There are two Curry Pots in Colombo, and in this review, we look at the one down R. A. De Mel Mawatha.
Curry Pot, as the name slightly hints, is a rice and curry place. We've heard that it's pretty popular amongst the office crowd in Kollupitiya so we decided to check it out, whilst trying out FriMi as they had a 25% cashback offer. So, after much confusion and a phone call to Vishvi, we finally found ourselves at Curry Pot Restaurant on an incredibly hot Sunday afternoon.
The Place
If you're looking for a plate of rice and curry AND you want to eat it in an air-conditioned space, Curry Pot Restaurant is a safe bet.
The ambience here is actually quite nice. With plenty of comfortable seating space, dimmed out lighting, an outdoor dining area and a pond which you can see through glass windows, it's a good spot. However, there were flies, everywhere! We had to keep chasing the flies who landed on our table when we were taking the pictures. Not fun.
Food
Like almost every other rice and curry joint in Colombo, here also you'll find a massive table on one end of the room with 15-20 clay pots with curries of various sorts. They serve their food on lotus leaves with lunch sheets underneath.
You get to choose one protein and 4 curries to go with the rice of your choice and we opted for their Mutton Rice & Curry (Rs. 450), Chicken Rice & Curry (Rs. 280) and a Chicken Fried Rice (Rs. 350).
Take our advice, go with something other than their mutton curry. It was as rubbery as mutton could possibly get. While it was spiced really well, we guarantee that you'll give up halfway leaving 3/4 of the mutton on your plate, simply because you are tired of all the chewing. The breadfruit curry, on the other hand, was a savior in disguise in terms of being a flavorsome substitute for the meat.
Apart from the goat, everything else was quite alright – especially the batu moju (eggplant) which was pretty much the hero of this dish. There's dhal curry hidden under the papadam, and even that was pretty mediocre.
Now for the plate of chicken rice and curry, which was a pretty solid deal. There was a giant piece of chicken, a truckload of super fresh Thebu sambol, and a potato curry which tasted homemade. The amberella curry, on the other hand, wasn't as great as one would hope. It didn't have that strong tangy kick, which is basically what we expect from a good amberella curry.
The picture above is the chicken fried rice. It looks like every other fried rice you get around Colombo – nothing stood out. However, this plate of rice was the only one of the three that was served warm.
Nice and fluffy, the rice itself was not too oily. It was served with a sizeable fried chicken piece that was crispy on the outside, while the inside was deliciously juicy. They were nice enough to give us some extra chicken curry gravy along with it. So don't worry if you need your dose of hodi to get you through the day, they've got you covered.
Drinks and Dessert
In terms of drinks, Curry Pot has a selection of fruit juices, soft drinks and milk packets to choose from. We went with a Watermelon juice, a Lime Juice and an Orange juice, each priced at Rs. 200. While the watermelon was served without sugar (huzzah!) the lime and orange had a bit too much.
Out of the few desserts available, we tried the Chocolate Biscuit Pudding (Rs. 80) which was surprisingly delicious. With a tiny sprinkle of cashew on top, it was chocolatey and nicely layered with some good old Marie biscuits.
Service
The staff was efficient and quite friendly. The rice was served in record speed but the fruit juices took over 15 minutes to arrive.
Overall
Overall, our experience at the Curry Pot was a hit and a miss, given that there are plenty of places around Kollupitiya to get better rice and curries for much cheaper prices. However, as we said, if you want air conditioning and rice and curry, you should check this place out.
