Buon Appetito Foods are an absolute blessing if you're an expat, or love Italian/French food, or just want cheese. They're a delivery site that has a bunch of cured meats, cheeses, and dried goods imported weekly from Italy and available for delivery on your doorstep within a day.
How It Works
You can just head to their website at buonappetitofoods.com, and start browsing. The site is quite user-friendly and clear, all you have to do is choose a category you're interested in (soft cheese, hard cheese, cured meats, pasta, healthy stuff, etc), click through to the shopping cart, fill in your details (contact, address etc), and complete your order. Payment is cash upon delivery, so they don't bother you with credit card details or anything.
Once you place your order, someone will call you (I didn't pick up as I was at a meeting, so they very efficiently texted me) to confirm your order and address and delivery time. Delivery is generally within 24 hours and absolutely free within Colombo city limits!
As promised, a friendly delivery man turned up the next day at the agreed upon timeframe, handed over the good and a receipt, and headed off after payment. Easy! I also noticed he had an insulated cool bag to hold all of the perishable stuff, which I appreciated.
Retail Outlets
1. House of Wines – Colombo 07
2. Eat Right Cafe – Kohuwala (above the High Octane gym)
3. Sandagiri Supermarket Hikkaduwa
The Products
The variety of imported products is actually quite good, far bigger than anything you'd see at a supermarket or store. The prices are lower too.
We decided to try 100g of Italian speck (slices of cured and smoked pork leg) at Rs. 1100, 200g of Brie (soft French cheese) at Rs. 935, and 500g of pasta linguine at Rs. 270. Keep in mind that most of these products aren't locally available (like marscapone or mortadella), and their prices aren't marked up too much from their original price in European supermarkets if you take import prices, taxes, and transport into consideration. Each of the products arrived in perfect condition and well-chilled, with at least one to three months left until the expiration date.
If you're feeling fancy, they also sell imported caviar, foie gras, truffles and smoked salmon under their "fine food" category. You can also pick up gluten-free pasta from their "healthy food" category.
Overall
We loved our experience with Buon Appetito Foods, and would highly recommend them if you dig good cheese, cured meats, or even cheap caviar. The friendly service and free delivery within 24 hours were excellent too!
