Colombo’s grand dame Mount Lavinia Hotel (MLH) took a break from the Colombo hotel circuit when the pandemic hit, serving instead as a quarantine hotel facility and then embarking on some mindful renovations.
The Sunday Morning Brunch is happy to confirm that this grand hotel, which encapsulates Colombo’s – and Sri Lanka’s – colonial charm so well, is now completely back in operation and is putting forward the experiences that made this hotel so loved to begin with.
Last week, Brunch was invited to soak up some sun (and a lot more) at the Mount Lavinia Hotel’s Sunday Jazz Brunch – a buffet at the iconic Governor’s Restaurant supplement by Jazz and Blues.
The Mount Lavinia Hotel has always delivered on nostalgia, and indeed, walking through the hotel again for the first time since Covid-19 was nostalgic. The hotel has preserved all of its old charm with subtle updates here and there to build a greater experience.
Key to the Mount Lavinia Hotel is the views the hotel affords – a clear view across the bay of Colombo from the hotel’s terrace where you can see the coast leading from Mount Lavinia up to the Port City with everything in between. This particular sea view of Colombo has a lot of beachy shoreline, and in fact, makes one think of the other famous beachside towns in our country like Unawatuna and Ahangama. It is most certainly one of the chief selling points of an afternoon at the Mount Lavinia Hotel.
The buffet serves up a variety of different cuisines including a selection of traditional Sri Lankan cuisine from Mount Lavinia Hotel’s famous Chef Publis Silva. There was also a wide range of salads, from the healthier more conventional salads to interestingly sinful salads like a crispy spicy cuttlefish salad. One interesting dish in the appetiser section of the buffet was the stuffed egg or egg boat, not something one normally sees in a buffet, but very welcome, for what is a special Sunday feast without an egg boat.
Speaking of boats, the Sunday Jazz Brunch buffet starts with a boat-shaped assembly of oysters, mussels, and poached prawns served on ice with all the trimmings one would expect – like lime, salt, shallots, and tabasco – if you were dining on oysters in France. The oysters were also of excellent quality.
Additionally, the buffet also featured an Indian corner with a small selection of Indian dishes to enjoy, an Eastern section – we particularly liked the sweet and sour beef meatballs here – a live-action pasta station, a selection of both usual and unusual Western dishes like sweet corn fritters (also very good), and a soup station which also featured a more traditional Thai seafood soup and a more unusual curry eggplant soup – a creamy eggplant soup with a hint of curry spice.
The Sunday Jazz Brunch is also meant to be an experience in and of itself – an invitation to guests to spend the afternoon at Mount Lavinia Hotel indulging not only in the spread put on by the Governor’s Restaurant, but also in the ambience and amenities of the hotel like the hotel’s pool and private beach. The Sunday Jazz Brunch will also, from time to time, feature special events like talks and discussions on art taking place parallelly to the buffet.
The bands performing at the Sunday Jazz Brunch currently include the likes of Norma and Jazz, Music Matters, and Breeze Jazz.
The Sunday Jazz Brunch buffet at Mount Lavinia Hotel takes place every Sunday from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. and costs Rs. 7,000 nett for adults and Rs. 3,500 for children aged six to 12. Children under age six eat free.
In honour of Father’s Day, on 18 June, all fathers and grandfathers will receive a complimentary head and shoulder massage from the Mount Lavinia Hotel’s Lily Spa and a free beverage.
PHOTOS SAMAN ABESIRIWARDANA