kurunegala Rd.The way there is promising, beginning with a massive ...
I’ve been working on a rural development project. In the course of work, we travel a lot and, given our budget, only resthouse-style accommodation is allowed. This is not usually a problem as I was boarded in a Sri Lankan private school as a child and I can live with almost anything. Happily, the Polonnaruwa Resthouse, run by the Ceylon ...
Sri Lanka’s miles of beachfront are something us locals (both guests and restaurateurs) use far too sparingly. Thankfully, the Mount Lavinia Hotel is an exception.Seafood Cove is a restaurant set on the Mount Lavinia Hotel’s private beach. Accessible through the hotel, it’s a simple setup. The décor itself recalls the beach movies of the 50’s with wood planks nailed together ...
Recently, we visited Hikkaduwa. Hikkaduwa, north of Galle, Sri Lanka is a town known for its accommodations for backpackers. Usually, this means cheap, small hotels, with cheap, small rooms, unexceptional food and few amenities (save the beach which is usually on the doorstep.)This time, however, we stayed at the Amaya Reef hotel run by the Connaissance hotel chain. These hotels ...
