Located at: 78 Rosmead Place, Colombo 07, Sri Lanka

Visited on: 03rd August, 2023

They had me at shawarma. That’s all it took for Grillo’s to make it to the top of my list of restaurants-to-visit in Colombo. My family were residents of Dubai for well over three decades, and we’re on a permanent hunt for a good shawarma to soothe our Middle Eastern cravings.

Grillo’s is run by Fern B&B in the heart of Colombo. The restaurant has a fun and welcoming interior with a bit of wall art, a mix of individual chairs and comfortable, rustic wooden benches at the tables, a brick wall on one side with a neon sign, and a mini jungle-like indoor garden in one corner. The place felt open and airy with its very high ceiling and the spaced-out arrangement of tables. 

We picked Grillo’s Middle Eastern Chicken Meal with Arabic roti, Arabic pickles, fries, salad, toum (garlic sauce), hummus and a ¼ chicken (leg and thigh) (LKR 1,800). We were told that the chicken requires a prep time of 30 minutes, and the dish was in fact delivered a little before time. The chicken tasted good with a nice, spiced up marinade, and was soft inside with a slightly crisp skin on the outside. The toum was pretty good, not harsh in its flavour, but smooth with a pleasant garlic flavour. The eye-catching hummus was full of flavour, not as subtle as most versions you might come across, but a version that had a zing on the tongue. The sweet heat of the paprika definitely came through, too. Of course, the menu did not refer to tabouleh when they mentioned ‘salad’, but it was clearly what they were going for. And while the parsley was fresh and there was a fair amount of bulgur in it, it could have used a little more chopped tomato, along with some onion and lemon/lime juice. The fries were fine, but the lone cubes of carrot and beetroot could not be passed for Arabic pickles. Ideally, it should have been gherkin and (pink) radish, and it definitely needed to be well-pickled. The light bread went well with the meal, and was good to use on the dips.

Their Chicken Shawarma Plate (LKR 1,750) also came with Arabic roti, fries, hummus, toum and tabouleh. So, it’s only the meat itself that I need to comment on here. The chicken came diced, not shaved off a shawarma spit, but tasted really good. The marinade had clearly worked its magic on the meat and definitely had a hint of heat to it. Together with the tahini sauce that had been drizzled on top, it made for a really good and satisfying combination.

Grillo’s Chicken Shawarma (special) wrap (LKR 1,650) came with a tahini sauce dip. Again, the Arabic roti bread was nice and thin, which allowed the chicken itself to shine through. And the chicken was the same as that of the Chicken Shawarma Plate – very tasty. There was also a fair bit of the tahini sauce in the wrap, making it a juicy affair. It was nice to have some fries in the wrap – the way we like our shawarma. However, the carrot and cucumber were a little out of place, and ought to have been replaced by pickled gherkin instead. That one change, and it would have been pretty perfect.

The Lychee Peach mocktail (LKR 850) did not have the flavours that we expected, but was heavy on Sprite. Definitely needed more of the fruity elements – and perhaps a few pieces of lychee itself

For dessert, we tried their Mint Suleimani with Baklava and Hazelnut Cookie (LKR 1,100), which was an interesting combination. The baklava was a biscuit-like derivative of a bird’s nest baklava with a bit of flaked almond and pistachio on top. It was a nice accompaniment for the tea, although not a conventional baklava. The hazelnut cookie was not very sweet – which is a good thing, and had plenty of chopped hazelnut in it. But it was mostly the gooey Nutella swirl on top that brought it to life. The tea was fine, not too strong, and with a nice mint hint. A good palate cleanser at the end of the meal.

We were hoping for Middle Eastern authenticity when we visited Grillo’s. It might not have been a 100% of what we expected, but we were satisfied enough to visit again sometime – and perhaps try something else of their menu, such as the kebab dishes. Moreover, the staff seemed keen to take our constructive feedback on board – always a good sign for a fairly new institution.

Yummy rating: 4.0 / 5.0