Issue 56

23 February

Breakfast and Lunch

We found another breakfast buffet, at Jetwing Colombo 7.  Breakfast is the only meal where they offer a buffet at present and it is available 06.30am to 10.00am daily, priced at Rs1,900 per person.

There's not always a huge difference between a brunch buffet or a lunch buffet, especially if you're not planning on having eggs, sausages or waffles. So when you're planning a Sunday Brunch you might want to also consider a lunch. Graze Kitchen at the Hilton Colombo have a weekend lunch buffet available 12.00pm to 2.30pm offering a big spread of food, plus some local cocktails, priced at Rs4,888 or 10% off if you book online.

There's another Business Lunch Buffet in town, ideal for lunch with colleagues. It's at the Grand Oriental Hotel's Harbour Room and is available Monday to Friday (well, who does business at weekends?) from 12.00pm to 3.30pm and is priced at Rs1,950 per person.

Another option for Sri Lankan lunch is the Thuna Patha restaurant at Water's Edge. They have a daily lunch buffet available from 12.00pm to 2.30pm, priced at Rs2,250 per person.

BBQ Avenue have an offer for Indian food lovers. Buy two biriyanis and you'll get two free naan breads and a butter chicken masala. This is available for dine-in only for lunch 12.00pm to 4.00pm or for dinner 7.00pm to 11.00pm, until 28 February.

High Tea and Dinner

It's the last weekend of the month so it's time for the monthly Japanese High Tea at Water's Edge. The Japanese High Tea buffet is available at Kobe restaurant on Sunday, from 3.00pm to 6.00pm and costs Rs3,950 per person. 

For a more Western high tea, Table by Taru offer a  daily luxury high tea from 12.00pm to 3.00pm. The cost is Rs4,250 per person and it must be pre-ordered.

Time for dinner and The Chaat are offering an Indian set menu comprising a quarter chicken, two latcha paratha and a half chana masala for Rs990. This offer is valid until 28 February.

And now for something different from the norm...how about dinner on a train? You can do that at Diyatha Station, where the platform is a food court with lots of outlets. Once you have your food you take it into one of the carriages to eat. There is even a bar in the locomotive! It's located across the lake from Water's Edge and to get there you can go by road to the north of the lake through Kalapaluwawa, or by boat from Water's Edge. It's ideal for train enthusiasts young and old and is open from 4.00pm to 11.00pm Monday to Friday and from 11.00am to 11.00pm at weekends.

Seafood lovers - rejoice! The Barnesbury have introduced a Seafood Market dinner with live cooking station. You choose what seafood you want, how you want it cooked and it will be prepared just for you. It's available on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 4.00pm to 11.00pm..

And for this week's burger offer, The Hungry Foodie have recently introduced a Peri Peri Philly Burger, packed with 120g of Philly sirloin steak, peri peri sauce, egg and loads more. They are offering two for Rs1,500. Available for pick up or delivery.

Happy Hours & Ladies' Night

Botanik Bar & Bistro, voted one of the 50 best bars in Asia in 2021, has introduced "Happy Afternoons" from 4pm to 7pm, Monday to Thursday. You can enjoy buy one, get one free on selected cocktails.

Rare Bar, as well as the cocktails and canapes mentioned last week, also has a daily happy hour. From Sunday to Thursday it is from 5.00pm to 7.30pm and on Friday and Saturday it's all evening from 5.00pm to 11.00pm. During these times you can enjoy buy one, get one free on selected Rare signature cocktails, as well as 20% off all shots. 

Not a booze happy hour but a food one. Junction Ten48 will be live streaming the  matches during the Sri Lanka cricket tour of India, on 24, 26 and 26 February and  04 and 12 March. From 7pm to 8pm on these match days they are offering a half price food menu. 50% off the food menu. Don't forget to book a table in advance!

Re.pub.lk is reopening this weekend and is offering a ladies' hour on Friday and Saturday. Both days, from 7pm to 8pm, ladies can enjoy free cocktails. You can also enjoy some good live music!

For regular weekly ladies' nights you can check our website Ladies' Night page. 

Live Music and DJs

The big gig this Saturday is Interstellar 22 with five performers, namely Jaya Sri, Umaria, Wasthi, Dhanith Sri and Hashen with music by Infinity. This will be at the Nelum Pokuna Outdoor Arena.

On Thursday, Black will be playing at Curve Bar, The Kingdom will be at Water's Edge Boardwalk while The Notion will be at the Long Bar, Daria will be solo at Allstar and Thivanka Chiraj will be performing acoustic Sri Lankan songs at Drunk Panda.

On Friday it's even busier, with Dream Caravan making their debut at Asylum, while Mirage will be at The Irish, Murunga at Darley Road, Dis & Dat at Re.pub.lk, Cold Sweat at SunsetBlu, and the Rugrats at Sugar Beach. 

On Saturday The Notion will be outdoors at Taphouse, Aquarius will be indoors at Curve Bar, Warehouse Project at SunsetBlu and Silk will be at Re.pub.lk. 

On Sundays, Barstool Prophecy will be playing their acoustic rock at Taphouse.

As always, we only have room to list a few highlights; for the full list of live music, check our Gig Diary.

For music from the decks, it's Wawk 2.0 at Drunk Panda with four resident DJs and two guest DJs.  Disco Shrimp is back at Shrimp Daddy's with two DJs spinning some soul, funky house and disco. It's Back to the 90s at The Loft at Colombo Court Hotel with tunes from DJ Azmath and two happy hours. The Love Bar is celebrating Long Live Fridays with DJs Dirty Dzv, Lunatics and Trev while at Ask for Fern it's El House Ep.1 with DJs Kyze Music, Mercue and Hitch and guest DJ Just:Because.

Lavix are bringing Angels vs Demons  this weekend. On Friday, DJs Kaden Jr, Ace, Kakes and Moonkillex will be spinning Hip-Hop, R&B, Afro Beats and funk, then on Saturday DJs Madaid and Basecraft will be giving it some House, Tech-House, Tribal House and Progressive house.  Also on Saturday it's "Pardon my French" at Level4 with Babe on da Beat, DKM, Neco and KK Colombo.

There's probably more to be announced for Saturday, so keep an eye on our home page or follow us on Instagram at @HappeningColombo21 for updates when we get them. 

Other Events

There's several quiz night and open mics this week. The quizes are both on Thursday, unfortunately: there's the weekly quiz at Kami Maki at 6.30pm and this Thursday there is also one at CCC Food Studio at 7.00.  And for next week don't forget Tuesdays at Playtrix. 

There's a couple of Open Mics, thankfully on different days. Thursday night it's at Red Dwarf hosted by Kani Trio, and on Sunday it's at Fuel Hub Cafe at 6pm.  There's also a karaoke night at Cuisine Colombo on Friday at 7pm, BYOB.

Playtrix is hosting its usual Salsa Night on Thursday with deals on Cuba Libre and Mojito cocktails, this starts 8.30pm.

Art lovers might enjoy the new exhibition "Full Bloom" by Sujeewa Kumari which opens at Paradise Road Galleries on Thursday at 10am and will be there until 23 March.

On Friday, the Connect@6 Social  is back at the Hilton Residences from 6.30pm, a good way to meet people and network.

Badam Doodh and Sweet Vibes have got together to offer Festa Street Food, a celebration of street food at both outlets this Saturday and Sunday. 

The Joint has a Saturday Soiree this Saturday from 6.30pm with music, food and drink and good vibes outdoors and in.

This weekend is also the next Ceylon Happy Market, at Havelock Sports Ground from 11am to 7pm, with lots of local small business and entrepreneurs. 

If you're up in Negombo on Sunday, do pop into the Grandeeza Hotel where Legends Pub, their new Sports Bar and Lounge, is opening on Sunday at 11am . There'll be an all day happy hour and from 6pm music with Lakshan Perera.

Looking ahead to Monday evening, Shanjei is hosting another Warrior Vinyasa Yoga class at Prana Lounge at 6.15pm.