108 5th Lane, Colombo 3
Open until 11:00 PM
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.
Cafe On The 5th is a satisfying Colombo classic for everything from short eats to rice and curry to Mongolian BBQ to hoppers. This place has been around for ever and it's shaded garden is a nice place to chill. As the sign says, however, beware of crows.
Cafe On The 5th - run by Tasty Caterers - knows what Sri Lankans like. They usually have rice and pasta available and then they have a rotating menu of Mongolian BBQ, regular BBQ, kottu, hopper, etc - depending on the day and time.
From the regular items we tried the mutton macaroni (Rs. 400). It was really more penne pasta but full of flavor, cheese and meat. Mutton isn't a protein you usually associate with pasta, but it worked. Generally, you will never get anything under-seasoned at Cafe On The 5th.
From the rotating menu, we got Mongolian BBQ, which this place is known for. The mixed (shrimp and chicken) comes to Rs. 430. It's honestly enough for two, as are most of the portions here. Mongolian BBQ is basically an aggressive fried rice. It's not especially Mongolian, but it is good. Cafe On The 5th does it well. The main thing about a good MBQ is generosity - this one had good amounts of chicken, shrimp, veggies and seasoning. You should basically never go a bit without some protein in there, and we didn't.
Cafe On The 5th has a big, covered garden space. It's a pleasant place to hang out and dine.
The interior is pretty big as well, but we usually sit outside, as do most people.
The location itself is quite central, part of the key to their success. It's just off Thurstan Road and across from the current Prime Minister's private residence. There's a bit of parking and it's in a quiet but accessible neighborhood.
Cafe On The 5th is basically self-service. You order at the short eats counter inside and then either get your food or take your receipt to the action station outside. Everyone we've dealt with is quite efficient and nice.
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.
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
Report InaccuracyOpen until 11:00 PM
Cuisine
Price Range
Dish Types
Ratings Breakdown
Curry Pot by Silver Ray
Good place for snacks & short eats, but other food are ?
Mango Mango
One of the best place to eat delicious authentic Sri Lankan…
"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.