Perched down Alfred House Gardens Road, Cafe Alfred is a cute little place that serves up some classic Korean snacks, and great toasties. It's run by a friendly Korean couple, their food is sure to satisfy, and it's not too costly. We dropped in for a quick lunch and were pleasantly surprised.
Food & Drinks
The Korean snack section on their menu includes dishes like ramyun, tteok kochi, kim bap and Korean BBQ, while the rest contains a range of toasts and burgers. As for drinks, they've got coffee, iced tea, smoothies, slushies and a few sparkling ades.
We opted for a Tteok Kochi (Rs. 600 for 3pcs), a portion of Korean BBQ Rice Meal (Rs. 900 for regular), and a New York Toast (Rs. 400).
Let's start with this brilliant New York toastie – which was a construction comprising of cheese, ham, a fried egg, heaps of veggies, and a good deal of tomato sauce (not in an overpowering way though), tucked in between two slices of crunchy, well toasted bread. We simply loved it! The ham was cooked well with a hint of crispiness, the fried egg was eggcellent, and it was pretty much an explosion of flavor.
Next up, the Korean BBQ rice meal, which came laden with a chunk of barbecued beef, accompanied with sticky rice, a fried egg, a side of coleslaw and a few veggies. It was a very filling meal, and if you feel like sharing (or eating more of this), you can get its large portion for another Rs. 300.
With the tangy kick from the BBQ sauce the beef was pretty much a hunk of flavor-loaded meat. It was perfectly grilled, was tender, juicy, and easily cut like butter.
The coleslaw tasted really good with fresh veggies tossed in a generous serving of mayo and a line of mustard sauce, which contributed to overall flavour.
Ah the tteok kkochi! What heaven that was! Tteok kkochi is essentially rice cake skewers, and we loved every bite of it. It had a slight crunch from the outside, while the inside was moist, soft and chewy. Generously smothered in a distinctly tart, but yet spicy and mildly sweet sauce, this one was super addictive and basically we kept stuffing our face with it.
To wash down our food, we ordered a glass of Blue Lemonade (Rs. 450 for large) and a cup of Korean Coffee (Rs. 350).
The blue lemonade was refreshing, fizzy, with a hit of lemon. It's nothing to write home about, but a good one to quench your thirst in this blistering Lankan heat.
They make their Korean coffee from instant coffee mix packets, which isn't all bad. It looked like a normal homemade milk coffee, but had a very rich coffee flavor.
Service & Ambience
The cafe is managed by one of the sweetest, and friendliest couple you'll ever meet. Their service was inviting, attentive, accommodating and incredibly helpful.
Alfred Cafe doesn't have a lot of space, but it's enough to hold around 8 customers at a time. But you can always use the takeaway option, and from what we observed, they get a lot of takeout orders.
Conclusion
As you can see, this place is loved by their customers, and now we're fans too!
All in all, we really enjoyed our experience at Cafe Alfred. It's a cozy, little place for you to grab your morning toast, or even to drop in for a quick lunch – like we did.
