What I like best about Cinnamon Red is the spectacular view of the City of Colombo from the rooftop on the 26th floor. Sitting at ‘Flavoured’ I realised that even from this 8th floor restaurant, the view was remarkable as the restaurant was surrounded by glass panels. While dining you could see the busy streets below you buzzing with the neon lights and the headlights of the cars go by. 

The dinner buffet sports an abundance of choices to the diner including a Chinese Wok station, pasta bar, charcoal grill and a hopper station. All in all, there are about 70 to 80 different dishes.

The day we dropped by, the soup counter had Cream of root vegetable soup and Crab and Tofu soup. There were about 15starters which included salads, canapes and a couple of varieties of Maki rolls.

From the selection of Indian dishes and I thought I’d try out the Kadai Mushroom with the Butter Naan. The Naan was so good, I loved it. The Mushroom preparation was slightly spicy and blended well with the Naan.  There was also Tandoori Fish Masala, Mixed vegetable Kurma, Jeera Rice and Paratas. The Sri Lankan area had an action station where you could get your Plain Hoppers, Egg Hoppers, Sweet Hoppers and something different - Beetroot Hoppers, which I saw for the first time. Although you could see by the little red pieces that there was beetroot in it, the taste of the vegetable was not at all evident. Then there were also String Hoppers, Godamba, Curry Leaves Rice, Chicken curry, Breadfruit curry with the delicious condiments such as Seeni sambol, lunumiris and Polsambol. The Roast Paan was the winner here as it was the best I had had. It was so fresh and crispy with the middle being soft and fluffy. They had really got it right. 

When it came to the Grills and Pasta, we had to pick what we wanted and the chef prepared it for us. For Pastas, the range was Pasta Cream Cheese, Pasta Napolitan and what we tried out was the Pasta Bolognaise which was tasty. The grill corner had a choice of Chillie Crab, Chillie Flavoured Grilled Fish Ginger Flavoured Chicken, Grilled Beef Steak and Lamb Shoulder Chop. 

Two of my favourite dishes were the Char Siu Pork, a Cantonese preparation of barbecue pork and the Potato Gratin. The Pork had a lot of fat, however, you forget to eat healthy when the dish tastes so good. The Potato Gratin was baked to the right consistency, tasted super and the crust was browned to perfection. Loved it!

There was quite a variety at the Dessert station too.  We tried out the Chocolate Biscuit Pudding and the Fruit Trifle both of which were delicious but we were not too impressed with the Coconut Pudding. Among the rest of the desserts were Passion Mousse, Berry Crumble Tart, Date Pudding, Red Velvet Cake, Chocolate Fudge, Berry Pana Cotta and three flavours of ice cream just to mention a few. 

Price- 2600/- nett
The food items & stations change daily.

Hours of operation: 7.00 p.m to 10.30 p.m
Breakfast - 6.00 a.m - 10.30 p.m.
Lunch - 12.00 p.m - 2.30 p.m.
Dinner -7.00 p.m - 10.30 p.m.

For reservations: +94 11 2145 176 / +94 112 145 145
Address - 59 Ananda Coomaraswamy Mawatha, Colombo 03

Pics by Kushan Pathiraja