Dutch Hospital, Bank of Ceylon Mawatha, Colombo 1
Open 10.30AM to 10.30PM
Colombo Fort Cafe is a Harpo's run restaurant located in the popular Dutch Hospital shopping complex, serving up delicious pizzas, pastas and burgers.
Colombo Fort Cafe has been Malinthe's favourite place to get bacon burgers. Given that it's been eons since we'd checked it out, we dropped in for lunch last week. The ambience of the place was great, as was the dessert, but their mains left a bit to be desired.
We started off with the Atomic Wings, which were a dozen spicy, red chicken wings at Rs. 825. It was completely coated in an incredibly hot sauce that packed heat enough to bring tears to your eyes. I loved the tanginess of the sauce, and it reminded me a bit of tabasco. There's no pretty way to dig into this dish, so ditch those forks and knives and just use your hands. Some people don't love this as the incredibly hot sauce just drowns out any meat or flavour.
For mains, I got the Grilled Seer Fish (Rs. 1750) and Dili got The Double or Nothing Burger (Rs. 800).
The burger was... massive. Quite worth the price, coming with a grilled beef patty and pulled pork. The beef patty was soft and succulent, but nothing to write home about. Dili said the pulled pork was pretty great and that he loved it, but rates the overall burger at 3/5. It was accompanied by a few potato wedges, which were hot, crispy, and quite brilliantly executed.
I was rather disappointed with my grilled seer fish for its utter lack of flavour. The dish ideally should have been accompanied by a lemony sauce, which was lightly slathered on a corner of the plate instead (so you couldn't really dip your fish in it to compensate for the meat's blandness). The rice it came with was well, regular steamed rice. Quite nice, well made, but hey, it's plain rice.
We had a lime juice to wash it down, and wrapped our meal up with a Crème Brûlée. Priced at Rs. 275, the juice was refreshing and not too sweet, which we enjoyed.
The blow-torched caramel had hardened nicely and gave a satisfactory crack when the spoon made contact, and the custard just below it was intensely rich. At Rs. 400, this was a tad pricey but worth it.
The staff were friendly, and quite efficient. We weren't kept waiting too long either and had an overall pleasant experience.
With tall and surprisingly comfortable washed out pastel blue wooden furniture, warm yellow lights and brickwork, Colombo Fort Cafe is chilled out and great to hang around with a couple of friends. They've also got good music on, so it sets a laid-back mood.
Would we go there again? Not for a meal. The taxes alone mounted to close to Rs. 1200, and our total was Rs. 5,441. The food isn't all that great and we can't really say that you get value for money. However, their ambience and location make it a great place for a beer and a chat!
Colombo Fort Cafe is a lovely space with somewhat overrated food.
Colombo Fort Cafe is a Harpo's run restaurant located in the popular Dutch Hospital shopping complex, serving up delicious pizzas, pastas and burgers.
Colombo Fort Cafe is a Harpo run restaurant located in the popular Dutch Hospital shopping complex serving tapas, cocktails and general pub-grub fare
සිංහල කලම්බු ෆෝට් කැෆේ කියන්නේ හර්පෝ විසින් කරන අවන්හලක්. ඒක තියෙන්නේ ජනප්රිය ඩච් හොස්පිටල් සාප්පු සංකීර්ණයේ. එකේ ටපැස්, කොක්ටේල් සහ පබ් වල තියෙන දේවල් අලෙවියට තියෙනවා.
Address
Dutch Hospital, Bank of Ceylon Mawatha, Colombo 1
Directions
The Dutch Hospital precinct is right opposite Bank of Ceylon, near The Kingsbury. The cafe is right in front of you as you walk in through the main entrance, next to Colombo Jewellery.
Contacts
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3/5
Pizzas: not bad at all, considering the offer in Colombo. I tried the vegetable ones because I cannot conceive chicken pizzas (there were too many on the Menu…)
Mains: not a great experience. We ordered seer fish (1600 approximately). A small seer fish (grilled perfectly though), accompanied by 2 (LITERALLY TWO!!) green beans, 1 broccoli, 1 raw carrot and a very very tiny portion of rice (almost invisible).
Overall experience: OK. I would just stick to the Pizzas…
That 'Foursquare Tips' link on the sidebar should be directly linked to the specific page, not just foursquare.com.
https://foursquare.com/v/colombo-fort-caf%C3%A9/4ee24d1430f87dc0a6bf535a
True the food at the fort cafe was bellow par. But I eat often at bayleaf and the food there never disappoints
ask for Mr. Shaman, very friendly waiter ensures you pick a tasty meal. he tells you even when the dish is not tasty.
Went to the Cafe 3 times of the past few years…each time was disappointing (mediocre food and terrible service) and once was really terrible (cockroaches!)
Having avoided the place for over a year, we took a chance a few days back and were very pleasantly surprised. The service was absolutely stellar…the waiter was very attentive and knew the menu well. We orders Lamb chop and the Ribs. Both were fantastic…dare i say fine-dining quality. Very pleased to see a place actually improve!
Nice place to be. Had a good time with my Friend Shujaat he gave a good treat for my birthday Awch thats so nice…. plus good food Crab thingy & the Chocolate moose I loved it
The Food at Fort cafe is generally really good. I had the moussaka and the Caesar salad and both were amazing. The moussaka was cooked perfectly, not too damp and not too dry. the Caesar was dressed to quantity, had enough cheese, croutons you could say was fresh and the salad was crunchy yet soaked in Caesar dressing. I always have the Caesar everywhere I go before trying anything else and if a restaurant can make that right, I order other things on the menu. Only one starter wasn't that great in all the times I had been there, can;t remember what it was… but the wrap was doughy and lacked seasoning, I remember it was supposed to be prawn but it tasted like chicken instead.
ort Cafe is a pretty chilled out place catering to a niche clientèle and expats who want to sip a beer and have a good meal in the evening. They have seating outside on the corridor and seating inside which gives the feeling of an authentic Italian cafe well outside the town. Blue coloured wooden chairs placed at the bar adds a bit of glamour to the place, and…
Visit http://nleftovers.wordpress.com/2014/06/17/colombo-fort-cafe-by-harpos/
for the full review :)
Went there last night with some friends, and the food was a total disappointment. So were the drinks. Fruit juice and cocktails were watery and tasteless, the Pepsi was watery and flat, and the food had absolutely no taste. For the price you pay, one would expect a little bit more than this. In addition we asked what they had for dessert (since they apparently don't have a dessert menu) and we were told they have Brownie, Brownie Pudding, Brownie Cake…. brownie, brownie, brownie… LOL
No value for money in my personal opinion.
If you are a local don’t go there when Kumar (one manager) is not there. The other manager thinks what locals are there for free food. Really had very poor quality service and ignorant behavior form the manager (winslet or someone) from time I went there for the reservation today which is the opposite of the great customer service and warm welcome we used to get when Mr.Kumar (another manager) is there at colombo fort café. Service was very poor and delayed today and manager himself is disaster to this café.
Went there twice recently and was dissapointed. Ordered the beef breakfast burger which I sent back because there was something wrong with the beef. Ordered a grilled chicken sandwich as a replacement and there was way too much mayo and made it sickening to eat. I thought they should not have charged me for the sandwich, as courtesy for the spoilt burger but they did, but hey that's purely the managers choice. The Second time I went purely due to convenience (work at WTC) we had the Lamprais which was very ordinary and nothing to write home about. I think there are much better options for the price around the area with several hotels.
3/5
sabreta
Pizzas: not bad at all, considering the offer in Colombo. I tried the vegetable ones because I cannot conceive chicken pizzas (there were too many on the Menu…)
Mains: not a great experience. We ordered seer fish (1600 approximately). A small seer fish (grilled perfectly though), accompanied by 2 (LITERALLY TWO!!) green beans, 1 broccoli, 1 raw carrot and a very very tiny portion of rice (almost invisible).
Overall experience: OK. I would just stick to the Pizzas…
4/5
ASHANIJ
Rated 4/5
4/5
sudara
good