Located at: 53 Ananda Coomaraswamy Mawatha, Colombo 03, Sri Lanka

Visited on: 14 August, 2023

My previous review of Isso, five years ago, focused on two dishes that were on their menu at the time. I can’t say that I was entirely taken up by the food, but it was alright and earned a yummy rating of 3.5. Since then, Isso has revamped the outlet a bit and changed up their menu, too. Hence, we thought of giving the place another shot, trying a few more dishes this time.

We tried a couple of Isso’s starters – Tempura Isso (LKR 1,495 for 4 pieces; LKR 2,495 for 8 pieces) and Isso Wade (LKR 1,195 for 4 pieces; LKR 1,895 for 8 pieces). Both of the starters, were crispy and nice, although the tempura isso was a tad bit oily – but not unpleasantly so. It came with a wasabi mayo, which was deliciously balanced, while the isso wade came with a coconut chutney. The chutney, too, was not bad and was like a meeting point between a peanut sauce and coconut paste, and was a bit on the spicy side.

Their Spicy Asian Soup (LKR 995) did not impress as much. Most likely intended to be a local take on tom yum, it was loaded with spices, making for a not-so-pleasant experience. It had mushrooms, diced tomato and prawn, which were fine, but the broth itself had too much going on and ended up unfinished.

For the mains, we picked Isso Nasi Goreng – with prawn satay, peanut sauce, prawn crackers and a fried egg (LKR 2,195) from their Signature Dish range. The best part of the dish was probably the rice itself. It had a nice flavour from the sauces that it had been tossed in and the chopped onion leaves and prawns that had been mixed in. It was actually quite nice. The trio of prawn satay was alright, nothing exemplary. Given that prawn is their specialty, one might have expected the prawns to be fuller and tastier. The crackers were fine and the pineapple salsa added a bit of a fresh touch with the chopped cilantro and cucumber. However, the peanut sauce that was mentioned on the menu was missing from the dish.

Apart from the Signature Dishes, Isso also offers a range of Combos where you can pick a base (shrimp, regular prawn, jumbo prawn, barramundi, baby octopus, cuttlefish, mixed seafood or cauliflower) and have it prepared in a style of your choice from classic, Thai red curry, sweet and sour, Singapore chilli, hot butter, Jaffna curry, coconut cream, thel dala, Negombo curry, kalupol or devilled. The meal deal includes a side dish from steamed rice, egg fried rice, garlic rice, yellow rice, roast paan or sweet potato fries, and a carbonated soft drink. Alternatively, if you wish to skip the drink, you can choose to have the base à la carte and add a side for LKR 495.

For our first choice of combo, we went with Thai Red Curry style Jumbo Prawn (LKR 2,895 à la carte) with a side of Roast Paan. The curry was delicious – excellent for rice or bread. But it wasn’t red curry, it was yellow curry. A simple but significant disparity. There were five jumbo prawns that had been cooked to the bite, and the bread was warm and lightly crisp on the outside. It made for an enjoyable meal, but one cannot diverge from the fact that the red curry was distinctly not a red curry.

The second combo we ordered was Singapore Chilli style Regular Prawns (LKR 2,195 à la carte) with a side of Sweet Potato Fries. This had seven battered prawns that were actually not much smaller than the jumbo prawns of the previous order. Again, the sauce in which the prawns came was mouth-wateringly good, but it was definitely heavy on Thai sweet chilli sauce, rather than Singapore chilli flavour. In fact, there was barely any noticeable heat although the menu indicated it as a ‘hot’ dish. The dish came with ketchup for the sweet potato fries. But there was no need for ketchup since the sauce from the prawn paired perfectly with the fries.

From their beverages, we tried the Oreo Magic Delight (LKR 1,095) which was Milo with whipped cream and Oreo cookie. It was decent and, for me, sort of served as both a beverage and a dessert.

The Watermelon Lemonade (LKR 895) was too sweet, and although the menu description said watermelon juice, lime cordial, lime juice and soda water, it tasted like a mix of watermelon juice and Sprite or something of the likes. Not much of a thirst quencher given its level of sweetness and lack of zing.

Our first visit to Isso several years ago left more to be desired. And while our more recent experience wasn’t too bad, it didn’t feel like that there was much of an advancement when compared to the previous time. Hence, TEL’s yummy rating remains unchanged.

Yummy rating: 3.5 / 5.0