Located at: 252A Galle Road, Colombo 04, Sri Lanka

Visited on: 21 Jul, 2018

This place had been popping up on my newsfeeds for a while and I was quite curious to try it out. So off we went on a smoulderingly hot afternoon to fill our bellies. The first thing that strikes you about the place is how laid-back and unique the interior is. Geometric, colloquial murals of dogs, a container side for one wall, and couches and beanies on the sides. It’s no wonder that there was a predominantly rather young crowd at the place. Plus, with all the institutes in the vicinity, there were a few youths lunching over books and laptops too.

Our first need was to quench our thirst. I wanted to have The Coconut Revolution (king coconut, mint, cumin and orange with kasa kasa), but unfortunately it wasn’t available on the day. So, I went with The Deathly Marshmallows – chocolate milkshake with dark chocolate sauce, marshmallows and candy (LKR 300) instead. I’m usually a bit apprehensive about ordering these sorts of beverages since more often than not they end up being too sweet. However, this was really good – just the right level of sweetness and density with a couple of marshmallows and a wafer roll that tasted better than most stuff you get here.

We also had a Pineapple Express – pineapple, orange and apple with fresh mint (LKR 430). Well, they were out of fresh mint too on the day (bummer), but the rest of the ingredients were intact. This wasn’t excessively sweet either – which was great, but it could definitely have used a bit of chilling. As could have the place, for that matter. The air conditioning didn’t seem to be doing enough to beat the heat that was upon the city.

One half of our lunch order was Meat the Parents – creamy chicken and pineapple open pie served with spring onion mash and their signature green salad (LKR 750). I quite enjoyed this. The crust of the open pie was nice and thin and crisp to the core. The content was nice and light too – not bursting with flavour, but tasty. There were a few wedges on the plate which were crispy and well-seasoned, and the mash was fine too. I didn’t see much point for the puff pastry in the dish, but I did like the touch of pomegranate seeds that was visually uplifting. The salad was fresh and was well complemented by a vinaigrette-like dressing, crushed nuts and of course the pomegranate. Great presentation – nothing overly fancy, but quite appealing to the eye.

The second half of the meal was a Grill Bill Vol. 1 – Australian outback BBQ chicken served with spring onion mash and their signature green salad (LKR 850). Again, visually appealing. The salad and mash were the same as with the previous dish. The BBQ chicken was alright, but I felt like it could have had a little more character in terms of both texture and flavour. My preference between the two dishes had to be the first one.

If you hadn’t noticed by now, the names of more or less all the items on Café Sociale’s menu are sort of satirical takes on actual movie names. In fact, the bill showed the full version of the name of the first beverage – “Harry Potter and the Deathly Marshmallows”. Well, I do love a bit of pun. So I thought this was a great idea. A few tweaks here and there and this place could be quite the hot-spot.

Yummy Rating: 3.5 / 5.0