Yesterday evening we went to Amrith's Restaurant on Dickmans Road, just off Duplication Road in Colombo 5. (Tel 554267) This was a restaurant I had been recommended about 12 months ago but only found out exactly where it was last week!
The restaurant is walkable from The Cricket Club Cafe in about 15-20 minutes but we got a Bajaj there. The first driver who pulled up by the side of us wanted 200 ruppees so we got stright out again and found a driver who would accept 100 rupees.
Amrith's is both an Indian and a Chinese restaurant. You go upstairs for Chinese (a review for another day methinks) and remain downstairs for the Indian menu. We were greeted at the door and after asking for a table for two were told just to pick any table we wanted (only one table was currently taken -it was around 20:15). The menus were produced promptly and the waiter gave us a couple of minutes before arriving to take the drinks orders. I didn't notice any alcohol on the menu but didn't ask as I generally prefer to have Lassi with Indian food and ordered a glass of Lassi (100 rupees). My wife ordered a glass of Moonshine which is Coke & ice cream (135 rupees)
The waiter waited until we placed our menus back on the table before arriving to take the meal order. I ordered Meen Kolumbu, fish in tangy source (220 rupees) and my wife ordered Chicken Butter Masala (330 rupees). We also ordered Vegatable Pulao (185 rupees), Tandoori Paratha (85 rupees) & Masala Kulcha (85 rupees).
The meal took around 15-20 minutes to arrive and at which point we ordered another round of drinks which arrived very promptly. The Meen Kolumbu was the pick of the food for me but I could not fault any of the food served. There was, as usual, more food than we could eat!
The decor of the restaurant was very pleasent. There was a TV but no sound but there was Indian songs being played as background music at a volume it could easily be heard but one that we could talk over without raising our voices.
The final bill was around 1700 rupees and included 10% service charage and 20% government tax.
In summary I'd say this wouldn't be a restaurant I'd seek out regularly but every once in a while I think we will pop in for a relaxing evening out with good but not great food. The service was excellent if you like unobtrusive waiters who get the orders spot on and deliver the food and drinks promptly.
We were going to go onto Mollies but I have not been feeling too good this week and was pretty tired so we decided to go home at around 21:00. That's middle age for you!