The Shack Beach Cafe — Restaurant in Galle

Pros: EXCELLENT location, right on the beach. Easy to rent a boogie board or surf board right next door for 500 Rs an hour.

Clean rooms and responsive staff

Food is tasty, overall. Coconut milk porridge and teriyaki chicken rice bowl were good.

Free refills of ice cold glass water bottles.

Cons:

VERY SMALL PORTIONS; the food is expensive (par for the course in the area), but the portions are really small. Much smaller than in comparable restaurants and price points. So much so that we ended up eating out for most of our trip. This was a disappointment because the portions were generous when we came a few years ago, and eating in the hotel would have been convenient.

Studio Apartment: We stayed in the studio apartment and it has NO HOT WATER. This was not clearly communicated in advance so we thought there was a malfunction. We spoke with a staff member but nothing was done. Only after we checked out, we learned they haven’t installed hot water yet. That was frustrating.

Also, the bathroom was not separated/enclosed. It is like a stall within the room, so anyone in the room can easily see the person taking a shower or hear anyone using the toilet. This also was not clearly stated on the website listing.

Overall, we feel mixed. The location is amazing and the staff are responsive… but no hot water, no separate bathroom, and tiny portions were black marks in our book…

But if you want a convenient surfing location right on the beach, it’s a really...

The 4 formagio pizza was really good. The cheese - stretchy and hot, with a perfect crust to cheese ratio. And with a complimentary bottle of chilli sauce to add based on your own discretion. Recommend to every cheese pizza lover.

The hangover burger was one of the best I've ever tasted in Sri Lanka. The patty was soft and fresh, the beef - like you would expect in Europe. Godly sauce. Overall an A+.

Fish and chips were a pleasant surprise - crunchy and chewy on the outside with hot and really fresh tuna on the inside. Magical.

The side dishes of fries were also on point - hot, crunchy, salty.. I could go on.

And the service was spot on. Not busy when we got there around 19 on a rainy day, but everything was made in 5-10 minutes max, the staff were attentive and very tactful, even for European standards.

The coffee boost smoothie or whatever it's called had too much banana in it, overshadowing the coffee flavor, but maybe that's just me.

Overall great experience. Decently sized portions, fair price. Favourite place to eat in Sri Lanka now, wish it was closer to all the surf spots in the south so I could...

We’ve been going to the shack for quite some time, it’s not our go-to place as the food isn’t amazing but it’s not a bad place for a feed and a good fall back option…

Unfortunately what we experienced on our recent visit was just terrible. We waited 30 minutes for 4 soda’s, we then waited another half hour for the food to arrive which ended up being stone cold (honestly there was no warmth in it at all).

I told the guy who was serving us and he said that it’s cold because they are busy. They offered to take it back and warm it up which isn’t great when you order a burger & fish n chips.

The manager came over and his attitude was honestly terrible, his approach was very aggressive and he pretty much asked us to leave because our food was cold… I’m kind of shocked considering we supported this business throughout the middle of 2021 when they really needed the business.

I hope the manager reads this and takes positive action to ensure this kind of thing doesn’t happen again. Especially if we were average tourists, it’s a very poor reflection of the kind hearted Sri Lankan people we...