Welcome to this week's update on Colombo's meal deals, food delivery and events. Did you catch our initiative to show some love and support to the hospitality industry, with a "Buy a Meal" campaign? Every meal that we buy supports not only the restaurant but also their staff and their suppliers; the farms supplying the fresh produce; the spices; the baker supplying the bread; the dairy suppling the milk; and of course - especially nowadays - the delivery team. So we have partnered with the Council for Business with Britain and the European Chamber of Commerce in Sri Lanka, and with the support of the Colombo City Restaurant Collective, we are asking everyone to order a meal for next Thursday the 19th August. The two chambers are asking their member companies to order a meal for the staff, too. Any meal - breakfast, lunch, tea, an afternoon snack, dinner. From any restaurant, or cafe, bar or club, baker or home cook, hotel. Every meal that you order will support the restaurant, their staff and their suppliers. If you do choose to order - and we hope that you do - please order a few days in advance so that the restaurants can plan. And do post on Instagram or Facebook that you have ordered and use #EveryMealHelps. We hope to be able to get an idea of how many meals are ordered. Let's give them at least one good day! But you can order again the following week.... Over the past week a number of venues have suspended live music or other events, some have closed for dine-in and are only doing delivery. We all hope that this won't last long and that we can start to again enjoy eating out, happy hour drinks with friends and of course some nice live music. In the meantime, we're focusing this week on outdoor dining or delivery. Keep Safe and Stay Well. If you like this, please sign up below and forward it to your friends to subscribe. |
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Breakfast and Lunch We found a couple of new breakfasts. Cakes and Bakes, in Bambalapitiya, have just introduced a Sri Lankan breakfast menu including rice, noodles, chick peas and pol roti. This can be ordered for delivery. In Katunayake, the Airport City Restaurant offer several meals for delivery including a simple American Breakfast, including sausage, egg, juice and toast for Rs500. From breakfast to brunch and the Taj Samudra have restarted their Sunday Brunch at Ports of Call. This is available from 11.30am to 3.30pm and there is seating available outdoors as well as indoors, for anyone who prefers fresh air. A nice idea from the Hilton Colombo Residences: a Grab & Go sandwich and coffee or tea combo. Choose from six fillings and five types of bread, from six coffees or five teas order 15 minutes ahead and your sandwich and coffee or tea will be ready ad waiting for you to, well, grab it and go. Cost us Rs750 and it's available from 630am to 3.00pm. Park Street Mews restaurant have introduced a new delivery menu, offering a selection of pastas, rice & curry and some classic choices like sausage and mash or club sandwich, all at reasonable prices and available from 11am to 10pm | | |
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High Tea and Dinner: Cafe Nuga are the latest to introduce a high tea. They offer seven savoury items and six sweet, an interesting mix of classic and traditional, plus a refresher drink and tea or coffee. Priced at Rs3,200 for two people, it is available from 2pm to 6pm and they have an outdoor dining area. Cinnamon Lakeside have introduced not one but two high tea options. Their High Tea Platter, offering a selection of sandwiches, savouries and sweet treats and is available daily from 3pm to 5pm. However at weekends there is a high tea buffet on offer where you can graze from 3.30pm to 6.00pm. Cinnamon Lakeside also have a spacious outdoor area where you can dine or have a drink in the fresh air, by the pool overlooking the lake. A new option for Saturday evenings, and it is outdoor! ME Colombo have started a Mongolian Night on Saturday nights from 7pm, up on the rooftop by the pool. You can choose from 5 meats, rice or noodles, plus rice or noodles and sauces. If you prefer your food brought to you at home - or in the office - Guru Dosai now do delivery, offering a selection of Indian dosai and ala bonda, available from 4pm to 10pm. Have you tried Ko Roti? They do "fusion kothu" or roti with a twist. They have launched some combo deals, for 1 to 4 people, with a selection of meats or seafood or a veg option, and they deliver. Indian Summer have a buy one, get one free offer on a selection of dishes for delivery, including butter chicken, biriyani and Szechuan fried rice, but this great offer is only until 22 August. Whatever you do, wherever you go, keep safe and stay well. | | |
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Happy Hours & Ladies' Night More places are temporarily closing for dine-in but there's still quite a few options available to enjoy a happy hour and a number of them have nice outdoor areas. The Curve Bar has outdoor, open air seating and have a buy 1, get 1 free offer from Sunday to Thursday on selected cocktails from 5pm to 7pm, and beer deals all day, every day. The Bayleaf also have a happy hour from Sunday to Thursday from 5pm to 7pm, with buy one, get one free on select cocktails that you can enjoy out in the open air on the verandah. The Irish have a daily happy hour from 5pm to 7pm and their upstairs "Red Dwarf" area is open air. Another with an outdoor area is Asylum, who have a daily happy hour from 5pm to 8pm. They also have a wine and cheese offer, a bottle of Warburton Wine and a cheese platter for Rs5000, until 31 August. We mentioned Colombar last week but it's worth mentioning them again as they have lots of outdoor space so you can enjoy your buy 1, get 1 free deals in the fresh open air, from Sunday to Tuesday it's from 3pm to 8pm and on Wednesday through to Saturday it's from 3pm to 6pm. There's also several restaurants opening onto the same space, so lots of choice for ordering bites or a full dinner later. Butler's have cancelled their Gentlemen's night this Thursday and Playtrix have cancelled the Friday Ladies' Night, but both do remain open for a meal and drink. | | |
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Live Music and DJs It's a much quieter week on many fronts. Most of the live music venues are not hosting bands this week including Honey Beach Club, Asylum, The Irish and Banjos. The Curve Bar still hope to have a band this Friday, probably Aquarius, but that is not yet certain. We struggled to find any other live gig this weekend. A lot of DJ nights have also been cancelled but there are some still on. The newly opened Firebeach, beach front at the Galle Face Hotel, has DJ Thushan setting the spark from 7pm on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Just next door at King of the Mambo, also open air, the DJs are playing as usual (and they have the usual happy hours too) but they are following official guidelines and reservations are recommended. If beaches ain't your thing then Ace Pub in Nawala will also have DJ music from 6pm for their rooftop, open air bar. Wherever you go, do take care. | | |
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Other Events If you need some work space for a few hours or days, you might want to consider Disrupt at Water's Edge. They offer meeting pods, work corners and a lounge, and high speed internet (we love it already), available daily 8am to 8pm. The WNPS is hosting two web talks this week. The first is on Thursday 12th August to mark World Elephant Day and is on the subject of "Living With Elephants, from Conflict to Coexistence". This is at 7pm. The second talk is on Saturday 14th on the subject of "The Fascinating World of Reptiles" and starts at 10am. The British Council has participated in research into youth attitudes to Social Media and Violence. The results of this research are being discussing in a webinar on Thursday 12th at 7pm. The weekly "Spill the Tea" talks has not yet been announced this week, but please check our website periodically as it will be added as soon as we hear. For the Armchair Travellers, this week we have found a Virtual Tour of The Balkans, taking place on Thursday 12th at 5.30pm. If that doesn't satisfy the wanderlust then at 11pm you can join a discussion of what you need to know for travelling around Finland. On Saturday at 10.00pm you can join a virtual tour of Machupicchu The Lost City of the Incas. And on Sunday evening at 10.30pm there is a virtual tour through the famous Paris district of Montmartre, Home of the Artists. Events are being added to our diary almost daily so keep checking back and see what's new. | | |
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Looking Ahead It was wonderful to be able to enjoy going out, a happy hour, live music and even salsa dancing! However, the situation has worsened, at least partly due to people not following guidelines - as is widely reported. So wherever you go, it's important to take care, take sensible precautions and stay safe. That means keeping distance, wearing masks, washing hands and sanitising. We will keep bringing you ideas for outdoor dining, meals to be delivered, and online events that might be of interest. And of course if you know of something interesting, please send it to us so that we can share with others like you who might enjoy it. Visit HappeningColombo regularly to find out what is happening. It's updated every day! |
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Final Words If you enjoy our site, these newsletters, please share tell your friends. If you'd like to see more, or less, of anything please tell us! We'd love to hear more from you, if you don't tell us what you want then we'll give what we want! Please send us your feedback to HappeningCMB@gmail.com or via facebook or instagram message. See you next week, with even more events to enjoy! Disclaimer: deals can change at any time; the deals and news here is is based on what we know at the time of writing. |
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