Issue 38

14 October

Breakfast and Lunch

Greenhouse Cafe now offer an All Day Breakfast, which can be customised or built up to your liking. This can be ordered direct or via the usual delivery services, and includes fruit, fresh pastries and cooked. 

An All Day Full Breakfast is now also on offer from The Fab, exclusively from their main branch on Galle Road. This full cooked breakfast can be ordered for delivery.

You can now also enjoy a good Sunday brunch at home. The Rare Bar & Kitchen's extensive Sunday brunch menu is now available for delivery. So check out the menu, place your order and you can enjoy it at home with your favourite people.

Oshella Homemade Goodness do a range of home cooked meals including chicken with yellow rice, nasi lemak, as well as finger foods and baked treats. They also do sweets like eclairs and more. 

Another home cooked option with yellow rice is Geraldine's Recipes, based in Pelawtte. They offer a selection of yellow rice combos, with chicken, fish, pork or veg with potato curry from Rs450 to Rs700; or with cashew curry from Rs550 to Rs750.

Biriyani remains a favourite and Masha Eats & Treats have a selection of biriyani lunch packs, from Rs300 for a regular up to Rs450 for a large box pack.

New flavour alerts. For a different taste in pizza, Ambistros have introduced a Smokey Salmon Pizza. And Mintage are offering a Hot Butter Chicken. 

Have you ever wondered what Jamaican or Caribbean and Sri Lankan fusion might taste like? Well there's no need to wonder any more as you can now try it, thanks to La Can S'a who are offering Jamaican, Caribbean and Sri Lankan signature cuisine. Dishes include Caribbean rice with jerk chicken and manioc with black pork curry.

Let us know what it's like!

High Tea and Dinner:

Want a mid afternoon snack but not a whole, full High Tea?  Baker's Blend have introduced a high tea combo of two mini-burgers, 2 muffins and a masala chai for just Rs480. It's more than enough to keep you going till dinner!

We're in the middle of October and surely a few of us are remembering Oktoberfests with big tents, oompah bands and lots of delicious food.  Sadly it looks like there won't be any that we can go to this year - but we can bring some of the Oktoberfest spirit home to us! The Mount Lavinia Hotel have 3 Oktoberfest menus with plenty for 4 or 5 people and this offer has been extended to 31 October.  If you want something a bit lighter, then Samares have a special Oktoberfest menu with a choice of sausages, meatballs or chops and mash available for delivery between 16th and 24th October.

It's not specifically Oktoberfest dishes, but Momo are having a PorkFest from now to the end of the month, with a range of pork dishes from sausages, devilled pork and chops; details on their menu.  Another option for pork is Pork Strait who are offering a full pork mixed grill for Rs3900 with a free tub of ice cream to cook off afterwards!

If you hear of any other Oktoberfest meal offers, or events, then do let us know!

ME Colombo have reopened their doors and have restarted their Friday Night BBQ dinner, available at the rooftop from 7pm and still priced at Rs3000 for two people.  

Crab lovers, how about a Jaffna Style Crab Curry dinner from Kaha Bath Gedara delivered to you at home? They are offering 1kg of crab curry, plus rice or paan, dahl and pol sambol for Rs6990.

For this weekend, Waters Edge have created an Indian Family Feast for delivery to your home. Available in mutton, chicken or vegetarian options, it is available from Friday 15th to Sunday 17th October only. 

Happy Hours & Ladies' Night

Most venues are getting ready for full reopening this weekend, and some are already open.

Cheers Pub at Cinnamon Grand have a daily happy hour from 5.00pm to 7.30pm, with 50% off draft beers and selected shots. &Co at the Steuart also have a daily happy hour with buy one, get one free on beers and selected spirits and cocktails.

The Chiller Room is also open again from Wednesday to Sunday and their happy hours are 7pm to 9pm with buy 1 get 1 free on selected beers, wines, spirits and cocktails; Ask for Fern has the same happy hour deal. And happy hour is also back at the ME Colombo rooftop bar, with buy one, get one free on selected cocktails from 5pm to 7pm - a great location for the sundowner!  

Another good sundowner location is the beach front of course and King of the Mambo's happy hours are back. There's a different theme every night but the happy hours are fairly consistent at 6pm to 8pm except on Monday when it's the first ten minutes of every hour!  

Happy Hours are also back at Kurumbar from 6pm to 8pm, Wednesday to Sunday and at the Curve Bar, Park Street Mews from 5pm to 8pm, Sunday to Thursday.

So far we know of two places that have restarted their ladies' nights: King of the Mambo on Tuesday, where ladies can get selected cocktails free from 6pm to 8pm, and at the Chiller Room where ladies get selected drinks free from 6pm to 8pm.

King of the Mambo has also restarted its Gentlemen's Night on Saturday, where men get a welcome cocktail free and then a buy two, get one free deal on selected whiskey.

Live Music and DJs

We were out last weekend and delighted to hear a bit of live music; it was one of the regular bands but just a couple of members playing as there was a limit on the number of musicians on stage.  

However that is easing and on Thursday this week Bourbon Blue will be playing at Curve Bar from 8pm. 

This Friday we know of three live music events. Black will be playing at the Curve Bar from 8pm,  Manilal and Derek will be playing live at The Irish from 7pm. And Shafi and Jana will be playing at the Cinnamon Grand Lobby from 7pm to 11pm every Friday. 

If you prefer to enjoy music from home, then you might enjoy a livestream performance and chat by Rajiv Sebastian starting at 6pm on Saturday.

And there is also a DJ playing at Kurumbar on Friday. DJ Shaun presents Disco Friday Madness, with happy hours from 5pm to 7pm.

There's no live music announced for the weekend yet but, as soon as we hear of any, we'll add it to the gig diary so just check back from time to time.

Other Events

In another sign that events are returning, Park Street Mews is planning another Local Bazaar (remember them?) on 28th November. Any vendors interested to take part, get in touch with them.

As usual, we've been on the lookout for interesting online events, preferably home grown but also from around the world. And we've found quite a few.

We've been looking for webinars that might be useful for small businesses and this week we found another, "How to Use Social Media to Find More Customers". This is on Friday at 2.30pm.

Most of us are having more business meetings online, so another that might be helpful is "Presenting Confidently in a Virtual World"; this workshop is on Friday at 7.30pm.

The World Bank is holding a series of discussions on essential topics. You can hear the discussion on "Making Climate Action Count" on Thursday at 12pm and on "Trade to the Rescue", for economic recovery, on Friday at 11am.

Artificial Intelligence is bringing many big changes and there's a couple of webinars about these: "How is AI Transforming Healthcare" on Thursday at 10.30pm and for those of us who want to know the basics better, an "Introduction to AI" on Sunday at 10am. And another technology subject that many of us don't fully grasp is Blockchain, so join a "Blockchain 101" presentation on Saturday at 9.00am

Fashion Fans have a chance on Saturday at 8pm to "Meet Emerging Asian Designers" while Coffee lovers can enjoy a good session, "Coffee Mate" on Friday at 7.30pm to hear about coffee beans, machines and ideas.

Finally, a couple of cookery events. You can join a class to make Pasta, Gnocchi and Noodles on Friday at 2pm.  The following day there is a session on Cajitalia - Cajun and Italian Fusion, on Saturday at 8pm. And on Sunday it's Malaysian, with a class on Malaysian Curry with Jasmine Rice at 9.30pm.

Events are being added to our diary almost daily, especially now as restrictions are easing, so keep checking back and see what's new.