Colombo Court Blog Food & Drink
Where to eat in Colombo 3, from the people at the desk
Our answer to the question guests ask most: where to eat on foot in Kollupitiya, where to take a tuk-tuk, and what to know about Sundays and Poya days.
Guests ask us this question more than any other. Here is the answer we would give a friend, from a team who work and eat in the neighbourhood every day.
Colombo 3 is Kollupitiya, the area between Galle Road and the sea. It is one of the few parts of the city where you can eat well on foot. This matters, because evening traffic in Colombo is slow. A restaurant that is twenty minutes away on the map can take fifty minutes to reach at seven o’clock.
Within walking distance
Arcade Independence Square is the easiest choice for an evening out. It is a restored colonial building with around a dozen places to eat, so it works well for a group with different tastes. It is about fifteen minutes on foot from Alfred House Avenue, and the route is well lit for the walk back.
Galle Face Green is not a restaurant, but it is one of the best places to eat in the city. It is a long stretch of grass beside the sea, where isso wade stalls and kottu carts set up in the late afternoon. Go at about half past five, eat from the stalls, and watch the city come out for the evening.
Worth a tuk-tuk
Colombo City Centre has a cinema and a food court, which makes it a good choice on a wet evening with children. The Dutch Hospital in Fort is a restored seventeenth-century building with restaurants along both sides. It is ten minutes away by tuk-tuk and worth visiting once for the building alone.
Pettah is better visited during the day than in the evening. Go early, for the market and the street food rather than for dinner.
The thing nobody tells you
Colombo is quieter than you might expect on Sunday nights, and quieter still on Poya days, the monthly full moon holidays. No alcohol is served in Sri Lanka on Poya days, so there is no happy hour, and some restaurant kitchens close for the day. Ask us when the next Poya day is and we will tell you which places will be open.
Book ahead for Friday and Saturday evenings at the more popular restaurants. Most of them accept bookings by WhatsApp and reply quickly.
And here
We have two restaurants of our own. Amber Poolside is our daytime restaurant, beside the pool under the trees, serving breakfast from seven, then lunch and high tea until half past six. Cloud Café & Bar is our evening venue, a rooftop with a glass roof over part of it, open to everyone from half past five until half past eleven.
Both welcome walk-in guests, and you do not need to be staying at the hotel.
