While a lot of bakeries and small kades may be open early morning, some of
which we’ve mentioned here, most restaurants in Colombo tend to open their
doors at about 10AM, so it’s an issue if you’re looking for a place for a good
breakfast. Here’s a roundup of places we like that open at around 7AM and do a
good morning meal.
Calorie
Counter
61, Thimbirigasyaya Road, Colombo 05
Calorie Counter is one of the most recent additions to Colombo’s breakfast
scene and they do quite brilliantly. What sets them apart from the rest of the
list is that they’re sticking to their health food theme, so you’ll see classic
breakfast dishes with healthy twists like their eggs benedict (Rs. 650) in
which they’ve substituted multi seed bread instead of bagels, smoked salmon
over ham, and a creamy avocado dressing instead of the traditional hollandaise.
Besides this they’ve got a bunch of other breakfast specials like granola
parfaits and healthy sandwiches.
Ceylon Tea Moments
Ground Floor, Racecourse Complex, Reid Avenue, Colombo 7
Ceylon Tea Moments at the Racecourse is the building’s popular stop for teas
and bready treats. What you likely didn’t know was that they also offer an
absolutely spiffing three-course breakfast offer for Rs. 1000. While that may
seem like a lot, this is the kind of breakfast that makes you skip lunch. The
meal includes cereal, a massive English breakfast (which includes toast, a
massive omelette, two grilled sausages, baked beans, a golden hash brown, and a
large roll of succulent chicken chorizo) and a fruit platter. If that wasn’t
enough, they also give you a pot of tea.
Try: Strawberry frappuccino
Dolce
Italia
147, Vajira Road, Colombo 5
Dolce Italia is one of our favourite places to eat. The Italian dishes are
delicious and authentic, and most importantly affordable, and they have a
quality range of savoury snacks to nibble on. Since they’re also a bakery they
open up at around 7.00 AM. Their chocolate croissant (pictured above) was
particularly delicious and properly filled with chocolate.
Try: Panzerotti
Sugar Bistro
89, Galle Road, Crescat Boulevard, Colombo 3
Sugar Bistro is a new classic – simple, modern food with just the right
amount of traditional ingredients. They’re definitely one of the more expensive
places on this list but everything we tried was very tasty. Our favourite was
the open bacon sandwich. The crusty bread topped with a bullseye and generous
portion of bacon makes for an exceptional meal. The bacon has little to no fat
and is crisped well, while the egg adds a nice softness to an otherwise crispy
dish.
Try: The Eggs Benedict.
Tea Avenue
55, Barnes Place, Colombo 7
Tea Avenue is a very nice place to relax at for breakfast. Plenty of room,
plenty of quiet, and I imagine especially their outdoor space next to curling
trees would be particularly enjoyable very early in the morning. They also do
your standard tea lounge waffles, teas and sandwiches, which are all-in-all
alright and not too pricey.
Try: Cookies & Cream milkshake
Whight & Co
24, Aloe Avenue, Marine Drive, Colombo 3
Whight & Co is an old favourite of ours who keeps recurring on our lists.
They’ve got good food, excellent coffee and a wonderful quiet coffee shop
ambience by the sea on Marine Drive. It isn’t the cheapest place in town, but
their stuff is ideal for breakfast. Also if you’re a coffee purist, this is
likely the one you should go for.
Try: Cold drip coffee
The Bread Company 461, Thimbirigasyaya Road, Colombo
5
The Bread Company has great food overall and breakfast available all day.
This includes delicious granola, cinnamon buns, baked goods, bread, and
whatever else they come up with on a given day. They also have excellent bread,
sausages and condiments if you want to make breakfast at home.
Try: The granola. Healthy but really tasty as well
Tasty Caterers
88, Fife Road, Colombo 5
Tasty Caterers is one of Colombo’s best bakeries that do excellent
shorteats, and they’re actually kind of all-rounders since they do a super rice
and curry too. They’ve got an ordinary long space of tables and chairs as you
walk in where you can sit and have a meal, provided they aren’t taken up by the
hordes of loyal customers.
Try: Eclairs
Sponge
347, Galle Road, Colombo 3
Sponge is our other favourite bakery. It goes all the way back to 1985 and
has only improved since. All the shorteats are high quality, from the Chinese
rolls to the chicken pies.
Try: Maalu paan
Palmyrah
328, Hotel Renuka, Galle Road, Kollupitiya, Colombo 3
Palmyrah at Hotel Renuka has been around for ages and has been known for
their good Sri Lankan food and Jaffna dishes. They recently renovated the place
and it looks really good now. If you’re fan of Sri Lankan style breakfast,
Palmyrah’s hopper’s will likely make you happy.
Try: The dhose
Cafe on the 5th
108, 5th Lane, Colombo 3
Cafe On The 5th does classic Sri Lankan takes on everything from Mongolian
BBQ to pasta and rice. For breakfast they have a good range of short eats, iced
coffee, etc.
Currymuch
57/2 Braybrooke Place, Colombo 2
Curry Much does a great lunch and rice and curry, but they also do nice
breakfast sandwiches with roast paan, pol sambol, seeni sambol, etc. They also
sometimes do kiribath and stuff you can eat there.
Try: The pol sambol and egg sandwich.
Saraswathie Lodge
191, Galle Road, Colombo 4
Saraswathie Lodge is one of the many kades luckily open early morning. If
you’re into South Indian food, especially vegetarian, these guys do a wonderful
job in great, affordable portions, in a very clean and efficient
environment.
Try: The Madras Meal thali
Taste of
Asia 324, Galle Road, Colombo 04
Taste of Asia serves up classic small-shop stuff like hoppers and string
hoppers but in a nicer, bigger atmosphere, so it attracts a whole variety of
customers. While their aromatic crab curry is available only after 5PM, in the
mornings, you get kiribath, parata, egg rottis and shorteats, all tasty and
super affordable.
Try: Kiribath
Cioconat Lounge
107 Barnes Place, Colombo 7
Cioconat
Lounge does an early and decent breakfast. You’ll likely find yourself
paying around Rs. 650 – Rs. 1000, which isn’t exactly cheap, but their stuff
does have its merits. We were skeptical when we heard their eggs benedict (Rs.
620) comes with beef bacon, but all in all in it turned out to be pretty
tasty.
Conclusion
So that’s our quick round-up of places to get breakfast in Colombo. Do note
that roadside kades usually do a good parata and purippu style breakfast, Galle
Road or Fort or Slave Island are a good bet for a wander, but there’s kades
everywhere. As always, let us know what we missed.
