We've recently begun to witness the rise of the restaurant scene in Malabe. From Korean to your ordinary kottu kadey, they don't necessarily have it all. But, we've got enough to keep us busy for a bit.
And Grill House, is a solid place to get your meat when you're in Malabe.
Ambience
Smack dab in the middle of the road, the ambience at Grill House was a lot more peaceful than we'd imagined.
With fairy lights, a thatched roof, a grill on the side and an air-conditioned space on the inside, it's a mix of what you'd expect in a Western restaurant and a buth kadey and to be honest, we like it.
While the outside is quite nice, seating is limited to space inside. With a bunch of wooden benches and tables and a general clean space all around, we had literally nothing to complain about. However, we do suggest going on a weeknight because we happened to drop by on one of those days and given how there was no one around, we had enough freedom to make a racket without anyone even batting an eyelash, let alone asking us to leave.
The Food
Grill House does grilled meat. They also grill fish whenever it's there, but, we recommend not relying on the option of fish because we happened to drop by on a day when they didn't have fish.
This is the Mashed Potato (Rs. 350). A small bowl with a pile of mashed up potato that, although slightly pulpy was brilliant. There was a wonderful balance with the amount of salt and pepper they had put into it and a certain amount of creaminess came through from the butter they had added. 
As for meat, we stuck with the Junior Platter (Rs. 2950). A mix of Beef, sausages, chicken thighs and wings and pork ribs and chops.
The platter was big. It doesn't look all that big in the pictures, but, trust us when we say that it has enough meat to satisfy 3 people without any sort of effort. That being said, let's get to it.
The Pork Chop was a thick slice of meat marinated to the point where both the taste of the meat pulled through quite well while the spice helped kick things up a notch. With only a small part of the chop being fat, we loved it. The meat was juicy and not overcooked but broke off quite easily. All in all, it's a triumph.
The Ribs followed suit really. Thick chunks of bone covered in slightly pink meat, we loved it. Like the chop, the ribs had also been marinated to the point where the taste of the spice pulled through beautifully and the pork pulled off the bone quite easily. Also, they had a lot more meat going on in the bone compared to other places that do ribs. Hands down, one of the best ribs I have had in a while.
Of all the meat served on the plate, the beef was probably the least amount of meat they served up. Slightly thin pieces of well-peppered beef, we would have liked it if they had given more. But, they didn't, so let's move on to the chicken.
Grill House gives 2 kinds of chicken – wings and legs. Beautifully crispy and with a juicy, slightly pink interior that's going to make you fall in love at first bite the legs were superb. I'm not a big wings person and the Grill House Chicken wings were kinda small when you compare with some of the others you get around. However, covered in enough sauce and such, it was all right.
They also give 2 sausages with the platter. Plump and seasoned well, we liked them.
Apart from the meat, the platter comes with a small bowl of mashed potato, fries, kochchi sauce, a spicy tomato-based sauce and a rather bland one which we couldn't quite place our finger on.
While the fries, store-bought ones, were fried to a crisp, were all right, what really stole the show was the kochchi sauce. Utterly spicy and one of the best things ever, we loved it.
The serving of Garlic Bread (Rs. 250) was a steal. Buttered to perfection and having an almost biscuit-like crispness to it, we absolutely loved this one. The garlic pulled through wonderfully and it's worth looking out for.
Drinks
They don't serve alcohol and they do charge a corkage fee, but they do have a few fruit juices and milkshakes up for grabs if you're interested.
We started off with an Orange Juice. Coming at a pretty whopping Rs. 350, the Orange juice was nothing more than meh. The drink was slightly warm and while it was freshly squeezed, we didn't love it. Especially considering how we ordered the lemon juice and not the orange as well.
The Chocolate Milkshake (Rs. 400) was more along our line. With drizzles of chocolate sauce covering its sides, the icy creaminess was wonderfully present and while there wasn't too much chocolate involved, we couldn't complain about it.
Service
The staff at Grill House is all right. Our server more or less handed us the menu and stared expectantly at us till we said that we would take some time and then disappeared off the face of the world. But, after we had placed the order, they managed to deliver within 20-30 minutes. Which is pretty great. The drinks came within 10 minutes.
Conclusion
We like it. The food is affordable and the ambience is quite lovely. The meat is tender and flavoured well and was all in all a pretty great experience. We say go for it.
