Valentine’s Day in Colombo: Top five restaurants

It’s that time of year again. Valentine’s Day. And we’ve recently been asked the essential and potentially fatal question – where do I take my girlfriend out for dinner?

If you’re happy to go with the safe hit of good wine and delicious food, Colombo’s your friend. And so are we – below we’ve made a list of the top five places to spend an elegant, expensive and delectable Valentine’s with your partner. Let’s love.

Chesa Swiss

Chesa Swiss is expensive. There’s no getting around it. But it’s also really, really good. Undoubtedly one of Colombo’s best restaurants, a Valentine’s spent here is unlikely to get you in trouble. Quite the opposite. With an excellent selection of wine, impeccable service and some of the city’s best steaks, this is pretty much the definition of being wined and dined. While venue wise it’s nothing overly exciting – a simple house with minimal fuss and decor – the garden is rather lovely at night.

It’ll get booked up fast though, so if you plan on going, reserve early. As in, now.

The Gallery Cafe

The Gallery Cafe is the obvious choice for a romantic rendezvous, and with good reason. Housed beneath Bawa’s office, the Cafe’s lush garden offers one of the city’s best options for alfresco dining. With soft, ambient lighting, a great selection of cocktails – try the frozen margaritas – and desserts, this is another option that’s unlikely to disappoint. While food wise there’ve been complaints regarding the cafe’s never-changing menu, you’ll still be guaranteed a good meal – even if you’ve tasted it all before.

For top-notch ambience and candlelit loveliness, go Gallery.

The Havelock Place Bungalow

The Havelock Place Bungalow is another good option for outdoor dining – and perhaps a less obvious choice than either Chesa or Gallery Cafe. Similar to but smaller than the outdoor dining spaces of Barefoot or Gallery, the HPB’s small garden with cobbled floors and close, heavy trees create a tropical kind of cosiness. While we’re not quite sure the food lives up to its chalky blackboard promises, it’s still good. And the homemade ice cream is excellent, coming in a fun variety of flavours – honeycomb, arrack, fig and honey and so on.

Casa Colombo

For something a little less mainstream, the delightfully quirky Casa Colombo is great. This beautiful and eclectic wonderland of a boutique hotel serves good food and drink at decent prices. And you have a range of dining options – you can sit outside in the prettily lit, white chaired garden; inside the large glass cube that is ZAZA bar, or at the main restaurant. Casa is especially beautiful at night, when the pink pool is lit up and you can sit on the luminous chairs at its bar. This is one of Colombo’s trendiest places; well-worth a lingering visit.

Nihonbashi (Honten)

The Nihonbashi Honten is a beautiful restaurant serving truly excellent Japanese cuisine. If you’re not a fan of being surrounded by cooing couples, a room at the Honten offers a lovely place for a more private, intimate meal. These pristine, zen-like rooms usually adjoin little rock gardens and contain Japanese style seating – low tables and cushions. Ensconced in these white-walled nooks, you have all the privacy and time to work your way through pots of sake and light platters of sushi. And the best thing about Nihonbashi? You don’t feel bloated and ungainly afterwards.

While we’ve listed our top five upscale restaurants, this isn’t an exhaustive list. For more, see: Royal Thai, Tintagel, Lemon, London Grill, 1864, Spoons, Ministry of Crab, California Grill and The Galle Face Hotel Verandah.