108 5th Lane, Colombo 3
Closed right now
Cafe On The 5th has been a local favourite for years, serving tasty food in a comfortable al fresco style atmosphere. Their quality has taken a nose-dive recently, though.
The Cafe on the 5th has been the standard spot for aunty lunches for years on end now. It started off really well with their range of interesting pastries and desserts but our last visit proved that the quality of cuisine has plummeted into the void.
At first glance it's a pleasant and appetising sight to witness their interesting range of pastries, pasta and desserts. But all that excitement will soon be doused the moment you bite into one of their possibly two-day-old cakes or their soggy eclairs.
I opted for the Mutton Macaroni (Rs. 500) and I immediately knew something was up when the pasta was in fact Penne and not Macaroni. I decided to brush that aside and get on with my meal anyway but lo the pasta was heavily undercooked, still cold from being in the fridge too long and drowning in sauce. A large hunk of stale mozarella rested atop the pasta and there wasn't a hint of mutton except for a few pieces of some unidentifiable meat. Nothing is as disappointing as the fact that I spent Rs. 500 on this dish.
One of my pals got the Vegetable Pasta (herbivores, pfft) which comes at Rs. 350 and alas, the pasta still retained the same undercooked and cold guise as the Mutton 'Macaroni'. Surprisingly, it tasted like it had been cooked in vegetable stock, and the vegetables were fresh so that's a plus point right there. Is it worth Rs. 350? Certainly not.
They have some sort of special grill gig going on for lunch and dinner which is why people still flock to this place for a quick meal. There's an extensive menu ranging from rice to noodles to kebabs depending on which day you choose to go. We got a Mongolian Mixed Grill Rice (Rs. 450) which supposedly comes with all types of meat but digging through the grains we were lucky to come across maybe a tiny crumb of fish or chicken. That being said, the rice itself wasn't bad at all and if you're really hungry this is worth the price since it's a large portion. I must admit that we were told by the chef that the rice is freshly made, but it was cold so I don't know what happened there.
The Chocolate Chip Cake (Rs. 140) was a modestly sized slice of cake well worth the price but obviously stale thanks to its hard and crumbly texture. The icing was bland and the few chips sprinkled on top did little to salvage the cake but by that time we were still reeling from the terrible food so we didn't notice it that much.
Once upon a time the Cafe on the 5th was known for its divine eclairs, fresh out of the oven and topped with decadent chocolate and oozing with rich cream.
Not anymore. The Eclair (Rs. 90) was the biggest let down of all. Now a sad, soggy shell of it's once former self the eclair was not only stale but the chocolate tasted heavily of margarine which goes to show that they don't even attempt to disguise the margarine with the strong chocolate flavour they once took so much pride in. The filling was also rather bland and there wasn't much of it. There was a lot of sadness though.
To wash it all down, we got two drinks from their dispenser: Iced Coffee (Rs. 120) and a Fruit Drink (Rs. 90). The Iced Coffee was alright although you can get an infinitely better glass for JUST Rs. 30 (I'm not even joking). The fruit drink was just a few tablespoons of water dissolved in some Sunquick so that was that. Both drinks seem to have been churning in the dispenser for quite some time, but do get the fruit drink if you're feeling particularly hot and bothered and in desperate need of some diabetes.
Perhaps the reason why a lot of people seem to go here is because of their rather charming al fresco dining area. With sunlight seeping through the leaves this is actually a really nice place to sit down and have a têtê-a-têtê whilst sating the roars of your rumbling tummy. It doesn't get too hot thanks to all the fans in rotation so now you know how the posh ladies keep their makeup in place before picking the kids up from the nearby Colombo 07 schools. There's a lifehack for ya.
The whole process is pretty much over-the-counter and there wasn't a single waiter in sight. But the people over the counter are pretty fast and it didn't take much time for us to receive our platefuls of food.
The overall experience we had here was pretty bad and I honestly wouldn't recommend you go here specifically to have a meal. However, if you're in the area and want a quick bite and a drink by all means try one of their pastries or sandwiches. Don't spend too much here though because it's not going to be worth it.
The Cafe on the 5th has been the go to spot for many after-school outings and a watering hole for many mums waiting to pick the kids up. Recently though, they've slowly receded into the nether in terms of quality so our experience here was disappointing all the way.
Cafe On The 5th is a local favorite for good reason. They serve filling, tasty food in a comfortable al fresco style atmosphere. They do good short eats and eclairs as well.
Cafe On The 5th serves reliable Sri Lankan fare in an nice, open setting. They have short eats, biriyani, fried rice, Mongolian BBQ, etc. They also sometimes serve kottu and hoppers during the day, which is rare.
සිංහල මතක ඇති කාලයක් තිස්සේ කුරුඳුවත්තෙ පස්වන පටුමගේ කන්න හොඳ තැනක් කියල කැෆේ ඔන් ද ෆිෆ්ත් ප්රසිද්ධ වෙලා තිබුණා. දැන් නං තත්ත්වේ ඊට හුඟක් වෙනස් කියල තමයි කියන්න තියෙන්නෙ.
සිංහල කැෆේ ඔන් ද ෆිෆ්ත් විශ්වාසදායක ශ්රී ලාංකික කෑම කදිම එළිමහන් අවන්හලක පිළිගන්වනවා. එතැන ෂෝර්ට් ඊට්ස්, බිරියානි, ෆ්රයිඩ් රයිස්, මොන්ගෝලියන් බාබික්යු වගේ දේවල් හදනවා. එතැන සමහරදාට දවල්ටත් කොත්තු, ආප්ප වගේ දේවල් හදනවා. ඒක හරි දුර්ලබයිනේ.
සිංහල කැෆේ ඔන් ද ෆිෆ්ත් (Cafe On The 5th) විවෘත පරිසරයක විශ්වසනීවය ලාංකික ආහාර පිරිනමන හොඳ තැනක්. ඔවුන් ළඟ තිබෙනවා, බුරියානි, ෆ්රයිඩ් රයිස්, මොංගෝලියන් බාබකියු ආදිය. සමහර දිවා වෙලාවට ඔවුන් කොත්තු හා ආප්පත් පිරිනමනවා. ඒවා ඒ වෙලාවට ලබාගැනීම අමාරුනේ.
Address
Directions
Turn off Thurstan Road just past the Thurstan College, going past Flower Drum. From Duplication Road, it's the left turn after the Bellagio Casino.
Contacts
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Cuisine
Price Range
Dish Types
Ratings Breakdown
"Middle class alternative to Barefoot" ? ok.
Good place to have a relaxed meal, a casual meeting! Food could be better, but its not bad.
Only been there twice but, both the times the food was nice and there was ample portions. Good place to have a quite meal.
The food is good and the kottu is nice (asked them to make it less greasy and they did). They don't accept credit cards so keep cash in hand.
Agree with Karthik.Good kottu in good servings.Their drinks were good too.Not expensive in comparisen to most food places around town.relaxing place.but the washroom hygiene could improve more
Guys they have hands down the BESt eclairs in the whole world!seriously…I know my eclairs…ive tried it all!but getting your hands on them is another story altogether.they arrive at exactly 11.45am (with the lunch) and finished withing an hour usually. (I have gone back empty handed many times after driving all the way from rajagiriya…in my defense i was pregnant)
Ok I've went to this place today. Food is not good. My wife didn't even touch the plate. It's really not good.
By the way it's sunday and lunch. Can't comment on other days.
Good place to hang-out with a fruit-juice. Can wait for hours, best place to have informal 5-6 guys meetings. On an unrelated note, staff are not much polite with guests (although, the don't mind us occupying the place for hours for a fruit-juice). By any means avoid the tables by the kitchen in the outdoor dine-in area where its too dark in the night, smelling garbage, and the interrupting noise from the kottu bar. If you plan to dine in-door, remember its self-service in the indoor area. And the way they tell you is not at all good.
On average, good place to have an informal meeting for low cost.
The Staff are really rude. I was there with a friend two days ago and my friend had a laptop. As soon as he opened the flap a waiter came and said ' can't use laptops after 5' we were a bit shocked…then I started checking my iPad and the same guy came and said ' can't use that either' I wanted to speak to a manager, but the manager was the same he very rudely said we don't want ppl to come and use laptops and things without eating anything! We had literally been there for less than 10 mins….we got so put off…we drove to commons….really sad cause we love tasty's food. Hope they look into this and rectify this.
Six of us went for dinner last evening at about 6.45pm, No one paid any attention, then saw a half bald waiter (Name Vicky, found out later) who would have worked for the nazis, looked damn angrily at us as if we had trespassed his home and left us. Tried to get the attention of another and he pointed to another who in turn poked another and pointed in our direction. Finally a hard working harassed chap came to our table and threw 2 menu cards and disappeared. After another long wait someone else turns up who happen to be the manager, seems like he just finished his duty at Barney Raymonds and very solemly stands stiff without a smile. We ordered, and then waited and waited, after about half an hour one dish comes, another 15min later the other comes , we were lucky that we got our orders within the next hour so our conversation was great as we could finish eating one at a time. We left the place as soon as we paid and that was around 9.30pm!! wasted time. The mango milk shake we ordered tasted like some one had washed his hand in Luckspray milk powder and dragged a rotten mango through it. When we complained they changed it and it tasted fine! so they know that a good job can be done! Some white skins sat at the next table and they were served with cloth napkins, their candles were lit and 2 waiters were hovering around them! In contrast we had to ask for tissues… will never step in there again even though the ambience is good the service is rotten
For a couple years I ate here at least once a week and loved it. The fusion part of the menu was excellent and I loved the clay pot rice dishes. Sadly they no longer serve all of the quality dishes, like the clay pots, and are limited to Sri Lankan comfort food. I no longer recommend it.
Extremely poor service. Very rude staff. Especially the big headed cashier wearing glasses and the other dark tall manager. Probably the WORST SERVICE in town
It's true, the staff and management are extremely rude with customers.They dismiss you like you're inconveniencing them and won't even take the time to seat you properly or give menus. Always time-rushed, even with few diners and you can't call on them to save your life. Such a disappointment because the food is quite tasty and real value for money but the negative treatment of customers out-weight whatever the restaurant has working in it's favour. Hope they can rectify this.
Service need some improvements. Is any of the manager in the place reading this thread? They should start to accept the credit cards at least those POS machines pr
ovided by HNB and Sampth
I've been there only once. Nobody even came to our table to give the menu when we went there. We had to stand up and look for a waiter and finally found one who passed by. Later i was served a plate of super burnt Mongolian rice. Extremely poor staff service. Dirty place. I will never ever visit again!
I've been back two times since my last post and I have to say that the service has improved a bit. The manager is still anti-social as ever and stares down customers instead of helping them but on both occasions we had a very pleasant and helpful waiter who served us so kudos to him for at least trying. The food has always been delicious, great service could take it to the next level.
Some negative posts describe an entirely different cafe on the 5th to the one some of us know. Usually go there for take away, & the staff there are very polite. Service is quick. The food is really good too, Western menus and short eats, haven't tried kottu.
Maybe if you're a pretty female it helps. ……….just kidding!
EXTREMELY RUDE STAFF. Especially this half bald waiter. I was putting my sandal on and had just lifted by leg up on to the chair to put the straps on, when he shouted from across the place like a school teacher beckoning with his finger saying "Put THAT down" with an angry face. Extremely repulsed. Sad to say I WILL NEVER BE GOING THERE AGAIN. Despite the food being good; they need to change their waiters; half witted imbeciles.
Sabeer it is cottect that the manager should shout at you for putting your foot up on the chair. The chair is for customers to sit on, therefore if you put your sandal on it, it's going to leave dirt and germs on the chair which will in turn get on the customer's backside.
Not that great with the service, waiters always seem to be scatterbrained and missing in action but their food still remains tasty and value for money. Very popular spot for weekday lunch as it's patronised by a lot of office goers and parents after school, etc. Like I said, go for the food and ambience, service still needs improvement but you have the occasional moment where all three are on point. Also not that expensive compared to similar dining places.
good? err…
In my experience, the pasta and rice dishes that are usually in that buffet like thing during lunch hours is definitely not enough for two and not all that great, if anything it's loaded with oil.
some of the short eats are good.
Decent amounts and the prices were quite reasonable. Food was quite tasty.A good value for money spot :)
I have dined here many times. The food is quite good and the atmosphere is nice but unfortunately the service ruins everything.
The wait for the food is way too long even when the restaurant is not crowded. The staff is too aloof to be in the hospitality industry. I hope the owners address these issues soon.
I had a vegi rice today and felt like worst meal I had in 2015. No taste at all except huge amount of chili.
If you are looking for a place to dine in with a limited budget and good environment, this is the place to go. Thumbs up
Overpriced… Fried rice and Nasigoreng is 1000 bucks… not worth at all…
Avoid the Fried rice with Hotbutter cuttle fish.
These guys DO NOT know what Hot Butter Cuttlefish IS….
They've topped with the cheese sauce that tastes really bad!
4/5
ajlalwani
Hoppers n curries are good. service is a bit slow.