Sathkara Cafe.

Almost nothing beats the feeling of stumbling upon a resto in a place that you least expect it, and realising that their food is some of the finest you've had in a while. This is precisely what happened to us with our experience at Sathkara Cafe.

A venture by Themes Resorts, it stays true to its name by offering good food, combined with great hospitality. Given that they're just a few weeks old, we decided to go ahead with a First Look with a couple of dishes.

Ambience

Their Instagram bio says that it's "a café lost amongst the hustle and bustle of Colombo," and we agree. Located down Boyd Place, you won't notice this restaurant if it wasn't for the menu board that they have placed on the outside.

It seems like a part of an old house flipped into a restaurant. According to the staff member we spoke to, the ambience tends to be a bit warm during day time, but, they have fans cooling down every corner of the place.

Aside from that, the ambience around here is absolutely calm and peaceful.

Food

Sathkara is all about Sri Lankan food – the generic kottus, and the specials like crab curry. They have a working menu, and from what we gathered, they're planning to introduce a bunch of desserts to it in the upcoming weeks.

This Chicken Kottu at Sathkara Cafe is a solid deal for Rs. 490. While served with a fried chicken leg, it had plenty of chicken amongst the roti, to make sure that you can taste chicken in every mouthful you take. The fried chicken didn't have that golden coloured hue that we were looking for, but was juicy and crispy, and in terms of flavour, it didn't disappoint.

Well seasoned with spices, there was a tinge of curry flavour, evenly distributing through each and every bit of roti, while the chopped up veggies further improve its flavour, look and feel.
There's no need to be all crabby because this Batticaloa-style Crab Curry (Rs. 1800) can easily feed 2/3 people. There was three succulent, fleshy crab, soaked up in an aromatic, creamy gravy boasting with rich notes of spices. It's a dream to eat with their excellent, freshly made roast paan. Each crab curry is accompanied by four loaves of roast paan.

You get a lot of meat here, a heap of curry and herbs too, but they can certainly go easy on the salt.

Drinks

*Pictured above – SOZO Achcharu (left), SOZO Raspberry Hibiscus (right)

Sathkara doesn't have a drinks menu at the moment, so we grabbed a couple of SOZO drinks they had on display – Achcharu and SOZO Raspberry Hibiscus, at Rs. 300 each.

Growing up, I used to gorge on achcharu. There was nothing equivalent to the happiness of poking a hole in a achcharu bag – particularly a mango achcharu bag and sucking out its leftover juice. The taste of this SOZO Achcharu drink was enough for me to drown in nostalgia. Sweet, sour and with a subtle spicy kick, it also had a nice mango-ey flavour.

Refreshing, and with a mild Hibiscus undertone, there was a lovely berry flavour in the SOZO Raspberry Hibiscus.

Service

As we mentioned previously, the warm hospitality here is a highlight. We were greeted by a very friendly gentleman, who took us on a tour through the menu, while making recommendations. He did let us take our sweet time to pick what we want, and checked back with us for any feedback we may have. This welcoming vibe was consistent through our experience.

Conclusion

So far, so good. We have zero complaints and we hope that it'd be the same in our next visit. As of now, it's a superb choice for some incredibly flavoursome Sri Lankan delicacies under a budget.