Breeze Bar at Cinnamon Grand is one of Colombo’s most popular poolside bars, and it’s a great place to chill with some friends. The food is good, but the drinks are pricier than most other places.
Food & Drinks
As far as food goes, you’ll find a pretty decent selection of tapas and finger food which range between Rs. 350 – Rs. 950. Besides that they’ve got some satay and dessert options as well but more or less everyone goes for the bites. They’ve got a good selection of cocktails, all of which are priced at Rs. 830 and beer coming in at around Rs. 500 per bottle. Compared to some of the other bars in Colombo that’s pretty expensive but that should be expected considering the fact that it’s a part of a five star hotel. However, they do have happy hour happening between 6 PM to 8 PM, which is when you should be heading here. Unfortunately, we dropped in before happy hour, so the total damage for two cocktails and a beer came to Rs. 2800 with taxes.
We tried out the blue lagoon because apparently we’ve got an affinity for brightly coloured cocktails. It’s a mix of blue curacao, vodka and lemonade. Although it’s blue in colour, it has a prominent citrus flavour since blue curacao is a liqueur flavoured with dried peels of citrus fruits. We don’t generally drink blue curacao so this was a bit too sweet but the slice of lime helped cut through the sweetness.
The bourbon rose was our slightly more conventional pick and it tasted pretty good with a quite a bit of bourbon in it. It’s pretty much orange juice and bourbon with a bit of triple sec. It’s adequately strong and probably one of the “”manlier”” cocktails on the menu.
For food we tried out the vege spring roles ( Rs. 350) and the deep fried drumlets (Rs. 750). We got like 4 spring roles and 7 drumlets so the portion sizes were pretty average. It also took them close 25 minutes to bring it to the table which is too long considering the fact that these are just bites. The saving grace was that the food was pretty tasty, specially the drumlets, which is what we’d recommend.
Ambience & Service
You could say that breeze bar is one of the veteran poolside bars in Colombo but it still remains one the most popular. It’s a very relaxing atmosphere, ideal for winding down after a long day of work. If you’re not a fan of outdoor seating, or if it’s just too hot, you can have a seat inside. Even on warmer days poolside seating is pretty great since the large tree provides ample shade, but if it’s windy be prepared to be belted by the seeds, which can get pretty annoying (specially if one ends falling in your drink).
The service was pretty average. The drinks came to the table fast but the food took too long. The waiters were obliging but not very attentive and a bit slow, so some definite room for improvement there.
Conclusion
If you’re looking for a place to have a drink, relax and pass the time, Breeze bar is still one of the best options. They do some good finger food, but their drinks are still pretty expensive.
