Hotel de Majestic is one of Bambalapitiya’s oldest establishments, and one of the many kades down the Galle Road stretch that has your typical fare of biriyani, kottu and sodas. It’s akin to Pilawoos, Plaza and other popular roadside stops that have a ridiculously French ‘de’ in their name.
The Food
The menu here, which isn’t explicitly stated anywhere, is pretty simple – fried rice, nasi goreng, kottus and biriyani. You can’t get iced Milo or tea here unfortunately, but sodas and juices, so we settled for a good old Minute Maid (Rs. 50).
The chicken biriyani here is good, for Rs. 300. I finished it all in one go – you get a huge roast chicken piece which was rather dry, but it’s the rice that really came out well, not too oily, moderately spicy, and very flavoursome and fresh with a bit of onion poriyal and chutney thrown in. Maybe if we’d visited in the morning when the chicken may have been fresh and hot-hot, this would have been a perfect meal.
They also have shorteats here of the bunnis variety – all buns, from maalu to kimbula.
Ambience & Service
Hotel de Majestic, the majestic hotel which is actually a small white-tiled restaurant, has been around for a really long time and gets points for consistency. The restaurant is clean and service is very fast with waiters moving up and down the corridor to give you what you need. The hand-wash area is cleaner and more manageable than at younger kades on the same block, with several silver sinks and liquid soap.
This is Selva, the boss in charge who was happy to pause from his work for a chat. He told us De Majestic has been going strong for more than fifty years.
Conclusion
Colombo is changing rapidly but some things don’t seem to change, which is nice in a lot of ways. The spicy rice and curry and kottus at Hotel de Majestic are usually good, and always very affordable, so if you’re in the neighborhood especially late at night this is an easy option for a satisfying meal.
