Café Shonbry is a new addition to the restaurant scene in Colombo, located down Vauxhall Street near Hyde Park.
Food & Drinks
They sport your usual cafe fare like mac n’ cheese, panini, desserts, hot coffee, cold beverages alongside a couple of fruit juices. You can get rice and curry here as well.
Mac n’ cheese is what we had in mind, but we were told that it's not available. So, we went with a plate of Rice & Curry (Rs. 280), Waffle With Chocolate Sauce & Ice Cream (Rs.375) and a glass of Chocolate Milkshake (Rs.200).
They have a simple setup for rice & curry with a buffet station. You have chicken, fish and eggs as your choice of protein and soya-meat if you are looking for a meat substitute. Extra pieces of chicken or fish are available for a price as well. Their curries change every day, depending on the choice of the cook. 
We decorated our plate with all the curries at the station and started to dig in. The rice was well cooked and served as a good base to let the curries do its job. The chicken was marinated adequately and flavourful – its flesh came off without much effort and it tasted good. We’d have liked to see a bit more body on the pieces of pumpkin while the curry had a thick texture. Ash plantain curry paired well with everything, while adding a gami vibe to it. Papadam was crunchy and the mallum was delightfully fresh too. The soya-meat gave a flavour spicy kick with the help of fried chillies in it.
All in all, we wouldn’t say it’s the best meal in town. But it was delightful and did its job as a decent plate of buth.
The Waffle With Chocolate Sauce & Ice Cream came with chocolate and vanilla ice cream scoop on the top. We got two freshly made waffles which were a bit too doughy to our liking and had a very thin texture. However, the ice cream with the chocolate cream helped us enjoy it.
We resorted to the Chocolate Milkshake because they didn’t have the orange juice we requested. The shake was sweet and chocolatey. But there was undissolved sugar at the bottom of the glass, taking away all our joy. Nevertheless, we managed to overlook this, while treating ourselves with the drink.
They have a range of desserts but sadly, they don't have any takeaway containers. Therefore, we ordered two Chocolate Chip Cookies (Rs. 75 each) to take away.
It was enjoyable, fluffy and a tad soft. Probably it wasn’t kept properly in an air-tight container. However, it was delightfully milky and maybe even a bit too sweet. But that didn’t stop us from enjoying it and we gobbled it down in no time back at the office.
Ambience & Service
Inside the cafe was calm, clean and spacious. They have space to hold around 15 people at once. You can clearly see the backroom kitchen and how the food is prepared.
It's run by two lovely couples who are very polite and treated us with nothing but smiles. Both of them were understanding and hospitable.
People whom we suspect are mostly office lunchtime people were a common sight in the cafe as we saw.
According to them, all of their items are homemade. We were told that due to prevailing situation in the country it’s been a bit hard to find their footing as a startup and gather the traffic they expected as well as the supplies. This was reflected in the state that some of the menu items were unavailable the day we visited. However, they were enthusiastic about getting back on track.
Conclusion
Café Shonbry is a decent option to grab a quick meal without breaking the bank if you are in the area. They have room to improve and we hope they keep at improving and sorting things out.
