Located at: 02 Glennie Street, Colombo 02, Sri Lanka

Visited on: 23rd October, 2024

It’s the talk of the town at the moment. And it’s the latest luxury hotel to hit what one might now call the hotel hub of Colombo. Of course, we’re talking about Cinnamon Life at City of Dreams, a state-of-the-art complex that includes hotel, apartments, mall, casino and the likes.

Quizine is Cinnamon Life’s buffet restaurant. Their spreads are priced at LKR 6,000 for breakfast (7:00 am to 10:00 am), LKR 6,900 for lunch (12:00 pm to 3:00 pm) and LKR 8,500 for dinner (6:30 pm to 10:00 pm). All prices are net.

The layout of the restaurant is vast and spacious, with different action stations along the way. Salads and starters are at one station, desserts at another, and then there’s a line up of Sri Lankan, Japanese, Chinese, Western (including Italian) and Indian stations where most dishes get replenished afresh by chefs who do the prep at the stations itself. There are soups available at most stations.

We loved the salad/starter counter! The sushi was great, and there was also smoked salmon/tuna in dressing, crab sticks, and flying fish roe (tobiko) on offer separately. The citrus modha salad was phenomenal, and I also enjoyed the lamb barley salad and seared tuna. And the sliced smoked salmon was among the freshest we’ve come across locally. Yet, it was the wasabi mayo from the smoked salmon corner that managed to be the star of the plate. Mouth-wateringly good!

The highlight from the Japanese station was what I believe was a mini seafood okonomiyaki – battered cabbage and shrimp on a leaf of nori and topped with mayo and sauce. The mix of umami, smoky and nearly-sweet flavours, and crunchy and chewy textures worked so well together to create a rather charming experience on the palate. I also liked the Japanese rice and teriyaki pork belly that I tried.

My next plate was a mix of Western and Chinese, of which I quite enjoyed the lime and chilli fish, Manchurian chicken, black pepper pork, fried noodle and sweet chilli seafood. The mushroom was pretty good, too. The risotto with seafood was one of several dishes that were prepared as individual portions, and was quite enjoyable, too.

I was (unfortunately) too full by this point to pay a visit to the Indian station, although I did try their buttery tandoori naan with paneer masala on my subsequent visit. Both were top-notch, and I think I might push them up to the top of the order the next time I visit, so as not to miss out on them again.

Quizine truly spoils you with their desserts. At a glance, the station might not seem as vibrant and versatile as some of the other city hotels – because of how it has been neatly spaced out. However, as you walk around, you realise that there is a lot worth trying! There’s an array of panna cottas, cheesecakes, fruit tarts, homemade ice creams and brownies, among other things. We tried four of their five varieties of brownies – dark chocolate hazelnut, peanut, almond, and pistachio with white chocolate. I simply cannot choose one as my favourite. They were all so good. So much so that for someone who dislikes white chocolate, I loved the pistachio and white choc one as much as I did the others!

Their ice creams were fabulous. We loved the cinnamon and honey one (shown here) and I also tried and loved the chocolate and orange one on my second visit. They do a banana and passion fruit gelato, and a berry variety as well. Tiramisu portions are served on demand – and are light and delightful, with good flavour in the thin, moist sponge layers. We had a bit of dark chocolate grated onto ours on the first visit. The panna cottas that we tried were very good, too, and the texture of the crème brûlée was probably one of the best that we’ve had at a local buffet in a very, very long time.

The drinks that we tried off their beverage menu were visually attractive and refreshingly good. The Hibiscus and Grape Spritz mocktail (LKR 1,300) looked misleading smaller than its actual volume, and was an excellent thirst-quencher. Lost in the Jungle (LKR 2,300) was slightly tart, but tropical, with a hit of arrack mixed into it.

Hats off to the chefs at Quizine for putting out a remarkable spread that has, deservedly, been appreciated by many guests who have patronised the place to date. Here’s hoping that they keep it up and keep pushing their skills to give us all more and more memorable meals like the one we had. I shall round things off by saying this – I’m definitely looking forward to my next visit!

Yummy Rating: 4.5 / 5.0