Flavoured at Cinnamon Red, with their lean luxury theme, offers a curated menu with good variations at reasonable prices. They’ve got a good view of Colombo, tasty mains and excellent desserts, albeit with slightly slow service.
The Food
Cinnamon Hotels usually come with around two or three restaurants, most of which are priced in the higher end of the spectrum. Cinnamon Red, however, has just the one restaurant on their 8th floor named Flavoured, which manages to offer a decent selection while also being affordable. They serve a buffet for dinner but we tried their à la carte menu during the lunch service. The menu isn’t massive but they do manage to cover a variety of dish types generally priced between Rs. 700 – Rs. 1000.
We started off with the smoked chicken salad (Rs. 500) which was very fresh and a great way to start the meal. Although the portion was meant for one this can easily be shared by two. It comes with iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, oilves, croutons and smoked chicken draped in a mayo dressing. Each element was on point with a good balance of flavours and textures.
The fish and chips (Rs. 800) was suggested to us by one of the waiters and it was excellent. It comes with two sizeable batter fried dish fillets, crispy fries, tartar sauce and a thick tomato sauce. The fish was cooked perfectly soft with an adequately thick, well seasoned batter which married beautifully with the thick and creamy tartar sauce. The fries while not the thickest, were still crispy and not too salty. The tartar sauce gets a special mention here since it was so good that we ended up having it with the other dishes.
The pan fried chicken with barley and mash (Rs. 900) was also quite good. We liked the parsley infused mashed potatoes which was creamy and flavoursome with the taste of the parsley coming through well. The other interesting addition was the barley, which isn’t something we see quite often. The chicken was cooked well but we felt it could have done with a bit more seasoning, although that might just be personal preference.
Out of curiosity we also tried the rice & curry (Rs. 650) which was just okay. At Rs. 650 this is definitely expensive for a rice & curry. That being said, it does come with a good amount of sides, each of which is ample in portion. In our case we got fish curry, pumpkin, long bean curry (mae-karal), onion and green chillies, achcharu and mango chutney to go along with basmati rice. The fish was cooked well, with a good balance of spice and overall everything was fine, but the issue was that there was nothing that really wowed us, to make us think it was worth the price.
The passion fruit panna cotta (Rs. 500) was creamy and rich with a great balance of sweetness. What impressed us was that they had really nailed the texture here with just a slight wobble. The passion fruit was a great choice here since the sourness offsets the richness of the panna cotta.
Ambience & Service
In terms of ambience, Flavoured doesn’t try to be too fancy. Instead they’ve stuck with a simple look with a highlighted red colour palette. It’s very spacious and has plenty of natural light flowing in through the large glass panels. Flavoured is on the 8th floor which still offers quite a nice view of Colombo.
The service was a bit a slow for our liking with the mains taking a bit over half an hour to be ready. We heard similar complaints from the group seated next to our table as well. They did seem a bit understaffed on the day but the delays were related to cooking time. On a positive note the waiters were very friendly, attentive and apologized for the delays at each table.
Conclusion
Flavoured sets itself apart from the usual lot of hotel restaurants by offering high quality dishes at affordable rates. While the service time has room for improvement, the food will make most people happy and if nothing you could just drop in for their yummy desserts.
