Cinnamon Grand, Shri Uttarananda Road, Colombo 3
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Cheers at Cinnamon Grand has been a mainstay in Colombo's pub scene for a while now. The food sticks to the usual English Pub food, and they do a satisfying job with it though the service was pretty darn slow in our case.
Cheers at Cinnamon Grand has been a mainstay in Colombo's pub scene for a while now. The food sticks to the usual English pub fare, and they do a satisfying job with it though the service was pretty darn slow in our case.
Being a pub, Cheers has a more than respectable selection of alcohol. However, their prices for drinks are definitely on the higher end with a bottle of local beer (Lion/Carlsberg) at Rs. 540, not including the usual +++.If you do intend to have some beer, our suggestion would be to go for a pitcher, which makes a lot more sense at Rs. 1300. They also serve up a few cocktails priced between Rs. 880 - Rs. 1200, but we weren't given the cocktail menu during lunch, so perhaps they're only available in the evening.
Cheers is as much a restaurant as it is a watering hole, if not more so. Their menu is very British with everything from bangers and mash, a bunch of red meat options and the usual sandwiches and burgers. Unlike the booze, the prices of food was actually not too high with our bill for four coming to Rs. 7000 including dessert.
The Club Sandwich (Rs. 800) at Cheers was a winner. We weren't sure what the portion would be like, but it turned out be about as much as a main. Served along with some excellent fat fries, the Club Sandwich comes packed with bacon, chicken, egg and cheese along with tomatoes and lettuce. It's an excellent choice for meat lovers, and features a good amount of creaminess from the cheese. The bread is toasted for a slight crunch and the sandwich isn't stacked too high, so it doesn't get too messy.
As far as value for money goes, the Roast Chicken (Rs. 990) is probably one of the best choices at Cheers. The dish itself is quite simple; two sizeable chicken hindquarters, served with boiled vegetables, baked potatoes and two bacon and onion cutlets. The chicken was well cooked, with a crispy skin and served with a subtly sweet sauce. As with most British style dishes, the spices here were mild at best so we suggest adding a bit of tobasco sauce for those looking for a bit of heat.
We'd heard a lot about the Fish and Chips (Rs. 1100) at Cheers, so we went ahead and tried it out. Pushing Rs. 1000, this is one of the more expensive F&C dishes in Colombo, and while it is good, we're not sure if it's the best in town. Once again, they score points for those chunky fries, which were crispy on the outside and soft in the center. It also comes with a mash which was just a bit too pasty for our liking.
We got a massive fillet of fish, which was honestly just a bit too big to eat comfortably. Just cutting it in half would have made it a lot less tedious. On the plus side the batter was thick, crispy and well seasoned. The fish was cooked well, though it really needed that seasoning and texture from the batter to bring it all together. The one major gripe we had with this was that there was this odd gelatinous texture between the batter and the fish, which is sure to bother some people.
For dessert we tried out the Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding (Rs. 400) which was like a spongier version of a chocolate biscuit pudding. The chocolate chips on top were pretty standard, but the combination of the bread pudding and the warm chocolate sauce certianly worked along with the vanilla ice cream.
Cheers seems to be one of the only places in Colombo that serves up Key Lemon Pie (Rs. 400). The pie itself is quite tart so you'll need to have it with the passionfruit and berry coulis which add both acidity and sweetness.
Two things we like about Cheers are how they nail the English pub atmosphere and that it's spacious. It's all wooden furniture and carpeted floors with Premier League memorabilia adorning the walls. Cheers is probably one of the most popular spots for football fans to catch an anticipated encounter. The atmosphere is reminiscent of club houses in Nuwara Eliya, which is a nice change from the usual bars.
We dropped in for lunch around 1 PM and the service was just way under par. Both our mains and desserts took around 45 minutes to come to the table, at a time where only around three other tables were occupied. The waiters seemed incredibly unenthusiastic, only apologizing at the end while waiting for the desserts when we basically threatened to leave.
We're not quite sure if it was an off-day, but the slow service had us wanting to just pay the bill and leave, which is a shame since the food was actually well executed for the most part. Combined with the English pub atmosphere Cheers makes for a good sports pub, just go with time to spare.
Cheers at Cinnamon Grand has been a mainstay in Colombo's pub scene for a while now. The food sticks to the usual English Pub food, and they do a satisfying job with it though the service was pretty darn slow in our case.
Cheers serves a wide range of British gastropub fare - steak and kidney pie, bangers and mash, sunday roast, the works. Prices range from Rs. 500 to Rs. 1000 for mains ( reasonable minus taxes) and drinks follow standard hotel prices, ie. exorbitant: Rs. 430 for a tall Lion, Rs. 490 for 25ml of Smirnoff, Rs. 400 for a 50 of Old Reserve (!).
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Cuisine
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Dish Types
Ratings Breakdown
Navro Beach is one of the most popular restaurants in Panadura…
HQ is one of the best places in Kandy to pop in…
4/5
Order the pork ribs and a pint…. nothing more. You could opt for a gin and tonic
From my experience at cheers pub united fans are always there 30 minutes before kick off and the bar area is packed with them
wrong information against the Manchester United supporters…. Get your facts straight before you post them…. This is an embarrassment…
wrong info abt Manchester United supporters…… u must be surely a man utd hater ……. pay a visit on match day and write this article again….GGMU
the manager says that we broke stuff here once! maybe the manager there pushed the writer to post this! and on the other hand Manchester United is a respected club and so are there Supporters in Sri Lanka! The content here is unacceptable!
Cheers occupies the former premises of the Colombo Club. Some of the decor (the wood panelling, green lampshades) are from the days when it was the club. The idiots at the hotel stripped out one whole wall of wood panelling to put in the glass window that looks out onto a blank wall. I believe there were a couple of private rooms which were also dismantled.
In the days of the Colombo Club the place had superb atmosphere, the mongrel leftovers of are what you experience now.
The Colombo Club is now housed at the Taj, its original premises is the small white building that is in front of the Taj Hotel.
also you forgot to mention all the FAKE football jerseys hanging around the place, always annoyed me that such a rich establishment could not have originals to make the place a bit more classy.
Soemthing on the original Colombo Club building
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colombo_Club_building
"supporters' bemusingly reserve most of the tables then show up 10 minutes before full time to cheer on 'their' team, leaving all the other guests with a sore bum and a cramped table"
lol Sounds to me like a Non MU fan couldn't get a reservation in time? Sour Grapes is an old story you know.
Cheers food suck!!! I ordered the nachos today and the cheese had hardened there was some sort of sweet tomato sauce in it…hardly any salsa and chips were soggy and yucky! what is the meaning of paying so much to eat at a 5 star hotel if the food is late, the staff are rude and the food once it gets there tastes and looks pretty darn horrid!
The waiters seem to prefer white skinned people as they always get their order first irrespective of the order of patronage. I have experienced this at least 5-6 times at least. Pretty pathetic for a 5 star hotel to mete out service like this.
@Chathura, We had similar experiences. Once they "reserved" a table we were seated at for a group of foreigners who phoned in *after* we were seated. Brown or white, no sensible restaurant ever does that. We spoke to the duty manager and he just denied any wrong doing. And that was just one incident.
I get the feeling they want to actively discourage locals so that their establishment is pristine enough for westerners.
Oh yeah we have witnessed this many times before. Used to frequent back in the day when i used to work in the area. Everytime without fail we would get this treatment. It is really sad cause I love the atmosphere at the place. There used to be the waitress who used to be damm right arrogant towards; now noticed that she has been picked up by la fiesta.
I had to go through the same ordeal. Can't believe that such an establishment would employ such weak untrained staff, including the duty managers. What they should realise is that the hospitality industry mainy relies on recommendations of the locals.
Gotta love the reverse racism…I've never experienced this but no doubt it has happened. Some Sri Lankan establishments feel the need to exclude Sri Lankans to maintain a certain image but it is these very lankans who serve as returning customers making them rich, more so than the white tourists they try to suck up to. Food for thought. If this is the treatment meted out, better off patronizing other similar restaurants which actually value your presence and don't make such stupid executive decisions in order to appeal to a certain segment.
It takes ages to flag a waiter down and the food takes quite a while to arrive, which leaves much to be desired in terms of service. That being said Ive always found the food decent. They do a mean Ceasar Salad.
What a disastrous experience. My friends and I went recently and I was really late so they had ordered like half-an-hour before. So I went and ordered and then we waited and waited and reminded them of our orders. Some foreigners came after us and they got their order. We were there to celebrate a friend's birthday as well and he got his food last. I got my food half-an-hour earlier than my friends. The food was bland as well. Hopefully they will boost their standards, otherwise no point in going back…
I am adding a review on a restaurant that is not listed in Yamu. Here goes.
Name: SANORA RESTAURANT, 668, Pannipitiya Road, Thalawathugoda (0112774751/0114411135)
Number of pax were 4.
This place is quite way off Colombo. It takes about 1.5 hours to get to it on a weekday evening from Colombo because heavy traffic.
Large Carlsberg bottle cost 350 bucks. So, it's quite cheap compared to other places. But the problem is the food sucks big time.
We had a Garlic Kankun (which cost only 200) which was quite good. It would have been really good if they added some cashew nuts.
The SAVORY THAI OMELET (which cost 330) was a big disappointment. Did not taste great.
The FRENCH FRIES were generally OK , priced at 300 bucks.
The large "PRAWN & EGG FRIED RICE" was a major disappointment. It was like, plain white rice with some prawns. No vegetables added. I don't think they even added the egg. It cost a whopping 940 bucks.
PRAWNS SIZZLING was a whopping 1470 bucks. It was good though. BUTTON MUSHROOMS (at 560 bucks) was very expensive and the texture and taste was disappointing. Not worth 560 bucks.
The VEGE NOODLES (without eggs) , small portion cost only 360. It was enough for 2. Although I did not have it, I doubt the quality of it.
The MANHATTAN cocktail was good, but I had a major hangover the next day. So, I doubt the the "quality" of the ingredients. It was priced at 520 bucks.
Cordials here are cheap I must say . A mocktail called EXOTIC SURPRISE cost 200 bucks while A LIME JUICE cost 150 bucks.
Overall, a major disappointment on the food. No Tabasco sauce. So, had to eat the French Fries with some sweet sauce. Service is not that good either.
When ordering, a small rice/noodles dish is enough for 2. If you have 4 people, then order 2 small portions, or 1 large portion.
With 2 large beer bottles, 1 cocktail, and other food and drinks out bill came to 7194 bucks.
I will give 2 out of 5 stars for this joint. I would never visit the place again, nor recommend it to anyone.
This place has the worst service! We are still waiting for our food and it has been over an hour! The staff hardly notice you and simply disappear whenever you make eye contact with them! This is not the place to go if you are looking for fast and good service. They have far to go in terms of service. Very disappointed.
Watch out for the service chage and tax at the end. It can really bite a chunk. Tried the Seafood Platter, big enough for three to share
On the fries that you are complementing so much - those come out of a freezer bag btw. The good fries/wedges are actually cut fresh from potatoes and fried - there is a massive difference.
The gelatinous texture in the fish fry is because that too comes out of a freezer bag and doesn't defrost between the layers properly…
Sri Lanka has a long way to go in terms of quality food and value of that food - this junk is overpriced and it comes out of a freezer bag in most cases. You guys need to learn to spot these things…
ENJOY!
waited one and a half hours to get a half rack of ribs - on 31st lunch. Ridiculous for a five star hotel
I agree with you and more so!!
I visited it about 2 weeks ago and had horrendous!!!!!!
Severely overpiced food too.
I visited with 6 people and we were ready to have an awesome time celebrating the season but what we got was disgusting,
the food took over one and a half hours to come and when it did come it seemed stale and as said simply from a zip lock bag
and the waiters behaved like they were sick of life and just ignored us point blank, twice i made eye contact and even waved at them but they just ignored!
I get better service from road side bakeries
IF THEY CHARGE SUCH HIGH PRICES THEY SHOULD ATLEAST TRY TO KEEP UP THE SERVICE
prices are not a concern I am talking about service and standards AND MAINLY attitude of the staff.
I have worked in hotels in colombo so i know they are over worked and underpaid but this is no excuse for such behavior
Sad to see such from a 5 star hotel
I went there on 2016/07/07. Ordered the BBQ PORK RIBS (1/2 RACK). Price is 1200(10.77 AUD). Had 2 Erdinger Normal 500mls. Cost 1580 for both (LKR 790 /AUD 7.09 each). Total bill came to 3620.00 (32.50 AUD).
The funny thing is, the ribs were great the 1st 2 occasions I had them. But this time it was quite bad. But the atmosphere is quite good here.
2016-JULY-31:
(1.) Bitburger drive beer 790.00
(2.) Baked potato 650.00
(3.) Long island iced tea 990.00 (about 10 SGD)
tax base 2430.00
SC 243.00
TAX 382.74
GRANT TOTAL 3055.00 (29 SGD)
Bitburger is not that good a beer. It's a small bottle. Baked potato is also not that good. You can avoid ordering these 2. The iced tea was as usual watered down.
Date: 2016.08.28
1 x Pork Escalope with Calvados SA 1200
1 x Bull Frog Cocktail 1200
Total with tax + SC 3020 (27.25 AUD / 28 SGD)
Both were absolutely fantastic.
Prawn & Chips (1390/=++): Good. Not GREAT, but good nonetheless.
Toad in the hole (1200/=++): Not good. I would not recommend this.
Singapore Sling (890/=++): Not bad. They don't add ALL the ingredients specified by the IBA.
See here for IBA ingredients: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore_Sling
Amazing food… When the place is packed, the staff hardly notice you… LOL… you have to use all the hand signals u know, so that they notice you… hahaha…
Anyway unless you are a huge fan of sports and fixed matches, avoid going to the Smoking Area of cheers to dine, as it is very noisy and sort of disturbing…
Note : This is only if you are not interested in watching the matches…
Overall, NICE PLACE TO BE AND TO EAT…
4/5
AdamG
Good food and service
4/5
joelfrancis
Order the pork ribs and a pint…. nothing more. You could opt for a gin and tonic
5/5
T
Rated 5/5