Issue 57

02 March

 Breakfast and Lunch

This week - just yesterday actually - The Galadari introduced a Breakfast Combo offer. It's a full breakfast with scrambled egg, chicken bacon, baked beans, hash browns, kola kenda, tomato and coffee for Rs690. Some add ons are available such as sausage, mushrooms and fruit for an additional Rs100-200. The breakfast is served in the Blue Lotus café from 7.00am to 10.30am, Monday to Friday.

If you're looking for breakfast a little later, the Heladiv Tea Club in the Dutch Hospital opens at 10.00am and they have an all-day breakfast menu. They offer muesli, waffles or a full breakfast with prices from Rs590 for the waffles, up to Rs975 for the full platter.

There's a couple of new lunch deals too. The Barnesbury have introduced a  new weekday executive lunch with a different theme each day: Monday is Sri Lankan, Tuesday Thai, Wednesday Mexican, Thursday Italian and Friday Chinese. Lunch is available from  11.00am to 3.00pm.

And launched just today, Ceylon Club offer Curry in a Hurry: prawn, chicken or pork curry with dhal rice, brinjal, wade plus a mocktail and dessert for Rs950, available for dine-in Monday to Friday, from 12.00pm to 3.00pm.

And for this week's burger offer, we have a monster! The Tower Burger by Big Plate has 3 layers of crispy chicken, two slices of cheese, egg, bacon, a chicken patty and more. Priced at Rs1350 it is available 11.30am to 11.30pm (00.30 at weekends).

High Tea and Dinner

This weekend Botanik, voted one of Asia\s 50 best bars, is hosting a "From Jaffna  With Love" family dinner, together with My Sister's Kitchen who specialise in home cooked food for delivery. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, the 4th to 6th March, there is an exclusive set menu comprising a dozen dishes. It is available from 5pm onwards and is priced at Rs4000 per person.

We've noticed a few Indian set menus offered recently which is great, but we are particularly excited by the new Indian Bhojan buffet dinner launching this week every Thursday night at Flow, at the Hilton Colombo Residence. It's available from 7.00pm to 10.30pm and is priced at Rs3,550 per person. 

Black Out has reopened this week. Located at Ward Place, this Sports Bar and Restaurant offers a selection of bites, rice and comfort foods and televised live sports.

Balalaika Gallery Cafe has relaunched their menu this week, adding a selection of Italian, Mongolian, Malaysian and Thai dishes to the menu to enjoy in a chilled, open sided cafe environment. If you go, do check out the small art gallery at the side for some interesting displays. 

Happy Hours & Ladies' Night

Butler's Pub have launched a happy hour promotion, from 5.00pm to 7.00pm every day. Tiger, Heineken and Carlsberg beers are on buy three, get one free; Lion pitchers and mugs is buy two, get one free; and house cocktails are buy one, get one free. 

And to help us to be extra happy later in the evening, the Irish have added an additional late night happy hour. From Monday to Thursday, 10.00pm to 11.00pm is another happy hour to enjoy buy one, get one free on selected beers, shots and cocktails. 

There's a new, beach side ladies' night and, great news, it's not on Wednesday! Yes, Sugar Beach has introduced a new ladies' night on Thursdays. Ladies can enjoy freeflow cocktails from 5.00pm to 9.00pm and then buy one, get one free on drinks after 9.00pm. There will be music from DJ Loop during the evening too.

This coming weekend there's also a ladies' night at Re.pub.lk on Thursday night with buy one, get one free on selected cocktails from 7.00pm. 

Live Music and DJs

This could be one of the biggest weekends for music for a long time, with four separate music festivals on Saturday evening.

"The Beat of Youth" at Nelum Pokuna Outdoor Stadium features Sarith, Surith and The News, with Centigradz, Sanuka Wickramasinghe, Kanchana Anuradhi, Chanuka Mora, Dhanith Sri and Nadeemal Perera.

"Tropical Jam" at Cinnamon Lakeside will feature Magic Box Mixup, Flame, Rugrats, Link and Leftovers.

It's Baila Night at the Taj Samudra with music by Redeemers with Billy Fernando and Corrine Almeida.

And "The Temple Of Apollo" at Coaches Club brings us six Sri Lankan heavy rock bands: Genetic Fallacy, String Field, Local, Whirlwind, Indrachapa Liyanage and Billy Sameera.

For other gigs this week, please check our Gig Diary which is updated daily.

For music from the decks, Drunk Panda brings us "Cat in a Hat vol. 2" on Friday with DJs Mangoboom, Clifford, Unalome, Mark and Dr Green.

At Ask for Fern, it's The Groove Train with soulful funk, disco, future house and sax spun by DJ Hitch and Wendell.

Over at Lavix on Friday it's a clash of "Gladiators vs Knights" or Progressive vs House. The Gladiators are for progressive and represented by Josh, Yomal and Yarrick, while the Knights are for house and represented by Ace, Dr Green and Mohith. An epic battle!

On Saturday, Re.pub.lk is going back to old school with DJs Hesh and Brian, with happy hour cocktails from 7pm to 10pm.

There's 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

On Thursday there's the regular quiz night at Kami Maki at 6.30pm, and the Salsa night is on at Playtrix from 8.00pm, with a lesson beforehand from 6.30pm for those who want some tips or pointers.

On Friday the delayed Lit22 fest will be taking place, with DJ music, open mic, food and more. It's at Premadasa Extreme Gravel Karting from 6.00pm.

This weekend sees the Western Breeze Food Festival at Marine Drive from 5.00pm to midnight on Friday and Saturday with loads of food stalls offering a variety of street food and fast food, plus live music and entertainment. Admission costs Rs500 and Rs300 is redeemable against food purchases.

For art lovers and budding painters, there are weekly art classes for adults and kids at the Gallery FourLife on Saturday from 10am to 12pm and from 2pm to 4pm.  This weekend there is also a watercolour workshop on Sunday from 10.00am to 4.30pm.

This weekend the Bushwalkers group have a two day "Knuckles Waterfall Hunt" trip to Duwili Ella and Dumbara Ella for two days of hiking and a night camping.

ClimbLanka are holding a couple of women-only rock climbing workshops on Saturday and Sunday from 8.30am to 4.30pm. Spaces are limited so book early.

For some early morning yoga on Sunday, Aaron Wickramasekera will be hosting a Sunrise Yoga class at One Galle Face on Level 6's Sunset Terrace at 7.00am.

This Sunday at Port City there is an all day beach festival, with beach games, sports, food, drinks, live music and more. It's at The Beach Park from 10am to 10pm and looks like there's fun for everyone.

And on Monday, Shanjei is hosting another Warrior Vinyasa Yoga class at Prana Lounge at 6.15pm.