Hilton Oktoberfest hits new heights

By Madushka Balasuriya 

Sausages, schnitzel, sauerkraut, schlager music, and beer, copious amounts of beer. That’s right – the Oktoberfest season is upon us, and as usual the benchmark is being set by the Colombo Hilton. 

With this time’s festivities touted to be bigger, bolder, and louder, earlier this week we at Daily FT made our way to the Il Ponte pool side area of the Hilton, where large marquee tents had been set up, to see first-hand what all the fuss was about. 

The first thing you notice is that there’s more – more people, more food, and more fun activities in general than previous years. All of 47 items make up the all-you-can-eat buffet, which includes 16 hot and 10 cold items, 12 types of bread, and nine different desserts. Of these some 11 are meat-based, giving your carnivorous urges complete license to run wild.

With Executive Chef Robert Mujagic, who is of German descent, running proceedings, the quality of food is truly exemplary, with nearly every dish hitting it out of the proverbial park. We couldn’t get enough of the array of different homemade gourmet sausages on offer, while numerous action stations have been added this year to ensure guests have as complete an experience as possible. 

The stations serve the positively divine Pork Schnitzel and Pork Knuckle, while there’s also Beer Battered Fish and juicy Rottiserie Chicken for those who may choose to forego pork.

Our favourites however were the Velvet Mashed Potatoes and the maddening delicious Sour Marinated & Braised Beef. All these can then be paired with your choice of sauce, all of which just elevate the dishes to even greater heights.

And as guests are enjoying the food, they will be serenaded by traditional German Schlager Music – catchy instrumental accompaniments to vocal pieces of pop music. We particularly enjoyed the frequent renditions of Seven Nation Army.

So if you’re looking for a quintessential Oktoberfest experience, the Hilton Colombo Oktoberfest will be on every evening between 7-12 p.m. (except on Fridays and Saturdays when proceedings will stretch to 1 a.m.) until 9 November, with rates varying depending on the day. Sunday to Thursday will be Rs. 2,888 per person, while Fri-Sat will Rs. 3,888.

For Rs. 5,000 meanwhile you can purchase VIP tickets, which while more costly come with a butler service. Having experienced this first hand, we can safely say it definitely makes the experience a more pleasurable one, as travelling back and forth through crowds with drinks in hand can become tiresome after some time. 

But whichever way you choose to enjoy Hilton’s Oktoberfest, one thing is for sure, you will enjoy it.

Pix by Daminda Harsha Perera