Simply Strawberries by Jagro Maitland Place — Restaurant in Colombo

I had an extremely disappointing experience at Jagroo Restaurant at Maitland Place last Sunday, specially as a regular customer who usually visits the Rajagiriya outlet. My friends and I decided to try this location for the first time, but it will certainly be our last.

I arrived first and sat at a table on the ground floor that was suitable for three people. However, a waitress(a matured looking lady) asked me to move to a smaller table meant for two, citing that it was lunchtime and they were expecting a crowd. To my surprise, the larger table I initially chose remained unoccupied throughout our meal, and there were still over four empty tables around. To make matters worse, the staff at the counter were more interested in their loud personal conversations (one guy was going on about the airlines he had flown with bla bla bla) than attending to the customers.

After my two friends arrived, we moved to the 1st floor, where we had to wait an eternity to get our ordered food and some water. When we finally did get water, they only brought two glasses for the three of us and seemed visibly annoyed for what we asked. At one point, a tall waiter (possibly named Raj) came over, rudely shouting, "Who asked for the menu card?" in a completely unprofessional manner.

Although the food was okay, just as it usually is, the service was terrible. The same lady who had initially asked me to move tables returned while we were dining and urged us to finish quickly, claiming that the place was fully occupied though very next table to us , one table of other area and deck area also unoccupied .When we went downstairs to leave, the place was almost empty, contradicting what she had said. The only staff member who behaved appropriately was a young waitress with spectacles.

This level of unprofessional behaviour is simply unacceptable. We paid over Rs. 13,000 for our meal and the service that came with it, but we were treated poorly throughout. Jagroo needs to train its staff properly, as this kind of treatment is not deserved by paying customers. Sadly, I can no longer recommend this place. The service, atmosphere, and overall experience have drastically deteriorated, and what used to be one of my favourite cafes has now left me speechless for all the...

I had a relatively strange and unpleasant experience for breakfast today. I was meeting 5 friends and walked in first at 8.30 am. Ordered a hot chocolate. One friend came in and we ordered our food as we both needed to leave by 9.30 as the others were running late. Initially when i ordered a hot chocolate and told my server ill wait for the rest to place my meal order. However the when one friend came we placed our order and my friend got hers within 10 minutes. Important note - i had asked the server if they had something I wanted from the starter menu FOR breakfast and he said yes. Which is why I placed the order for it. The rest of the 3 friends arrived and placed their order. Its 9.20 I still have no food. Upon checking server kept responding "ill check" by 9.45 everyone has their food but not me as thy are still checking. Then a female server comes and i ask her and she says my selected item is only for lunch. Even then, no one is telling me anything and acting like my order was a conspiracy and constantly "checking" I was hungry and disappointed. The staff were apologetic but I believe there was lack of common sense and bad management. My server then says "you said you will have it when the others come" - well, the others have come and everyone is eating but not me. The server also had told another staff he told me it's not available for breakfast (which he did not, I had my friend in front of me as witness to it) so clearly, they were lying to get out of their poor communication as well. 10.10 am, I left with no breakfast, only a cup of hot chocolate for which I didn't pay. The staffs only consolation was to offer me a piece of cake as I refused to take any other food because I was on a deadline and had to leave and couldn't stay longer till they made any food. Restaurant was empty between these times, plenty of staff walking up and down and kitchen looking busy and chef present. None of the staff noticed i had no food in front of me and didnt even check to see what i had ordered and why it hadnt come. Not like there were many busy tables. Please get your act together Jagro. Perhaps this was a simple mishap for you'll but I left with a bad experience...

I was really looking forward to trying Sri Lankan strawberries during my summer vacation and chose Jagro for this experience, especially because it's a well known name in Colombo. Unfortunately that turned out to be a disappointment. I visited the Maitland Avenue outlet with my baby and ordered a strawberry milkshake strawberry lemonade and a vanilla Swiss roll for my child. The wait time was unexpectedly long nearly 50 minutes and we had to remind the staff about our order only after our baby became restless. What added to our frustration was that two other customers walked in after us and received their order before ours. When I asked the staff about it, they mentioned it was a phone order.that can be true it felt disheartening that walk in customers were given lower priority especially when we were sitting there with a small child.

Once the order was finally ready, we had to pack it and leave quickly because our baby had become very fussy by then. Unfortunately, the experience didn't end there. When I tried to make the payment via mobile (as I dont have sri lanka atm card) I discovered there was no mobile signal inside the cafe. I asked the person who seemed like the manager if they had Wi-Fi so I could complete the payment, and he said they don’t offer free Wi-Fi only a voucher-based system. His reasoning was that free Wi-Fi would slow things down. I couldn't help but wonder how a modern cafe in 2025 can justify not offering basic connectivity when you are charging Rs. 1000 for a milkshake. I genuinely wanted to enjoy and support locally grown produce, but the lack of service quality, poor prioritization of customers and absence of modern amenities left me very disappointed. I won't be returning, and I’ll be cautious in recommending the place to...