The Weras Ganga park is a cool outdoors food-court in Bellanwila, one of many affordable hangout spots popping up in Colombo lately. The food is good, the range is wide, and if the weather is cool the Weras Lake next to it makes for a relaxing view.
Technically the Mahinda Chinthana plaque in the parking lot just calls this part of the ‘Weras Ganga Development Project’, but people have been calling it the Weras Ganga or Bellanwila park. It’s about a 15 minute drive from Galle Road.
The Space
The place is all stone tiles with planned patches of green, and some of the signature furniture you find at other outdoor food-courts like at Diyatha Uyana and the Arcade.
Around the seating space is a neat walkway that goes along the Weras Lake – pretty ideal for cycling and jogging.
The view of the Weras Lake is the obvious highlight of this place. We were excited about the possibility of boat rides but were told there weren’t any right now – and the boats you find on the lake are just people hired to rid the lake of garbage. Here’s to hoping they do it right and the place doesn’t sometimes stink up like our other new by-the-lake hangout – the Floating Market.
The Food
There’s loads of things to pick from here – when we visited, we counted 12 food-court stalls. For rice and curry, you get south Indian at FoodWaves, north Indian at Lemongrass, Chinese & Thai at Wok Express, seafood at ASB Foods, Sri Lankan at Rovinka, Hot Cabin and Dunhinda, and also, pizza at Roma Pizzeria, short-eats at Testa Bakehouse, juices and smoothies at Orgo Fruits, an Elephant House ice cream stand and even a Candy Corner.
We went there in the evening so we didn’t have lunch, but have been told by a few people that you can get some delicious rice and curry here, for roughly Rs. 320 a plate. The short-eats are for Rs. 50 – 100, juices for Rs. 150, and at Candy Corner you can get chocolate bars, awesome little bubble-gum flavoured lollipops (Rs. 40) and a super creamy fudgey ‘Chocolate Devel’ cake (Rs. 150).
Conclusion
We’re pretty excited about all the awesome new places coming up in Colombo, especially since they seem to be making use of the off-center parts of the city. The Weras Ganga park with its super view and affordable food options, is a neat spot to relax at in the evening, and maybe have dinner or go cycling with friends.
