Ground Floor, No. 30, Sri Mohamed Macan Marker Mawatha, Colombo 3
Open Open 24 hours
The Gardenia is Hotel Ramada's main restaurant, and they do a wide range of cuisines, from Italian to Jaffna, that are good value for money.
The Gardenia Coffee Shop at the Ramada hotel is actually much more than a coffee shop - they do a very wide range of food types, from sandwiches to Italian pastas and Jaffna mains. The food we tried was pretty good and not too pricey either.
There's a lot of different random stuff on the menu - burgers, grills, Sri Lankan food, a few Jaffna dishes, Italian - so we picked one from a few sections. The prices are quite affordable considering the portions, with most dishes in the Rs. 600 - 800 range.
We asked for a barbecued cheese steak, priced at Rs. 850. This featured two chunks of cut meat, we weren't asked how we wanted it prepared but it felt firm and about medium. The meats were covered in a layer of cheese and bedded on mashed potatoes, with sides of chicken ham and fresh vegetables - nothing grand but a filling, tasty meal, though the meat was tougher than to my liking.
Our spaghetti carbonara was very well put together - it's a huge portion for Rs. 700 that took a while to finish. Plenty of warm liquid cheese, olives, chicken ham and chicken bacon. Delicious, mild and more than enough to fill you up, but note that everything here is facon (fake bacon) so those of you who want actual pork in your dishes will be disappointed.
The nasi goreng was the bomb diggity. This is an Indonesian or Malay dish which has become a big favourite in Sri Lanka, usually featuring rice stir-fried with meats, and a mix of sweet and spicy ingredients like sweet soy sauce, chilli and tamarind. It's typically presented with the mound of rice wearing a sunny-side-up egg hat. The one here was brilliant for only Rs. 550 - the rice had a very rich, spicy flavour, even without the chilli paste, with a bit of sweetness in there, and a lovely mix of fragrant stir-fried shrimps.
The unexpected winner for me was the mutton poriyal, a bonus dish we randomly thought of trying from the small Jaffna menu. For Rs. 750, this is a hefty dish enough to be shared among two or three people. It's an excellently prepared perattal, with very tender, flavoursome chunks of mutton tossed and fried in a bevvy of onions, chillies and spices. It's authentic, an absolute treat if you enjoy spicy food, and I'd recommend just having this with some bread or rotti.
The Gardenia has a lovely, cosy ambience, with tasteful light fixtures and soothing paintings on the walls. The music was faint and varied from Indian mystical to the soundtrack of the movie 300. It can get very crowded though, so best to call and make a reservation. Our waiter was friendly, but most customers seemed to be there for the buffet, so we suspect they weren't at all prepared for us ordering off the menu - our steak, spaghetti and nasi goreng took almost an hour to get to our table.
The Gardenia at Ramada is a wonderful place for a satisfying meal, especially with a group of friends or family. They seem to do a good job at different cuisines, though I suspect their strongest suit is their Asian foods. It's also thankfully not expensive, surprisingly so for a big hotel, only coming to about Rs. 1000 a head, which is great considering quality and portions.
Address
Ground Floor, No. 30, Sri Mohamed Macan Marker Mawatha, Colombo 3
Directions
Take the right turn at the Galle Face roundabout (right after Inn On The Green), and Ramada will be on your right. Walk straight in to the end of the lobby to reach the restaurant.
Contacts
Report InaccuracyOpen Open 24 hours
Cuisine
Indian Italian Sri Lankan Jaffna American Fast Food European
Price Range
Dish Types
Noodles Seafood Biriyani Rice And Curry Fried Rice Beef Steak Mutton Crab Burgers Sandwiches
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alaina
Excellent service and food. Great place to have a relaxing lunch
dee
Da food was ok…they really messed up wit da dessert we ordered…
CS
I ordered a packet of LAMPRAIS CHICKEN from this place. Got it through room server. It was VERY DRY. The chicken was not Lampara Curry (as it should be in here http://www.infolanka.com/recipes/mess2/278.html ) but a piece of roast chicken WITH BONE. Even the seeni sambol was dry. All it all it was not with the 950 odd bucks. Do NOT order LAMPRAIS from here. It is daylight robbery. I can imagine that the other items also would be of low quality like this one.
B
Open 24 hours if you're looking for a place to eat late! Although they have a different menu from 11pm - 6am, kind of restricted and bland to be honest.
I had the "vegetable stew with home-made garlic bread". What turned up was literally a room-temperatured srilankan coconut-milk curry with some chunky veggies floating in it, along with two hard peices of bread. Disappointed.
Service took approx 40 mins as well.
To be fair, perhaps the daytime menu is better though!
NA
I have always had the the BBQ cheese steak,the quantity is a lot less now,they only give two tiny peices of meat ,so won't be going again
AJ
When phoning to make a reservation this week, the person who answered, a male, did not appear to be well trained from the manner in which he spoke. When a wheelchair was requested for somebody, he said, "come again?" and wanted to know if the wheelchair has to be brought out. Does he think the person will get off the car and enter the building and then he/she would have to be taken in a wheelchair to the restaurant?
It is only when I stated that other 5 star hotels provide this service that the guy showed that he knew something about it, otherwise he was pretending that this was a foreign request never heard of before.
The female who answered initially also took some time to respond, she had probably left the phone and gone off to powder hair nose. She did not apologise for making me wait until she dealt with my inquiry.