Located at Galadari Hotel, next to Cafe 64 overlooking the Indian Ocean in the heart of Colombo, Ginza Hohsen Japanese Restaurant opened at Colombo Hilton in 1987 and boasts of a 30-year history.
The restaurant carries a quiet, peaceful and comforting atmosphere. The interior of the restaurant is decorated with Japanese antiques and monuments of Japanese culture.
The restaurant has open dining areas and private rooms for special occasions. The top floor of the restaurant has 3 BBQ stations and another private room. The section with the BBQ station has a separate menu for beverages and food.
The staff at the restaurant were very friendly and welcoming and often greet their customers with Japanese greetings.
The Beverages
The restaurant has a variety of alcoholic beverages and non-alcoholic beverages to choose from which is why we decided to try one alcoholic beverage and one non-alcoholic beverage.
- The Mai Tai
This is a drink with white triple sec, pineapple juice, lime juice and grenadine syrup. The Mai Tai had a good balance of fruitiness and sourness and none were overpowering the other. It was also served chilled and at the right temperature.
Price: LKR1100
- Fresh Watermelon Juice
The restaurant offers a variety of fresh juices including Orange juice, Lime juice, Pineapple juice and Mixed Fruit juices. We decided to go ahead with the Watermelon juice and we didn’t regret it. It was fresh, the perfect balance of sweetness and it was also served at a cool temperature which I appreciated as most fresh juices rarely come at a chill, refreshing temperature.
LKR 500
The restaurant also served us a complimentary portion of half-cooked okra in soya sauce, which served as an appetizer and got our taste buds ready for the flavoursome dishes to come.
The Mains
- Moriawase Small
This is a platter of assorted seafood in a sashimi-style which included Pink Salmon, Mackarel, Cuttlefish, Salmon and Scallops and was served with a side of grated radish. This was a very delicious and refreshing dish as all the seafood was neatly sliced and served fresh. We highly recommend our readers to try this seafood platter.
LKR 2800
- Mexican Crab Maki
This dish includes a tempura prawn and spicy crab paste and was full of flavour and definitely lit up our taste buds. The crab meat was cooked to perfection and each roll had a bountiful amount of crab meat to satisfy your palate.
P.s usually comes in 5 pieces, but the chef cut the sushi roll into 6 pieces so that each of us got an equal share.
LKR 1780
- Dynamite Maki
This is spicy Tuna inside out with flying fish eggs on the surface of the maki. This maki dish is known as ‘dynamite’ maki because the fish eggs burst with flavour inside your mouth. It was absolutely delicious! This usually comes in 6 pieces, but we got half a portion in order to be able to try other dishes.
LKR2200
- Ika Furai
To be honest, we were quite pleased with this portion of battered cuttlefish in terms of both its quantity and flavour. We were served a portion of tartar sauce and Tonkatsu Sauce.
In case you didn’t know, Tonkatsu Sauce mainly consists of vegetables and fruits such as tomatoes, prunes, dates, apples, lemon juice, carrots, onions, and celery. It also includes more than 10 kinds of spices along with soy sauce, vinegar, and sugar.
And trust me, Tonkatsu Sauce and its vinegar and tomato flavour blend really well with the crispy and fresh battered cuttlefish.
We recommend this if you are looking for a crunchy appetizer to start your night.
LKR 1700
- Kimchi Nabe- Pork
Kimchi is a traditional Korean side dish of salted and fermented vegetables, such as napa cabbage and Korean radish. The soup in this dish tasted amazing and even if it stood alone without the vegetables and pork, it would still be delicious. The dish came with pork, tofu and unfermented radish which is the only difference between the dish we tasted and its authentic version.
This dish is also available in Beef and Seafood dishes.
LKR 1800
Dessert
- Ice Cream
The desserts are carefully made in the kitchen of the restaurant and they like to mention that it’s ‘homemade’. We were served 3 varieties of ice cream, each unique in their own flavour.The three flavours of Ice Cream were Black Sesame Seed Ice Cream, Red Bean Ice Cream and Green Tea Ice Cream.
My personal favourite was the Red Bean (Cowpea) Ice cream as it was sweeter than the other two flavours and after tasting so many savoury delightful dishes, the change of flavour felt refreshing and new.
The Black Sesame seed Ice cream and the Green Tea Ice Cream was also creamy and refreshing.
LKR 750 each
The manager of the restaurant, Mr Sujith also mentioned that some customers were requesting for Wasabi Ice Cream to be added to the menu and that his team was discussing the possibilities of that. That is surely something to look forward to!
Overall, we had a lovely experience. The staff was friendly, the food was outstanding and we felt welcome.
Location: Ginza Hohsen, 64 Lotus Rd, Colombo 00100
For more information visit their Facebook page @Ginza Hohsen Japanese Restaurant and Instagram page @ginza_hohsen
They are also available on UberEats and Pickme.
Contact Number: 0112 441 588
