Cloud Red at Cinnamon Red is the newest and highest rooftop bar in Colombo. The view from the top is spectacular, their cocktails are good and so is the food. The drinks are a bit pricey, but with the ambience we don’t really mind.
Location & Ambience
Back in June when we checked out ON14 we felt that they had the best view in the city. Now however, we think the bragging rights go to Cloud Red with their 360 degree view of Colombo.
Depending on where you choose to sit, you can see Colombo city, the harbor or the ocean. We’d say the best time is between 5.30 pm to 7.00 pm, so you can catch the sunset. We dropped in a bit later, so we got to see Colombo in all of it’s night time glory with the city-lights and rush hour traffic buzz. You don’t really realize how colourful Colombo is at night until you see it from the top.
Cloud Red has a very relaxed atmosphere with comfy seating and contemporary jazz. The roof top is spacious enough to move around without feeling sardined. The downside is that rain can ruin an evening, and the indoor enclosure is quite small (it’s supposed to be wine cellar), so wouldn’t be able to accommodate the full crowd.
They’ve only been open for a little over a week now so they’re still putting the finishing touches on the place. Candles were one thing that was missing on the night we went, but we were informed that they’d be ready by next week. The service was actually pretty fast and the waiters were very attentive and knew the ingredients in the cocktail menus which is pretty impressive.
Food & Drinks
They’ve got a pretty good selection of both local and imported alcohols with the quintessential Lion Beer bottle coming to Rs. 400. Their cocktail menu isn’t quite ready so the waiters will read out what they’ve got, and if you have something particular in mind you can tell them and they’ll have it made with the stuff you like. We don’t know of many places that does that, so kudos.
The bull frog (Rs. 900) tasted great and was our pick of the cocktails. It’s an interesting drink with a bunch of different stuff that includes blue curacao, vodka, rum and tequila. So pretty much all the good stuff. What we liked was that it had a great balance of flavour and hit.
We also tried their Long Island iced tea (Rs. 900). This one was milder than the ones we’ve had at other bars but it still tasted fine. Now Rs. 900 for cocktail is definitely at the higher-end of the scale, but these were the tallest glasses we’ve gotten anywhere in Colombo, and it’s not the thin type, so you’ll be getting plenty of alcohol.
As far as food goes they only have a tapas menu, but they’ve got some decent variety and interesting fusions. We tried the prawns wrapped in bacon (Rs. 850), which was excellent. I never realized how well prawns and bacon worked together until we tried this. The prawns were cooked perfectly, wrapped in a strip of bacon and presented on a skewer, making it easy to eat in one bite. Maybe a few more than 5 would have helped the cause though.
Conclusion
After just a week of opening Cloud Red seems to be one of the best places in Colombo to have a drink, relax and enjoy an epic view of the city. They’ve got a few loose ends to tie up but once that’s done, we can see this becoming one of Colombo’s most popular hang out spaces.
