Located at: Galadari Hotel, 64 Lotus Road, Colombo 01, Sri Lanka

Visited on: 01st June, 2023

To kick our evening off at Ginza Hohsen, we ordered a couple of fresh juices – Lime (LKR 550) and Pineapple (LKR 650), both of which were good. Neither had sugar added and the lime juice came with sugar syrup on the side.

We then ordered some Ebi Tempura Temaki (LKR 1,900 each) to have as a starter. These nori cones came with tempura prawns that were very well seasoned, avocado, lettuce and, of course, sticky rice. Interestingly, one temaki had some wasabi at the bottom, while the other did not. Either way, the overall taste of the temaki was good, although the price seemed a bit steep for the size of it.

Their Salmon Kyuri Maki (LKR 2,500) was served as a plate of six small salmon and cucumber rolls which were nice enough. Not exactly bursting with flavour, but decent. They were actually better on their own rather than when dipped in soy sauce. Perhaps a little more salmon would have made the maki experience more memorable.

We wanted to have some don buri for the main round. There were a few pull-out menu cards that came with the food menu, one of which had a choice of rice bowls whose prices were significantly less than those in the main menu. When we inquired, the staff clarified that the portion size was smaller for the Special Menu bowls, while the bowls from the main food menu could be shared between two and came with miso soup.

Chicken Katsu Don (LKR 3,300) was our choice of don buri. As mentioned, this came with miso soup (which they kindly split into two) and some pickled radish and carrot. The miso was very good – warm, full of flavour and definitely worked up an appetite. The pickled vegetable was refreshing, in a bit of a light citrus dressing. The rice bowl itself was rather large – definitely enough to be shared between two. There was a substantial serving of chicken strips along with the beaten egg, onion and chopped spring onion. The chicken cutlet was nicely seasoned and the katsu sauce elevated the taste of the rice and onion that lay beneath it. It had a palate-pleasing balance of sweet and savoury notes. Overall, quite satisfying and good value for money on this one.

A lot of the desserts were ice cream-based and perhaps weren’t as Japanese as they could have been. Hence, we weren’t tempted to indulge.

The food at Ginza Hohsen didn’t necessarily blow our minds but our experience, as a whole, was a pleasant one.

Yummy rating: 4.0 / 5.0