Ask for the best Pizza in Hiriketiya and chances are you will be directed to Beach House. They serve some wood baked, excellent pizza for pretty reasonable prices which you can eat sitting about 6 meters away from the beach. They also have a range of other foods, including pretty decent breakfasts. Their service is really bad though, so things take time.
Beach House is located in the middle of the tiny Hiriketiya Beach, come down Beach Road and ask anyone where it is.
Food
We were too early for the pizza (it is served from about 11 a.m.) so we tried out some breakfast. The pineapple/banana smoothie was so good it sent us into spiritual ecstasies.
I am a sucker for good pancakes and Beach House appeared to know this about me. The Banana Pancakes (Rs. 700) were doused in a sufficiently generous amount of treacle. Still, we thought a bit of salt might not have hurt.
The Muesli and Curd (Rs.700) was basic, off-the-shelf muesli transformed into cinder-muesli by the magic wand of a few clever supplements like salty peanuts, dates and other types of seeds.
After hanging out for a while and getting hungry again we finally went for the pizza.
The word of mouth turned out to be on point.
The Salami (Rs. 1200) came first. It was delightfully salty with the amazing touch of soft and melty pumpkin on top.
This pizza was infused with various spices, but not hot-hot spices, more like ooh-whats-that-invigorating-sensation-of-multiple-tropical-flavors-coursing-through-my-body kind of spices.
The Veggie Pizza (Rs. 1100) was one of the best veggie pizzas we had ever tried. The vegetables were baked to a lovely texture, which you get to enjoy just before your sinking teeth realize that these nicely made veggies are now about to melt on your tongue. This is normal behavior only for the most specially executed veggies. It makes me salivate just to think about it. The pumpkin was teamed up with capsicum, turmeric tomatoes and caramelized onions with mozzarella and feta on top.
Finally, a word on the Mushroom pizza (Rs. 1100), this pizza also has great texture game. The roast garlic in there was a surprise, but very much pleasantly so. The feta and mozzarella top it off. Brilliant.
Ambiance
It's nice and shady in the outdoor seating, and since you're mere feet away from the beach, you can enjoy the caressing ocean breeze and watch the people.
Service
The service kind of sucked. They took eons to take our order. Our waiter even rolled his eyes when we told him he'd given us the wrong smoothie. We asked for a double smoothie and they gave us something that looked like they had simply added milk to a single smoothie. Our pizza order took an unbelievable SIXTY-FIVE MINUTES to arrive.
Conclusion
Some uhh-mazing pizza to be had at Beach House. I'd recommend going there on a lazy morning or evening though. First of all, because it's a great place to be lazy in, and second of all because you're likely to get stress boils if you're in a hurry. So better if you match the pace of the service, the other way ain't gonna happen.
