Java Lounge
135, Jawatte Road, Colombo 05.

We've been here a couple of times now and it happens to be the favourite coffee stop for one of us (we won't say who. Hint: it's the coffee person). The other one merely endures it.

As the name implies, the coffee here is always good, whether it's an espresso or a caramel macchiato. This time we ordered the hot chocolate and English Breakfast tea with a butter croissant. Note that we did NOT ask for the whipped cream - we specifically asked them to hold it - and they still gave it anyway.

Hot Chocolate with whipped cream, English Breakfast tea and Butter Croissant

The hot chocolate was very sweet and very chocolatey - points for that. The English breakfast tea was meh, but given that this is a coffee place, it's to be expected. The butter croissant was good, not great, and could've been a bit crispier.

Our other experiences of espressos and lattes have been generally positive. Java has a variety of cup sizes so it's easy to choose. It's a little pricey, so definitely not an everyday place. But you can't beat the the coffee here so you should definitely check it out. We haven't sampled the food here yet so jury's out on that one for now.

Cioconut Lounge

107 Barnes Pl, Colombo 00700.

We’d heard a lot about this place and we finally got around to going there for lunch. Initially, we’d thought to have the Rs. 850/- lunch buffet, but decided to order off the menu instead.

First of all, service was inconsistent. Our order was taken fairly quickly, food arrived in record time, but everything else was super slow. We asked for a bottle of water (they don’t serve in glasses) which we didn’t receive till we went up to the cashier to pay the bill. Then, they tried to hand us a bottle to take home and put it onto our bill. We refused of course.

Creamy Mushroom pasta

On the other hand, the menu had variety. There are Moroccan and Arabic dishes we hadn’t seen elsewhere. We ordered the Chicken Arrabiata sandwich and Creamy Mushroom pasta. The pasta was swimming in cream, there were loads of olives and mushrooms and the seasoning was perfect. The sandwich was disappointing: there was almost no chicken, the brown bread was a little dry and the accompanying fries were the best part of the dish.

Chicken Arrabiata sandwich

The ambience of the cafe is very upbeat and it looks like a great place for a group meal. We just hope that our experience was isolated and this won’t be repeated. Might visit again to try their pies and desserts – we hear they’re really good.