Jetwing has finally branched out to Colombo, simultaneously introducing two new restaurants to the city. It's a fully-fledged city hotel complete with an epic view of the city, and pretty great fusion food. Their restaurants opened up just a week or so ago, but seem to be operating quite smoothly. They've got two: Fifty7, their main restaurant on the ground floor, and Ward7, the rooftop bar.
First Impressions
The hotel is sleek and stylish, without having a clinical look or feel to it. The sharp angles and metalwork are balanced out with earthly touches: frangipani trees, and mati pots as vases on the tables which also double as decor along one whole end of the restaurant's wall. It's spacious, cool and airy — the airconditioning was a tad too strongly but it almost felt as though you were outdoors because of the glass walls.
It's quite spacious, and the staff are friendly and quick on their feet.
The Food
Boasting of fusion cuisine, Fifty7 is going to dent your wallet but satisfy your soul. We had to do a double take when we saw their signature burger being priced at a hefty Rs. 2700, and then raised another eyebrow when we saw it because it didn't look like much… but were sold with the first bite.
This is what it looked like. My first impression wasn't great, mostly because it seemed smaller than expected and cost about thrice as much as a burger elsewhere. My first bite dispersed that impression: the flavour packed in this is explosive. The patty is made of prime Australian beef, and held together with (this might begin to sound gross now) bone marrow, so it's also incredibly moist. We were told that it was quickly seared, and then baked to perfection. You also get to pick if you'd like it medium-rare or medium: we picked the former and were more than satisfied.
There's a layer of cilantro placed on top of the patty, a bit of jalapeno sauce, and slivers of caramelised tangy onion and pickles at the bottom. I'm not a fan of caramelised onion, but this just elevated the meal to a whole new level. Cannot emphasise on how good this is, and how absolutely filling it was too. I had just over half and was stuffed. If you're wondering about the weird bun colour, it's because they've incorporated squid ink into it.
Shoutout to the fries which are by far the best thin-fries I've had here. They were superbly hot and crispy, and didn't lose its crispness or become soggy even after about an hour.
Our second dish (A classic Sous Vide and Smoked Breast of Chicken at Rs. 1800) paled in comparison to the burger. Don't try both of these together because you'd feel slightly underwhelmed even though the meat is prepped to perfection, not stringy, and is surprisingly flavoursome for chicken. What I really liked was the mash: instead of partnering the meat with your regular potato mash, this was accompanied with a carrot-and-potato mash.
We also loved the salad that came with it — bell peppers, pomegranates, radish, and a fresh lot of greens.
Our friendly server recommended that we try the Chocolate Fondant for dessert. To deconstruct this in much simpler terms, this is a chocolate lava cake that came in a pool of crème anglaise (a light, watery custard) and had a scoop of delicious honeydew and almond ice-cream set in a caramel bowl of sorts. It looks like a mini-waffle bowl, but it's glassy sugar.
Tasted separately, each component was alright, but combined together? It was excellent. The chocolate was rich and warm, and the crème anglaise contrasted beautifully with the extremely creamy ice-cream. Go for a special occasion though, because this alone is Rs. 980.
For drinks, we settled for fresh juices; watermelon and mango, both priced at Rs. 450 each.
The mango was a bit watery and bland, but the watermelon was perfect: it hadn't been diluted and it was basically like drinking the fruit fresh out of a cooler.
Fin?
For now, fin. We were told that there'd be a few more changes/ improvements to the restaurant and the menu in the coming weeks before it settles in properly. Given that they seemed to be functioning quite smoothly when we went earlier this week, we're pretty impressed at the standards they've set for themselves.
This is definitely a place we'd recommend for a special occasion, as our bill was Rs. 8435 for two. Keep an eye out for the added taxes though, they cost as much as a meal elsewhere (Rs. 1855 in our case).
