We recently visited Noteworthy Café, a hidden gem down Maitland Crescent, Colombo 7. This hidden oasis was founded by Niroon Buddhasiri and his wife Kumari, purely because of their passion for art, coffee, and music, which makes Noteworthy not just a coffee shop, but an excellent place to sit and relax, listen to classical music, and look at Vincent Van Gogh’s paintings. Interestingly, Noteworthy Café holds the paid rights from the Amsterdam Museum to print and display Van Gogh’s paintings in its premises. Though the café looks very small from the outside, when you walk in it is very spacious with an excellent ambience. The tables at the café have patterns printed on glass, a speciality unseen in any café we have visited so far. They do not have Wi-Fi because the founders believe that people should walk into their café to communicate with each other and relax in traditional forms. The goal of the founders is to provide everyone who walks into the café with a value-for-money meal which reminds them of the taste of home cooked food. The café also has a garden and they allow the option of hosting small parties and get-togethers within the café premises. In addition, a room upstairs is available for talented artists to showcase their skills to the public. After a pleasant chat about their Noteworthy mission, and vision behind it, we turned to their menu, which listed a variety of beverages and food. Item 1: Cream of spicy pumpkin We decided to start off in the soup section of the menu and elected to go with the cream of spicy pumpkin soup. It was rich in colour and the presentation was enticing with a pattern made in white cream, which later enhanced the taste of the soup when mixed together. It was slightly spicy and was a generous portion, so if you are not a heavy eater, it could fill you up. It was delicious and it definitely felt like it was homemade because of the local spices used to flavour the soup. Item 2: Chicken lasagna It is very rare to find good lasagna, so we decided to put the lasagna at Noteworthy Café to test. The lasagna was well baked and came with small cubes of devilled chicken in place of the minced chicken we find in other cafes, which made it very unique. A slight amount of cheese was added to the lasagna which stroked the perfect balance in the meal, without making it too cheesy, blending well with the tomato sauce included as well. The dish was full of flavour with an array of local spices adding more to the meal. The chicken lasagna at Noteworthy Café is the best we have had so far without a doubt! Item 3: Chocolate brownie with ice cream We were presented with a generous piece of chocolate brownie with hazelnut, drizzled with chocolate sauce, and two scoops of vanilla ice cream on the side. The brownie was heavenly, filled with dark chocolate goodness and was gooey in the inside which made it even better. This amazing bar of brownie is one of the best we have had in town. Bonus: Noteworthy’s Cookie Crumble Frappe Although we were already full from our meal, we decided to check out the coffee at Noteworthy, and went with one of their heavenly loaded coffees; the Noteworthy’s Cookie Crumble Frappe. This comes with whipped cream and chocolate cookie crumbles. The frappe was rich with a premium coffee blend. It had a good balance between the milk, coffee, chocolate, and the chocolate biscuit crumbles, and left us so full. It was a sweet and scrumptious drink, and the surroundings at the café only added more value to the meal. Points: · Opening hours: 7a.m.-10 p.m. on weekdays and till 11 p.m. on weekends · Address: 4A, Maitland Crescent, Colombo 7 · Contact number: 077 225 9497 · Quality and the quantity of the food, service by the staff, and the atmosphere at the café justifies the price and the mission of the founders · A person can afford a hearty and filling meal at Rs. 1,500 in the hand · There is ample parking space, washroom facilities, good music, and aesthetic paintings · Noteworthy Café management has done an amazing job and the café definitely exceeded our expectations. Our heartiest wishes go out to them to keep up the awesome work! Cheers to a good meal! By Anjalika Abeykoon Photos Indika Handuwala