Food & Drinks
The menu here is massive! They had around 3 pages dedicated just for drinks – from cocktails to smoothies to coffee to mojitos and juices. As for food, they had a range of sandwiches, pizza, burgers, wraps and grilled items, among many other things. To our surprise, almost all the items on this vast menu were available. Kudos to that!
We started off with something simple – a Cheese, Egg and Tomato Sandwich (Rs. 750).
Eggy and cheesy with a subtle tomato tang, there were four half-sandwiches on the plate, alongside a serving of potato wedges. The bread was nicely toasted, while the filling also had a slight pepperiness to it. Nothing remarkable, but simple and delicious.
Dusted with salt, the potato wedges were straight up deep-fried cuts of potato.
Given that they promote themselves as a cafe with a pizzeria, we thought of taking a shot at their Supreme Pizza (Rs. 1600) – an assortment of mozzarella, bell pepper, black olives, salami and pepperoni.
Unfortunately, we weren't the biggest fans of it. Featuring a crunchy crust, there were tiny bits of salami and pepperoni, and a good amount of cheese along with the other elements, but it wasn't worth the Rs. 1600 we paid for it – especially considering the prices of the slices we grabbed from Shack Pizza on the day before.
The pizza was quite small – about 8 inches in width, so it's more or less like a personal pizza. We could've easily gotten a full on Chilli Beef-Tandoori Chicken combo from Shack Pizza that can fill up two adults to the brim for a lesser price.
The Grilled Tuna (Rs. 1500) arrived with the sides of potato wedges and garden salad.
Portion-wise, it's worth the price. You get two fat fillets of tuna here. However, it was way oilier for our liking. The sauce they had soaked the fish in had left quite a bit of oil on the plate.
Anyway, the fish itself was soft and flaked off to chunks so easily. The sauce had bits of onion, curry leaves and a sprinkle of chilli flakes, which improved the flavours of the meal by being a sweet-and-spicy kick, but the oiliness tended to get in the way of it.
Our drinks order was comprised of an Iced Cappuccino (Rs. 450) and Virgin Orange Mojito (Rs. 700).
Anura's Restaurant uses Lavazza in their coffee-based drinks, and the Iced Cappuccino we tried was a bit watery. A spoonful of coffee should fix it. Nonetheless, it was quite refreshing.
The Virgin Orange Mojito had a nice fizzy quality to it along with the sweet and sour orange juice in the mix. And the slices of orange floating about added more flavour too. But still, it doesn't quite justify the hefty price tag.
Ambience & Service
Quaint and well-kept, the ambience at Anura's Restaurant is enjoyable. It's a little space, but they're offering both indoor and outdoor dining, allowing them to host for as many customers as possible.
Our food was handled by a helpful, patient fellow who did let us take our sweet time to order, but didn't keep us waiting for our food to arrive. My friends ordered a few more drinks too, and the restaurant didn't take more than 15 minutes to prepare the whole meal.
Conclusion
Galle Fort has no shortage of restaurants, and therefore, a little more work, tweaks and twists on the dishes can certainly help Anura Restaurant to stand out from the crowd. From what we gathered (unfortunately at the end of our meal), they do some solid rice & curry. Do let us know in the comments if you've tried them out.
