Tucked away in a quiet corner of Vivekananda Road lies a new addition to Colombo’s ever-growing plethora of coffee shops. Little Italy, also known as Caffitaly is a cozy café cum restaurant under the Caffitaly System brand of espresso, specialising in delicious and affordable Italian cuisine, and usual coffee shop fare and also a range of hot and cold espresso-based beverages. They opened in mid July this year, whilst a smaller café was opened in Unawatuna last year.
On offer are starters, pasta and spaghetti dishes, ciabatta sandwiches and burgers. We tried out the Spaghetti Pomodoro e Funghi (spaghetti, tomato, basil and mushrooms), which was cooked in a rich, flavourful tomato sauce and topped with basil leaves. The simple flavours of this spaghetti definitely makes it a must try at Little Italy. Next was the Tagliatelle with Beef Ragu, which comes highly recommended by the cook Asanka. It’s made to an old recipe, and features homemade tagliatelle tossed in a light sauce with diced carrots and succulent pieces of beef and topped with a generous sprinkling of parmesan cheese – delicious and tastes just like something made in your kitchen at home! Portions are quite large, and worth the price you pay.
Sandwiches are made using freshly baked ciabatta bread, and come served with a generous serving of potato wedges (made in-house as opposed to the packeted frozen wedges). The Roast Chicken Panini involves a sliced chicken breast topped with fresh lettuce, sliced tomatoes, a spread of mayonnaise and onions placed in between grilled slices of ciabatta.
The menu also includes salads, and desserts such as hot ice cream with raspberries, Italian Maximilians (a serving of three baked patties filled with a chocolate sauce and sprinkled with icing sugar on top and drizzled with chocolate sauce), cheesecake, honey cake, and chocolate cake.
Little Italy takes their beverages quite seriously, and pride themselves on the quality of the beverages served. The espresso capsules under the Caffitaly System brand are imported from Italy in addition to the coffee machines used to prepare the beverages. The range includes ristretto, espresso, espresso corretto, caffe macchiato, espresso con panna, caffe mocha, caffe latte, moccacino, latte macchiato, cappuccino, and vanilla and chocolate frappes, as well as iced lattes and iced coffee. Caffitaly System, based in Bologna, Italy has outlets through out the Middle East and Europe. Professional Italian Espresso coffee machines, the Milk Frother and espresso capsules suitable for HORECA sector as well as for offices and villas can be purchased from the Little Italy restaurant as they are the licensee of Caffitaly products in the Sri Lanka.
Text and photographs by Sarah Kellapatha
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