Manhattan Fish Market

I have been hearing many people raving about the food at Manhattan Fish Market, that I found it difficult to believe it was true. So my daughter and I decided to check out the place. We visited the Kollupitiya outlet for dinner.

Located on R.A. De Mel Mawatha (commonly known as Duplication Road) on the curve of Deal Place, you cannot miss the place. There is ample parking available on Deal Place and it has air conditioned comfort.

Customer Service:

From the moment we entered the place, it has been a memorable experience. We went for dinner without making reservations. The place was pretty much crowded. We were half expecting to turn back. However, even though there were others waiting for their turn, we were led to a table for two.


We were given two menu cards each. One for the mains and the other for starters, soups, desserts and juices.

Food:

Our order consisted of the following:

Drinks:
 - Pepsi and Brooklyn Sunset

The Brooklyn Sunset consisted of Mango and Strawberry juice mixed with soda and topped with ice and a slice of lemon. It was so delicious I didn't want to finish the drink.

Mains:

1) Fried Calamari rings, Garlic Herb Rice 

The Calamari Rings could have been a little thinner. It felt like we were biting into spongy rubber. The accompanying hot and spicy sauce was really superb. The Garlic Herb Rice was the best I had eaten from any restaurant.


2) Coleslaw, Spicy Baked Rice

The coleslaw was fresh and crispy embedded in mayonnaise. The baked John Dory fish fillet in the Spicy Baked Rice was however a great source of disappointment. The others were good. I love hot and spicy food and I believe this was introduced to cater to the local population. However, I feel they could have done better. The spicy fillet simply consisted of chillie powder, salt and lemon juice (the usual spice mix for frying proteins). The fish fillet was cooked well and tasted quite good, but as they had not included some oil (like olive oil) and herbs as well, the spicy marinade mix was watery and overflowing. They definitely need to improve on this.

Desserts:
- Super Fruit Crumble and Strawberry Flamingo

The Super Fruit Crumble consisted of 2 scoops vanilla ice cream garnished with crushed cookies, Kithul honey and a sprinkling of plums. The Fruit Flamingo consisted of mango, strawberry and pudding. Both the desserts were delicious. We just didn't want to stop eating them. We relished every spoonful. We had the taste of the dessert in our mouths, long after we reached home.


The Manhattan Fish Market is well worth the visit provided you have the money to pay for it.

Prices:

Prices are upmarket and not budget friendly. Portions are sufficient ONLY for one person. The total bill for all came to about Rs. 4000.00

Ambiance

They were just like any other restaurant. I didn't notice any wall decor.

Conclusion:

If you are looking for an outing where the whole family would be there, you can splash your money here without feeling guilty. On the whole, Manhattan Fish Market certainly lives up to our expectations.Hope they will reduce the prices, so that more people can benefit from this.

New Pilawoos Hotel and Bakery - Nugegoda

This restaurant is located on Stanley Tillekeratne Mawatha, facing the Nugegoda Supermarket.
When I first visited this place, they had just newly opened the outlet and were in the process of recruiting new staff. They were managing with just 4 staff members including the cashier. Under the circumstances, I shall deliberately ignore any shortcomings in customer service. However, I shall update this review once they have established themselves. As the name suggests, its a bakery and restaurant.

You can dine here any time and the place is clean, with quick service despite the limitations.

I have since visited this place thrice. Once for lunch and other two for breakfast. For breakfast and lunch they have a wide array of items in addition to the usual bakery items. I quite like this place as there are just few places that provide a nutritious meal for breakfast.


For breakfast they have chick peas, macaroons, noodles, string hoppers, pol roti, parata, and red rice and vegetables. For the curry you have the option of choosing one or more items like dhall, pol sambol, chicken curry, fish curry etc.

 At Lunch time you can find Biriyani, Fried Rice. Mixed Rice and Nasi Goreng in addition to the usual Rice and Curry. Since I haven't tried the other items, my review is limited to what I had consumed.


When it comes to the Rice and Curry I would recommend them as they not only serve greens, but the food is also tasty and the recipes and sometimes different to what we are normally used to eating.










For desert you have a choice from Fruit salad, Wattalapam and Ice cream.

At any given time you can drop in and ask for snacks like curry roti, chinese rolls, patties, cutlets etc and a nice cup of strong tea. The tea is well worth the money charged. Otherwise, you can just order some soft drinks. When you ask for snacks, please tell them if you want vegetarian, or non veg items.














At night they offer different varieties of Kothu - Cheese Kothu, Masala Kothu, Macaroon Kothu, Noodles Kothu, and String hopper Kothu.

In addition to the above, the restaurant takes Special Sawan orders.
Anyone interested can contact them on +94 77 5210380 or +94 76 7748886

The best part about this place, the prices here are quite reasonable. Definitely recommending.

Dinu's Food Palace

Foodies abroad and locally who wish to savour all types of food outside the city of Colombo, must head straight to Nugegoda. It has as much as hundreds of restaurants, cafes, bakeries and stalls catering to different markets.

Down Church Street Nugegoda, from the Nawala junction, there are a number of restaurants and cafes facing the Nugegoda Supermarket complex. One such place is Dinu's Food Palace. Located adjoining Muluthenge, this place is not visible from the junction until you reach the entrance.

The Kothu kitchen is placed on one side of the entrance while food warmers are placed along it till midway. Since I visited this place for lunch, I can only speak of what was available for lunch. As far as cleanliness goes, I would give them a 9 out of 10. Service was also quick.

At the time I went - around 1.30 p.m, the place was choc-a-bloc with students and I had to wait for sometime to get a table to dine in. However, by 2 p.m. the place cleared up and I was able to place my order and have my lunch. These pictures were taken after lunch, when most of the crowd had left.


With regard to food, one food warmer consisted of Fried Rice, and it's accompaniments along with curries like, chicken, Soya meat and fish, while the other consisted of rice, vegetables and greens.

  

My order was rice and curry "Vegetables". Usually a person who takes non veg has a choice of 4 vegetables and 1 curry. Since I was going vegetarian, I had to choose 5 vegetables. I'm touched by the fact that they had greens as a choice. They already have my vote for this. Being a daughter of a doctor, I know the importance of having greens in our diet, so I highly appreciate anyone who offers them. The meal on the whole was great, except for one small defect - 2 of the vegetables had slightly excess salt.

 

There is one thing this medium sized restaurant does that others don't, and that is offer Chicken Kothu for lunch. The normal rate for Chicken Kothu at night is Rs. 230.00.  However, since students like this item, they are offering it at a special price of Rs. 190.00. and I'm not surprised. Almost all the students who came here today, ordered only Chicken Kothu. According to the owner, Chicken Kothu is a hit among students. 

 

Another unique aspect that I witnessed is the placing of small bins at strategic places between tables, to dispose the polythene sheets and the food remains. Based on what I had experienced, this is one place I will definitely recommend.

Spice & Ice - Omega Regency

I came here to dine and have my lunch. It was 3 p.m. and it was very difficult to find a place that still had lunch at that time. So I am immensely grateful that there was something I could take. At that time, Rice and Curry was over and only Biryani and Lamprais were available.

Ambience and appearance

======================

The place was very neat and clean. They were frequently cleaning/sweeping / mopping the floor. The decor on the walls served to increase the appetite even though such food stuffs were not available. They did however, have quite a lot of bakery items displayed in glass showcases.

Customer Service

===============

Terrible to say the least.  I had to go in search of the staff at the takeaway counter and ask what they had for lunch. No menus. When the meal was served I asked the serving person what they had for dessert. Her response left me a bad taste in my mouth. She said, only those in the chiller/freezer are there for dessert. Now I'm supposed to go to the freezer and select my dessert. Ha????

When a person goes to dine, they expect to be cared for. We expect them to be concerned about us and ask us whether we would like anything else? etc. And if we ask what they had , they must tell us a list of items available (if its just a small number) or give us the menu card.  Anything else is bad service.

Food

====

Chocolate Mousse

Since they had only 2 items, I ordered Chicken Lamprais and for dessert- Chocolate mousse.

The Lamprais had the usual curries that you would find in a Lamprais, but with a small difference. Everything had Indian flavours - I mean they tasted like Indian curries. However, the ash plantain curry was stale.

Chicken Lamprais

The chocolate mouse was the saviour. I usually don't like anything with chocolate, but this mousse really made by day. In fact, the taste and feeling stayed in my mouth for a long time afterwards

Price

=====

I'd say they were reasonable. The same price you would find elsewhere.

Despite the lackluster experience, I will definitely recommend the food.

Tom Yum

Tom Yum is a small Thai Restaurant specialising in Thai Street Food. It is situated at #330, Galle Road, Bambalapitiya, Colombo 4 opposite St. Peter's College. I visited this place today at 7 p.m to take home some of their celebrated dishes.

Ambience

========

At first glance, it looks like a small cafe, but it has all the trappings of a modern restaurant. The place has air-conditioning and the table decor is very simple and pleasant.  They also have a provision for a baby feeding chair for families with babies.

                                                                                                 

Customer Service

=============

The staff at this place is quite helpful. The local staff will suggest the food you should order if you have difficulties in selecting them. If you have any doubts about the items in the menu,the lady chef who runs this place and cooks the food, will oblige you by explaining the menu items patiently in her halting English. She has bowled me over with her demeanour and her pleasant conversation.

Food

Tom Yum Soup

====

Food here is available in vegetarian, beef, chicken and seafood ranges. For my takeout, I ordered Tom Yum soup and Seafood Fried Rice with Basil -(small portion). Our takeaway order was packed in microwave safe containers, which was a first, when we consider other restaurants give takeouts in aluminum or disposable plastic food containers.

Tom Yum soup is a spicy soup available in chicken or seafood. My order was for chicken Tom Yum. It is a soup cooked in coconut milk with tomatoes, lemon grass, galangal  and mushroom. It was really yummy and the portion size was quite large. 

Hot green chillie sauce

The Seafood Fried Rice had cuttle fish, octopus and prawns. accompanied with a hot sauce made with fish broth, vinegar and chopped green chillies. Even though it was packed in a container, I quite liked the way the food was presented. It was garnished with freshly sliced cucumber wedges and spring onion. Unfortunately, the Fried rice had too much soya sauce and just ONE prawn. The hot sauce was also TOO SALTY. Other than this my overall food experience was OK. 

Seafood Fried Rice with Basil

Price
====
The prices of the food were somewhat higher than the usual restaurant charges. More like 5 star hotel rates. I felt the price for the soup (Rs. 990) was too exorbitant considering it was just chicken broth in coconut milk.  I was also charged separately for the microwave safe containers,


Will I recommend?
=============
If you feel like you have some money to splash and you need to enjoy what you eat, then this is one place you should give some serious consideration.

Vasana Bakery, Nugegoda Branch

Vasana Bakery, Nugegoda 

This bakery outlet opened recently without much fanfare. Located on Stanley Tillekeratne Mawatha, between the Railway Station and the Post Office, and opposite ARPICO, Vasana Bakery is a modern take on the conventional bakery showroom.

When I first visited Vasana Bakery, there was quite a long queue. Out of curiosity I went closer to find out. That was when I found the reason it was attracting crowds. Prices of the bakery products were so low, they were more or less half the usual price at other bakeries. (The pictures were taken on my fourth visit.)

As for the size, they were the same size as the normal buns. For instance Fish Bun which usually retails from Rs. 30/= to Rs. 50/= at other bakeries, is sold for ........wait for it.......               Rs. 15!!! Believe it or not, the same is true of other products as well.

Seeni sambol bun - Rs. 15, Boiled Egg Bun Rs. 25, sponge cake Rs. 20, Cup cakes Rs. 25, Apple cake Rs. 20 etc.

In the afternoon, when a new set is produced, a new type of bun - which they call an omelet bun (selling for Rs 35) is available.

Its a circular bun, about 7 inches in diameter made like a pizza (no cheese) with a sprinkling of vegetables on top and covered with 'Bulls Eye'. That is, an egg is broken straight on to the bun without beating. It is seasoned and baked, the egg yolk stands on a side like the sun shining.

The gentleman, standing by the showcase is the Manager, a soft spoken unassuming person. They take cake orders for any type of cake or size. The other staff manning the outlet are quite friendly people.

In this age, when cunning shop keepers, manufacturers and bakers sell a product at a higher price claiming high costs while reducing the size of the product, this bakery stands out in the crowd as being the one that sells good quality bakery products at affordable prices.

I call this a modern version of a traditional bakery for two reasons, They retain the conventional feel by having all displayed in showcases (no self service), and they handle food items with disposable gloves. Modern westernised bakeries handle food with tongs. The informal manner, gives the local people the impression that attention is given to hygiene. This is NOT an upmarket city bakery. A person from the Rural areas should also be allowed to improve and this is a huge step in that direction.

I would recommend this place for the humbleness of the people working, for selling products at budget friendly prices and also for the range of products one can find only at a traditional bakery.

Pho Vietnam

I visited this place and purchased a takeout for dinner. Situated adjoining Calories, I decided to give this place a try.

As you enter through the main entrance you are faced with some tables and chairs set for outdoor eating, which were fully occupied. Inside the restaurant proper the decor - mainly Chinese pictures on the walls, instantly reminded me that I had come to a South Eastern restaurant. However, there was no background music to support the looks. In addition, the ambience would have been great if there were artifacts and souvenirs from Vietnam as stills or hanging from the walls.

At the time I visited, the place was crowded with Europeans and a couple of Chinese looking people. There was however only one staff member working, and he was very polite and helpful. He was responsible for taking orders, billing and serving food. The restaurant must seriously consider recruiting some stewards.

The restaurant had a very limited menu consisting mostly of different varieties of noodles cooked with beef, chicken and sea food, selections of soup and some salads. There was only ONE item with rice. This was rather disappointing as Vietnam is a rice growing country and I expected to see some selections of items with rice as well.

Not being a fan of noodles, I selected the rice item - Fried Rice with sea food. Cost Rs. 450.00. This is the standard price for items like this in normal upmarket restaurants.

Since this is the first time I was tasting Vietnamese food, I cannot vouch for the authenticity of the food and the ingredients used at the restaurant. My review is strictly limited to the food that was served.

The Fried Rice with sea food was prepared with steamed long grain rice sauteed with eggs, sweet corn, chopped carrots and beans, along with flash fried cuttle fish and prawns. They have also added fish sauce, tomato sauce and chillie paste to the mix. The combination was quite tasty.

I am extremely grateful to the restaurant for doing something which other restaurants couldn't be bothered doing. The PRAWNS used in the fried rice were CLEANED AND SHELLED. For this alone I am recommending this restaurant.