35, Castle Lane, Colombo 4
Open until 11:00 PM
Red Orchids is like the new Flower Drum, with the same staff and waiters, and again they do tasty classic Sri Lankanized Chinese food at affordable rates.
Red Orchids is a Sri Lankan-Chinese restaurant that has a lot of the original kitchen staff and waiters from Flower Drum (the iconic Thurstan Road outlet that closed down). So it's kind of the same experience. It's good for what it is, and it's affordable.
Red Orchids calls itself a Chinese and Thai restaurant, so you get a pretty wide selection of favourites from these cuisines, Sri Lankanized for the local palette of course.
We asked for the Tom Yum seafood soup, and for Rs. 650 we were surprised to get this ridiculously giant bowl of the stuff. The soup could have easily filled little bowls for six people. It wasn't perfect, a little too salty for my liking, but still you got that basic hit of herbs and lemongrass, also plenty of delicious chunks of mushroom, cuttlefish and shrimp.
The hot butter cuttlefish, for Rs. 800, reminded us of Flower Drum fare - chewy, dry, spicy - it isn't your ideal HBC but there's that MSG type addictiveness to it.
We also got the beef red curry for Rs. 725 - more soupy and the flavours didn't hit the mark as well as in an authentic Thai dish, but still this was quite good, fragrant, generously portioned and went well with our seafood rice. I particularly enjoyed the seafood rice, not too oily, flavoursome and the smell of it wafted in as they brought it to our table. Put together, our selection mixed well, making a typical classic Sri Lankan-Chinese/Thai style lunch.
EDITOR'S NOTE: I went separately and tried their more Chinese stuff - mixed fried rice, spare ribs, beans, hot butter cuttlefish, etc. It's got the same filling, hearty experience that you used to get from Flower Drum back in the day. Wouldn't call it authentic, but so what, it's tasty. Also tried their clear cucumber soup, which was excellent.
The restaurant is pretty decent, A/Ced, clean and comfortable with formal tables and a little bit of that obligatory Chinese decor. There's an outdoor balcony upstairs. Fun fact, it seems to have once been somebody's house, so you'll find a bathtub in the washroom. It wasn't crowded during our visit so the waiters were extremely attentive - glasses were refilled fast, and the staff were very friendly.
If you're in the mood for good Sri Lankan-Chinese, this place is a great option to consider. The portions are big, so if you order wisely you'll probably spend about Rs. 1000 per head for a hearty meal.
Red Orchids is definitely a great choice for a Sri Lankan Chinese meal. The service and food are great and filling while not extravagantly expensive.
Red Orchids is like the new Flower Drum, with the same staff and waiters, and again they do tasty classic Sri Lankanized Chinese food at affordable rates.
සිංහල ලංකාවෙ රහට චයිනීස් කන්න!
සිංහල ශ්රී ලාංකීය ක්රමේට හදන චීන කෑම කන්න හොඳම තැනක් කියල තමයි රෙඩ් ඕකිඩ්ස් එක අපිට තේරුණේ. පොකට් එකට ලොකු තට්ටුවක් වදින්නේ නැතිව හොඳට රසට බඩ කට පිරෙන්න කාල එන්න පුළුවන්.
Address
Directions
Castle Lane is near the Bamba flats, almost opposite Shakthi Institute. Head down here to the Marine Drive end and you'll see it on your left.
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This used to be my recent favourite, but not anymore. They confused us with the usual rice I order. And when I asked about the schezwan chicken, i was told that it has no bones and no vegetables, but to see it had more vegetables than chicken. When we questioned, they just apologized. We got discount for credit card, for almost the same menu two days ago, but today we were told that we need to purchase something for another LKR 100 to be eligible for the diacount. They didnt have the dessert we wanted, so we ended-up ordering ice cream which we never wanted. Later on they said that we are still not eligible for the dessert and that we need to purchase for another LKR 300. This got dragged for over 20 minutes, several people spoke to us and nothing positive happened.
However Fried rice with shrimp and chicken doesn't even need any side dishes. Very generous portion size.
Anyway, food being really tasty is not just enough. The experience people get matters a lot too!
Very generous portions for sure. Too sweet for the Sri lankan palate. A cool beer would have been appreciated. Alas! Maybe not for the chinese clientale but spice it up for the lions please.
Restaurant is closes at 3pm and then they open again for dinner. Singapore chilli chicken was yum. they had dumplings for starters. sizzling cuttlefish fish is a must try
2/5
Kamil
I recently visited Red Orchid Restaurant Col 4 with my family for dinner. While the service was excellent, food was not upto Mark and definitely not a patch on Flower Drum!
2/5
ELINA RODRIGO
horrible