Trainspotter at Global Towers is one of the few restaurants that’s open 24 hours a day. Unfortunately, the entire experience is mediocre at best.
Ambience & Service
Global Towers was pretty interesting when it first came up but now it’s in a pretty sad state with its once whitewashed walls now discolored. Trainspotter – named so because it overlooks the railway line – is located on the ground floor, and fares a bit better in terms of looks but is still very ordinary by. They’ve also got this godawful green tint on the windows which make taking photos an absolute pain.
Service was one of the only areas that we were actually happy with. The food was ready in under 20 mins, but we were the only ones at there. That being said, I doubt this place ever really gets crowded. The waiter was friendly, attentive and well versed in what he was doing.
The Food
In terms of variety, Trainspotter doesn’t do that badly with a selection of Western and Asian dishes to go along with a dedicated Indian menu and some snack options. Prices aren’t too bad with most dishes priced under Rs. 1000 and few meat dishes priced a bit higher. The main catch here is that Trainspotter is open day and night, which is pretty neat.
To start off we ordered the chef’s choice salad (Rs. 600). This was under the salad section, although we wouldn’t really call it one. This is basically some lettuce, cured beef, smoked chicken, cheese and boiled eggs, with an uninspired presentation. It tasted okay since most of the stuff on the plate is ether precooked or requires no cooking. Still it’s not a horrible way to start the meal.
For our main we went with their sizzling mixed grill (Rs. 1850). This comes with chicken, beef, sausages and lamb. While the whole sizzling thing sounds good, it really doesn’t work well with a mixed grill. When the best thing about the mixed grill was the store bought jumbo sausages, you know something is a miss. We asked for the beef to be cooked medium, but what we got was at the cremated end of well done. The same could be said for the chicken and the lamb, with all of it being overcooked.
One main reason for this is the sizzling plate which means that even if the meats were cooked right when they were sent out, when it sits on the hot plate it continues to cook for another 10 minutes of so. This means also means that the meats don’t really get the chance to rest at all either. All of it resulting in the meats being way overcooked, which is a shame since the seasoning and flavour wasn’t all that bad.
Conclusion
All in all we can’t say that we’ll be going back to Trainspotter after that mixed grill. That being said, if you find yourself famished and in Colombo at some ungodly hour, you’ll probably be glad Trainspotter is open 24 hours a day.
