- Cyril Rodrigo’s offering brunch and high tea
Located on No. 7, Visaka Road, Bambalapitiya, Colombo 4, the restaurant is a haven for traditional Sri Lankan cuisine, combining their rich heritage with traditional family recipes.
With family traditions at its core and modern gastronomy at its fingertips, their latest restaurant has now opened its doors to warmly welcome guests with the traditional Sri Lankan hospitality they are known for.
Paying tribute to Cyril Rodrigo himself, the all-new Cyril Rodrigo’s Green Cabin restaurant serves from a 100-year-old house, refurbished to reflect his own unique personality and blend both traditional and modern dining experiences.
Serving up unique flavours
True to its mantra of “old meets new”, Cyril Rodrigo’s Green Cabin restaurant serves up their traditional fare along with some of their oldest family recipes with a modern twist. These include starters of hot butter karawila and mains that include Green Cabin’s famous flower-shaped hot and crispy hoppers. Other dishes include “Seeya’s Jaggery Beef Curry” or the famous “Achchi’s Chicken” – two iconic generational recipes that have been perfected over the years.
They serve up giant prawn with kottu and the traditional baked crab, not forgetting the popular Green Cabin lamprais. For those with a sweet tooth, butterscotch pudding with salted caramel and passionfruit pavlova will be ideal. Each meal can be paired with drinks such as the refreshing karapincha lime twist and a selection of Lumbini Valley Single Origin teas.
A range of new, exciting menus for high tea and brunch
The restaurant has also introduced a new range of items in the form of a brunch menu, high tea menu, and the seasonal festive menu. The high tea menu has a selection of carefully selected savoury and sweet cabin specials and is perfect for a relaxing evening, served daily from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. and priced at Rs. 2,200+ for two.
The brunch menu is ideal for the late starter on a weekend or Mercantile holiday, where all your local favourites are freshly made and served, priced at Rs. 1,400+. Meanwhile, a special festive menu will be available on 24, 25, and 31 December, ringing in the season with your favourites, priced at Rs 1,400+.
Going into detail on the high tea menu, the dishes were quaint and filling.
We started off with a refreshing passion fruit juice, perfect for such a hot day, and moved on to an iced coffee. No complaints – it’s impossible to get an iced coffee wrong.
Moving onto the actual high tea, some of the items featured include sausage roll, stuffed egg with smoked salmon, prawns wrapped in bacon, pol roti with seeni sambol, mutton rolls, and much more. The items are all presented on a platter and are plenty for two people; you’d be left quite satisfied after your meal.
What we found to be most impressive was the prawn wrapped in bacon, because who would think to create such an innovative dish? The salty flavour of the bacon combined with the umami flavour in the prawn was a combination that explodes on your taste buds.
The mutton roll, too, was quite a nice treat. It’s not often that you’d be able to purchase one, but Cyril Rodrigo’s has it all and it does not disappoint – it really was one of the best rolls we’d had in a long time.
Moving on to desserts, there were éclairs, lemon meringue tart, cabin cheesecake, strawberry cheesecake, and a few more options to nibble on. Of course, we only have good things to say about the éclair, as it’s personally my favourite dessert and Green Cabin has always been known for doing an amazing line of desserts.
The lemon meringue tart was slightly contradictory to its looks; it looked very similar to a s’more at first glance, so upon biting into it, when the flavour of lemon oozed out, it was a bit of a surprise. But, of course, we should have read the menu beforehand. This is not to say that it wasn’t an absolute delight; we were quite happy to keep snacking on it even after our somewhat disappointing revelation.
Continuing a rich legacy
When speaking to Executive Director and fifth generation family member Chirath Devasurendra on what the vision behind the restaurant was, he stated: “Maintaining traditions of our forefathers and sharing those values and experiences is the reason behind us launching the newly opened restaurant.”
He described the ambience to set, setting the mood for the upcoming high tea experience. “Walking into the restaurant, you are transported to your childhood. It’s like walking into your ancestral home – one that is filled with happiness, laughter, memories, and, of course, delicious traditional food served by a loving family.”
Upon seeing for ourselves, we can agree with him and say that it truly does have a very homely vibe; the surrounding greens and soft hues are welcoming and enticing.
Family is at the core of the venture, be it with customers or their very own staff. At the restaurant, each employee is a part of their extended family, some of whom have been serving the restaurant for four generations.
Devasurendra told us that staff member Ivor Garth recently celebrated 50 years of service, while staff member Tuani has worked in the restaurant for over four decades.
The restaurant also includes an air-conditioned private dining room which accommodates up to 15 pax. Outdoor seating is also available and customers have the option of reserving the entire venue, which can host around 50-60 guests for a private event. Guests are also welcome to BYOB at the restaurant.
Cyril Rodrigo Restaurants, under its brand name Green Cabin, continues to be a Sri Lankan household name. The outlets continue to serve their famous items, along with seasonal goodies for this festive season such as breudher, Christmas cake, and other delights.
Green Cabin currently has cabins located at Chatham Street, Vauxhall Street, One Galle Face, Colpetty, Vajira Road, Nawala, Rajagiriya, Ethul Kotte, Delkanda, Pepiliyana, Templers Road, and Boralesgamuwa. Further plans are underway to open five new outlets by the end of 2022.
Cyril Rodrigo’s Green Cabin restaurant serves customers for both dine-in and takeaway from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., 365 days of the year, from their branch at No. 7, Visaka Road, Bambalapitiya, Colombo 4. Reservations and inquiries can be made by calling their hotline on 0115 501 501 or visiting the restaurant.
Website: www.cyrilsgreencabin.com