Colombo is a haven for the food lover with its surplus of food outlets. Although it is only too easy to be pleased if we want a good lunch or dinner, it is quite the difficulty to find a specific item on the menu, we learnt this week.

While we would have been easily satisfied if we wanted just a great meal, to look for a soup at every place we checked in, and to be turned down, did not make us too fond of certain restaurants that would have otherwise served good food.

Of course looking for it was pretty rewarding. Both of us not being particular fans of soup, we would have never tried the soups we did if not for this hunt – and what a good fat deal we would have missed out on if we hadn’t!! Turned off by watery pumpkin soups and the likes of it, our personal favourites would be just tom yam & sweet corn and chicken soups – but leaving those aside for separate reviews, we tried a different soup at each place, the ones that came either recommended by the restaurant or we found to be interesting-sounding.

You wouldn’t imagine a beet soup, which even looks rather unworldly to taste as good as the one at Sugar Bistro did. We think it’s one of those must-try items available in town, and for a very reasonable price you wouldn’t find the same deal anywhere else. The chicken and coconut soup at CASA was heavenly! More on the ratings below. Barefoot Café, and Colombo Fort Café were restaurants we tried but did not have soups. While Lemon was open, the prawn and spinach soup it served was said to be one of the best.  

If you have any other soup recommendations at the same restaurants listed below, do let us know. We are also open to hearing of any soup anywhere that you think is the best, let us know by sending in your comments.

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	Cream of Forest Mushroom Soup   Semondu (Dutch Hospital Shopping Precinct, Colombo 01)
Taste	* * * *
Price	Rs.680+ service charge and taxes
Value for money	Average
Variety	Semondu serves soup of the day (Rs.580+ service charge and taxes) and a seafood bouillon (Rs.980 + service charge and taxes)
Overall	Initially, we thought this soup a little too bland but it turned out to be a warm, comforting soup and combined with the sliced mushrooms, it was actually quite good. Creamy, with an earthy flavour penetrating the soup.

 

	Creamy Beetroot Soup Sugar Bistro & Wine Bar (Crescat Boulevard, Lobby L-1)
Taste	* * * * *
Price	Rs.300 + taxes
Value for money	High
Variety	Sugar serves Cream of Wild Mushroom with Herb Croutons (Rs.400 + taxes), Roasted Pumpkin Soup with Garlic Chips (Rs.300 + taxes), Prawn Bisque with Pesto Chips (Rs.300 + taxes) and a Chef’s Specialty Soup of the Day.
Overall	One of the two best picks from our soup review this week. It was creamy, warm and packed with a deliciously natural beetroot flavour-very much like drinking blended beetroot! We found this soup to be extremely affordable too, and possibly one of the best dishes at Sugar Bistro & Wine Bar. Comes highly recommended by V Try U Buy.

 

	Tom Kha Gai Soup   HVN, Casa Colombo (No.231, Galle Road, Colombo 04)
Taste	* * * * *
Price	Rs.290 + service charge and taxes
Value for money	High
Variety	HVN serves Mulligatawny (Rs.200 + service charge and taxes), Roasted Plum Tomato Soup (Rs. 300 + service charge and taxes) and a Cream of Mushroom Soup (Rs. 300 + service charge and taxes). We were informed that a Gotukola Soup with lime sorbet will be added to the menu this week.
Overall	Despite the extremely long wait for the soup, we were pleasantly surprised to find that this turned out to be our next favourite pick. A Thai style chicken and coconut soup, it was packed with a comforting lemongrass flavour. The aroma wafts up your nose before you take a first sip off the spoon, and the chicken immersed in the soup is soft, with hints of coconut and lemongrass.

 

 

	Asparagus and Parmesan Soup   Park Street Mews (No.50/1, Park Street, Colombo 02)
Taste	* * *
Price	Rs.450 + service charge and taxes
Value for money	Low
Variety	The restaurant serves a red pepper and tomato gazpacho and soup of the day, both of which are priced at Rs.450 + service charge and taxes.
Overall	A strong parmesan flavour hits you immediately but we just didn’t taste any asparagus in the soup. It was light, creamy and tasty but nothing great and definitely not worth the price.

 

 

Our Picks: Sugar Bistro & Wine Bar and HVN, Casa Colombo

 

 

 

 

 

By Sarah Kellapatha & Nivedha Jeyaseelan