Issue 40

27 October

Breakfast and Lunch

For a top breakfast, the Shangri-La's breakfast buffet at Central is now available seven days a week, starting from 06.30am until 10.30 every morning.

They have restarted their Sunday Brunch too, which is available from 12.30pm to 3.30pm on Sundays, also at Central.

Another option for Sunday brunch is Rare Bar and Kitchen. They have an extensive a-la-carte brunch menu including Western and Sri Lankan favourites and these are available for dine-in or for delivery - so you can enjoy Sunday Brunch at home.

Vally's is a Pakistani fusion cloud kitchen offering takeaway or delivery. They have a weekly menu with dishes like biriyani, curry and chapathi combos and beef haleem. Prices start from Rs450 for a budget biriyani pack.

Another cloud kitchem, Lavash de Roti, do flat bread wraps with chicken, seafood or more, have a buy 2, get 1 free offer until 1st November. They are open 8am to 8pmm for delivery or takeaway.

The Executive Lunch is back at Park Street Mews Restaurant. The three course lunch includes a choice of four starters, six main courses and three desserts. It is available from Monday to Friday, from 11.00am to 3.00pm and costs Rs1,200. 

A couple of hotels have also restarted their weekend lunch buffets. The ME Colombo's My Dining Restaurant hosts an international buffet lunch on Saturday and Sundays, from 12.00pm to 3.00pm.

Flow, at the Hilton Colombo Residence, have extended their lunch buffets to Thursdays and Fridays, as well as the weekends. This offers five cuisines: Indian, Sri Lankan, Chinese, Japanese and Western and is available from 12.00pm to 2.30pm. 

The Galadari Hotel will also restart their weekend lunch buffets from 6 November. These will be in the Coffee Shop, from 12.00pm to 2.30pm on Saturdays and Sundays. 

Let us know what it's like!

High Tea and Dinner:

We're hearing of more places that have restarted dine-in for their high teas. The Colombo Hilton's high tea is available by their Lotus Pond every day from 3pm to 6pm with a big selection of savoury and sweet items. It's priced at Rs3,288 for two people to share. 

The Ramada Hotel are serving their high tea at either the Gardenia restaurant or the Secret Garden. Also with a generous selection of savouries and sweets, their tea is available from 3pm to 6pm and is priced at Rs2,990 for two people.

Mongolian Street is another cloud kitchen with a range of Mongolian Rice and Noodle specialities as well as a few other dishes, for takeaway or delivery. They also have an offer for this Friday, Saturday and Sunday of a Chicken Mongolian Rice meal for 4 and a Hot Butter Cuttlefish for Rs2500.  

Big Plate are offering a meal deal of a chicken tikka masala with dahl, onion sambol and a paratha for Rs899.

Masha Eats and Treats have an offer for delivery of ten pieces of soft mani pittu with babath curry and dahl curry, all prived at Rs1750.

Have you ever tried a Maqlooba? It means "upside down" and is dish of spiced rice with vegetables topped with chicken, prawn or another meat. One maqlooba can serve four to six people and Persian Cove have a selection to choose from.

Indian Summer have a new buy one, get one free deal on five items ordered through Uber Eats. These are chicken lollipop, channa masala, tandoor chicken, veggie samosas and plain naan. This deal is available until 5th November.

ME Colombo have restarted their Saturday evening Mongolian Barbecue Dinner, available from 7pm and there is a beer deal for the evening as well.

And finally, the Galadari Hotel's weekend dinner buffet will be starting again next weekend, on 6th November, available in the Coffee Shop on Saturday and Sundays from 7pm to 11pm.

Happy Hours & Ladies' Night

There's just been a few more happy hours added this week.

Along with their daily happy hour from 6pm to 8pm, the Lobby Bar at the Galadari also has an all day happy hour on Courvoisier VSOP and Campari. This means buy one, get one free and is available from 10am to 11pm.

The Colombo Fort Cafe has a beer and wings combo offer; get a pitcher of beer and a plate of wings for Rs2050. This deal is available from 11am to 5pm daily.

The Love Bar have restarted their happy hour deals from 4pm to 7pm, from Wednesday to Sunday.

The Re.pub.lk have their happy hour from 5pm to 7pm, extended to 8pm this Friday night. They also have Ladies' Night on Saturdays from 7pm to 9pm.

More are likely to follow next week and we'll add them to the Happy Hours page on the site, and in our Instagram.

Live Music and DJs

Music is coming back bit by bit. A couple more venues are welcoming bands back this week and Colombar are back up to six nights a week.

On Thursdays, Colombar host Warehouse Project starting at 7pm while this week sees Aquarius return to the stage at The Curve Bar from 8pm.

Friday at Colombar is the turn of OiC, starting at 7pm, while Mirage will be playing at The Irish from 7pm, as part of the Oktoberfest party. Magic Box Mixup also make a welcome return this week, they will be at The Re.pub.lk.

Saturday night sees The Redeemers at Colombar, while Silk will be marking the return of live music to The Fox Den, postponed from last week, and Re.pub.lk will be hosting Dillon. 

Feelgood Friday at Asylum this week will feature DJ Ishan playing music from the 90s. Over at Kurumbar, DJ Shaun will be on the decks Neco will be at Level4 on Friday and Saturday.

There's some big Halloween parties this weekend. The Love Bar and The Attic, two spaces for two sounds, are hosting four DJs on Saturday: Hitch, Trev D, Fernando and Lunatics... okay, that's actually five. The vibe at Love Bar is Squid Games while at The Attic it's Space Saga.

Over at Ask for Fern and The Chiller Room, the vibe is The Nun with DJs Clifford Isaac and Ace in Fern and Dirty Dzn and Babe on da Beat at the Chiller Room accompanied by Jith on congos and BinuSax. 

King of the Mambo is also marking La Noche de los Muertas with DJs Demo and Lunatics on Friday and DJ Demo with BinuSax on Saturday.

Whatever you do, wherever you go, remember to keep safe.

Other Events

Another event making a welcome return is Salsa dancing! Yes, Playtrix are hosting a Salsa Night on Thursday, complete with happy hour deals on Cuba Libre and Mojito cocktails. The evening starts at 9.30pm.

The Good Market is back at Colombo Racecourse on Saturday and CAN Market at One Galle Face mall on both Saturday and Sunday. 

This Saturday evening there's also a Night Market hosted by the Merril J. Fernando Foundation at their premises in Moratuwa, featuring stalls by many small businesses, along with music, food and a movie for the kids. This all starts at 5.30pm.

The Bavarian German Restaurant is also celebrating Halloween with a special menu of food and drinks, as well as competitions and prizes. This runs from Thursday until Sunday. 

Saturday and Sunday morning, Little Adventures are offering Boogie Boarding lessons for kids, at Sugar Beach.  This starts at 8am each day and prior bookings are needed.

Onto the virtual events and on Friday evening at 7pm there's a discussion about the Psychological Effects of the Pandemic, on adults and children.  On Sunday, the WNPS lecture invites you to explore the secret world of bats.  Looking ahead to next week, there is an informed discussion of The Future of Retail; how is it changing? This is Tuesday at 3.30pm.

There's also a couple of fun online quizes. On Friday, at 2.30pm you can join a pub trivia quiz, while on Saturday evening the quiz theme is Halloween, at 8.30pm

These are just a selection of the events that we have listed. Check the diary for more information and remember that events are being added to our diary almost daily so keep checking back and see what's new.