No matter where you’re, saivar kadeys are something of a Godsend. You have just finished work and after staring at a white screen for half your day freezing your bum off, you look for salvation in the form of greasy short eats to give you some sort of will to make it to dinner without collapsing.
And Golden Cafe in Wattala is exactly that kind of place you’re looking for in moments like these.
Ambience
After traipsing around Wattala for a solid 3 hours, we turned to Golden Cafe in some sort of desperation of helping us get through the day without popping like a balloon.
Golden Cafe with its steel chairs, plastic tables and bustling people, Golden Cafe was like any other saivar kadey in Colombo. And while the ambience isn’t necessarily the most ideal of situations to be in at a moment like this, for when you’re looking for someplace to get a quick fix of greased up Indian food before heading home, it’s perfect.
The Food
Like in other eateries of the same genre, Golden Cafe too does the basics of dosa, naan and such along with a couple of other options like kottu and rice.
As soon as you enter, the staff will ask you what you want and if you say vadai, they will bring a giant platter worth of vada to choose from. Thus, we decided to stick to the OG’s of the scene, Parippu Vadai, Aloo Bonda and a Ulundu Vadai.
Ranging between Rs. 100 and Rs. 120, all 3 were as we had expected of them.
Covered by a thick shell of crunchy deep-fried goodness, the parippu vadai was a beautiful assembly of curry leaves, dhal, and batter. Considering how cold the vadai was, we’re gonna go out on a limb and say that chances of this getting soggy are close to none.
The Ulundu Vadai was pretty nice. Golden brown with a slight crunch on the outside, the vadai was perfectly round and had enough green chilli and curry leaves to keep us happy. Plus, it wasn’t the wheat flour ulundu vadai at Galle Face Green.
The Aloo Bonda was my favourite of the lot. Covered with a thick layer of batter, the curried up potato was mushed up well and cooked with enough spices and onion to give it that spicy punch that you look for in a good aloo bonda, and we had nothing to complain about for this.
We also got a Ghee Dosa and a Cheese Masala Dosa to accompany the short eats and boy are we happy we did. The Ghee dosa was beautifully crunchy and went really well with the sambar to add up to a rather muted but vibrant meal.
The Cheese Masala Dosa (approx Rs. 250), on the other hand, was a mess. For one, there was no cheese anywhere and apart from the curried potato filling, it was not worth the hype in our opinion. Get yourself another aloo bonda instead – it’s a heap better.
Drinks
We don’t usually do this when we get sodas at places but we should tell you that if you do wind up getting a canned soda at Golden Cafe, make sure to wipe the top with a tissue before you drink it. We got a coke (only because they didn’t have the glass bottle) and a Fanta Grape, and when we wiped the top off, a thick layer of dust came on the tissue.
Don’t freak out now. It’s a perfectly normal phenomenon for cans to have dust on it in places like this, just be careful is all.
Service
Efficient with the way they handled everything, and seeming to be slightly mad at us being there, the servers at Golden Cafe were like any other person at a saivar kadey and to be honest, we don’t really mind.
Conclusion
In conclusion, all we can say is that if you’re looking for a solid place to get your vegetarian Indian fix, Golden Cafe in Wattala is a pretty legit place to check out.