Issue 69

20 July

Breakfast, Brunch and Lunch

Din Tai Fung offer a Chinese Corporate Lunch. There's a choice of menus, for example Hot Butter Cuttlefish with Vegetable Chop Suey, Vegetable Fried Rice with Fried Egg, Prawn Crackers and Chilli Paste for Rs900. Delivery is available.

The Galadari has reintroduced its Coffee Shop lunch buffet at weekends, available from 12.00pm to 2.30pm on Saturday and Sunday for Rs2,750 per person. It may also be available some midweek days if there are sufficient bookings, so if you want a midweek buffet then call the day before and check. If they do have it, the midweek price is Rs3,100 per person.

Deli France are offering a selection of "Grab 'n' Go Sandwiches" with a choice of Chicken Tandoori, Tuna Mayo or Sri Lankan. These are priced at Rs300 each or Rs550 for two and are available 11,00am to 7.00pm.

The Wrap Co. have a "mix and match" offer of any two wraps for Rs1600, with a further 20% off if you collect the wraps from any of their four outlets.  As a side note, we tried their wraps a few weeks ago and enjoyed them.

High Tea and Dinner

The High Tea Platter at Mandarina has been refreshed. With three tiers of treats, savoury and sweet, it is available daily between 3.00pm to 5.30pm priced at Rs4,000 for two people. 

Meanwhile t-Lounge by Dilmah have extended the times of their high tea. The platter includes six savoury items and five sweet items and iced tea or bottomless hot tea and is now available all day.

The Big Mighty Deli will have a pop-up at Smoking Hearts BBQ on 29th and 30th July. On 29th July, the theme is "Beats, Brews & BBQ" and on 30th July it's a "Mighty Hearts Dinner" with a six course tasting collaboration menu. 

Happy Hours & Ladies' Night

We found a new Happy Hour at the Ramada. They are offering 50% off selected beers, shots and cocktails from 5.30pm to 6.30pm daily, at the Secret Garden and the Oasis Lounge Bar.

There's also a happy hour for wine drinkers at Sip & Savour. They are offering 50% off all varieties of wine daily from 5.00pm, until the end of July.

Not drinks - well, not alcoholic drinks - but Pappa Rich have a happy hour from Monday to Friday, 5.00pm to 7.00pm and between these times you can get buy one, get one free on Hot Butter Mushrooms and 20% off selected mocktails. 

There's a new Ladies' Night at Sugar Bistro and, guess what, it's not on a Wednesday! "Sugar and Spice" ladies' night is on a Friday, so a good way to start the weekend, and ladies get to enjoy free drinks from 8.00pm to 10.00pm.

Live Music and DJs

Unsurprisingly several events this week have been postponed, to a date when hopefully it will be easier to get there! The show with Daddy and the Slipping Chairs reunion at Cinnamon Lakeside has been rescheduled to 5 August, at 7.30pm and the show with Infinity and guests at Nelum Pokuna will now be on 13 August starting at 7.00pm.

The next Stigmata gig, themed "Deliver Us From Evil", will be announced soon - looking forward to that.

In the pubs there's not so much music with only a few venues hosting bands this week so please check out Gig Guide for details, it's updated at least once daily.

Looking ahead to next week, on the 30th and 31st of July, there's a two-day music celebration of peace and solidarity, "Reach Out, Raise Sri Lanka" featuring a multitude of bands: Mintaka, C&C, Wildfire, Mirage, Warehouse Project, Magic Box Mixup, OiC 2Forty2, Echo and many more. 

A day earlier, on 29July, Gypsies and OHME will be onstage at Colombar, from 7.00pm. Also on 29th, there's a crossover at Zouk with Daddy live onstage followed by a club takeover at midnight with DJs Ace, Dirty Dzn, Capital C and more. 

This Saturday the long awaited Lumen EDM festival takes place at Sugar Beach. Rescheduled from an earlier date, it now features over half a dozen DJs including Clifford Issac, The Music Director, Sajay, Dirk Andrew and more. It starts at midday and continues late.

This weekend Zouk have "Friday Sax" with Binu Sax joining DJs Ace, Capital C, Ludi Spex and Jadon Fonka, and that's followed by "Supersonic Saturday".

For other DJ nights, see our diary on our home page. 

Other Events

This Wednesday, there's the usual Quiz and Acoustic night at Playtrix, starting with a quiz hosted by Murad followed by acoustic music from Dillon and Amani. This starts at 7.00pm.

On Thursday, get your dancing shoes on for Salsa Night at Playtrix with happy hour deals on Cuba Libre or Mojito cocktails, starting at 6.00pm for salsa classes then social dancing from 9.00pm.

Also on Thursday, the Wildlife & Nature Protection Society (WNPSSL) are holding their monthly lecture, on "Recovering from the Crisis Without Further Harm to the Environment". This will be online at 6.00pm.

In recognition of Pride Month, The Goethe Institut will be a South Asian LGBTQ Short Film Festival on 23 July with four short films: "Zaara's Film" from Sri Lanka, "Miss Man" from India and two films, "Aadat" and "Ghungroo" from Pakistan. This will be from 4pm to 6pm

And looking ahead to 29 July again (this is going to be a busy night!), the Rotaract Club of Colombo East are hosting an Open Mic Night, "Backyard Blues" which will be at Maqara from 6.00pm. It's a BYOB evening, with tickets costing Rs800 available on the door.