The Bayleaf — Restaurant in Colombo

Review⬇⬇⬇

▪Food. 4/5

▪Price.3/5

▪Service.3/5

👍Likes: Quiet ambience

👎Dislikes: over priced items on the menu

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The Bayleaf sits in an old colonial mansion on Gregory's Road, Colombo  07. This restaurant specialises in authentic Italian fare and earned its reputation over years of good service. The decor of the dining room is quite classical, with antiques, wooden furnitures  and mirrors. Dinning can be done on the verandah overlooking the beautiful garden or upstairs in private dining rooms or else sitting on the scenic balcony on the first floor . We came for lunch, which features a creative menu covering everything from antipasti to dessert. Naturally, I had to start with my signature stawberry mocktail, Queen of Strawberry (450 LKR), a fine example of such made with freshly blended puree. Virgin Colada (450 LKR), which has become my favourite for it’s soft, smooth, just-sweet-enough coconut notes accented just a bit by the tartness of pineapple. A starter was a Risotto alla Marinara (1350 LKR), an italian rice featured mixed seafood, tomato and parmesan. The risotto was well-textured, with the rice coming out just firm enough that had absorbed just about the right amount of seafood broth.Last up came a Cassata alla Sicillana(575 LKR) an Italian sponge served with strawberry, cheese, ice cream,dark chocolate and nuts. The cake was light and airy as expected, with a delicate sweetness nicely countered by the tanginess of its berry filling and was quite enough to share with.

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All prices are exclusive of 10% service charge and around 10% vat and other tax. Remember that the VAT and service charge on products can increase the price considerably.

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My experience about the service at The Bayleaf left me a bit puzzled as to what I'd just gone through. The plates were taken away before even we literally finishes and courses were served unannounced. The table we were dinning was not fixed in a proper way and we had to go through some fuss while eating. Beside those, I had a fine dinning experience there. They do catering as well.

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An Italian restaurant located in a residential area in Colombo with both indoor and outdoor seating.

We were greeted and asked to go upstairs to be seated as we didn't have a reservation. We chose the small balcony area and it was quite comfortable as there was a ceiling fan right above our table. However, the door kept moving towards the chair as it had no stopper. The management should have remedies for such details as there are quick fixes to them.

The server was friendly and as we were looking at the wine menu; he informed that the wine list was limited due to the financial importation restrictions and bought bottles they had available. We appreciated this gesture as it saved us time in choosing a bottle.

Bread was served while we waited for the starter. The food was pretty good in taste but I found the salmon dish to be a bit too salty (personal preference). Also the menu stated the salmon was topped with a poached egg but the egg seemed to have been fried. The spinach ravioli dish's cheese sauce was average. Didn't taste much parmesan in it. We also felt the food should have been served a bit warmer.

For being one of the fine dining restaurants in Colombo, we found it very odd for them to have paper napkins instead of cloth serviettes. Also, we had to request for another bottle of water rather than being asked/offered as we were running low. Once again lack of attention by the server (things that can be improved with proper training). We also had to ask for the bill at the end and they had forgotten to charge for the extra bottle of water. We informed the server and he got us the revised bill.

The servers were nice but as we often see in Colombo, the service was average as they don't pay attention to details. Being friendly is not sufficient for a dining experience, as there is much more to it. The lady wasn't served first either. These things must be taught by the management to improve the level of service. The higher prices are paid for the overall dining and service experience and we felt the crew didn't exhibit such attributes.

Overall, it was an average experience. Bay Leaf has great potential as they have a nice ambiance and decent food but some tweaks to the service and attention to details can be improved. The paper napkins belong in the bar and not the dining area. Also, the description on the menu should be what is served. Will visit again and check it out...

2024: We went back again about a year after the first time. The service at this place is great, no complaints at all about service. This time one of my adult daughters ordered a Ravioli Ricotta and the other daughter ordered a Fettuccine Florentine Pollo, both of them said their pasta was just OK and they didn’t eat it all and decided not to take the leftovers home. My wife and I ordered a Salami Picante 9” pizza and a Vidello 12” pizza. I was very disappointed in the pizza, it wasn’t good. I dropped the star level to 4 from the 5 I gave this place last year. I know they have some good pasta because we really enjoyed it last year. I’ll give this place one more shot and try some other pastas next time, but will never order pizza here. I really love wood fired thin crust pizza, especially Neopolitan style, but this crust was very average and not to my liking.

Dilhara was the person serving us and his service was great!

2023: My wife and I were in the area and received a call from an old friend who asked if we wanted to meet here for lunch. We are so glad we decided to meet, because the food here is delicious. It’s an Italian restaurant that looks like it’s in an old Colonial house in Colombo. When the waiter gave us the menus, there was an extensive pizza menu and a another menu with pastas. I was in the mood for pizza, but when we tried to place the order he said there was a 1.5 hour wait for each pizza. When I asked why since there were hardly any people there, he told me there was a party upstairs and they were ordering a lot of pizza so that’s the reason for the delay. I was a bit disappointed at that point but decided to try a pasta dish and ordered Tagliatelle Verdi con Prosciutto which is a homemade spinach pasta tossed with honey glazed ham, mushroom, bacon, & parmesan cheese. When I tried it, I was so happy the pizza was not ordered because it was probably one of the tastiest pastas I’ve had in Sri Lanka, it was excellent. In addition the Cream of Chicken soup and Bruschetta was also really good. It was a cloudy day and not too hot so we sat outside and enjoyed the meal with a friend. The wait staff is helpful and friendly and I highly recommend this place, in fact I’ll be going back to try other items on their menu the next time we are...