Colombo Kitchen - Hopper & Kottu Bar — Restaurant in London

As you can see the food was looking nice. I would rate it: -Mains 7/10 ( lamprais was lacking flavours for my personal liking, and based on comparison with several other restaurants I tried it ) generally was not bad. -Dessert 4/10 ( it gave us upset stomach, I assume because of the ice cream or maybe the hoopers itself)

My main complaints are about the way this restaurant is managed. I hope the owners will read my review and may take it as a possibility to change. Then we arrived no one welcomed us, and placed us to the table. It was happening to all the customers that came after us . There was no one responsable of taking care of customers, waitresses was not there. We was all the time looking around trying to find who to call to get served. 3.We waited 20 minutes to get a second glass for the water, and anything else we wanted was quite of a challenge to get it , for the same previous reasons, no staff in charge to take care of it. Waiting time for amount of customers in the restaurant was way too exaggerated. Dessert was ready 15 minutes before someone brought it to our table ( is a open kitchen for desserts , so we could see what is happening) Restaurant was almost empty!!

And last as a person with experience in hospitality I would like to adress personal advice to the owners: Customers should not see what is happening at the back ( door was always open and a lot of random stuff coming in and out) Based on previous point the kitchen staff should be in the kitchen, not in the bar not sitting at the next table. There should be a bit of organising in terms on what and who is in charge. Hygiene advice- if you have an open kitchen inside the restaurant, as long as is not full time making orders, food containers should be covered. It was open and the amount of stuff waking around the restaurant, it was ridiculous to think of hair or other things can get into . Another hygiene advice , the staff that serves customers have to have clean and pleasant apearence . At one point the lady from kitchen started serving customers in a dirty apron. Even if something happens ( as I noticed is a family run business) the person should change the apron first. You have just one chance to create right impression to customers .

I hope you will appreciate the time I put to write all this , as my thought was to help, I would like to see more authentic family run restaurants rather than chains. Unfortunately it should be...

We just had dinner tonight at Colombo Kitchen, and the overall experience was quite stressful. As it is the last day of the Eat Out Help Out scheme, the restaurant was very busy. Although with a booked table, they made us wait 15mins, as other people paid and left, and they cleared the table. The area we sat in were still dirty with bits of food on the floor. We asked the manager to clean this up, but no one came until half way through our meal some 45 mins later. The restaurant was also very packed and didn’t seem safe in terms of social distancing guidelines. It just feels like they are trying to cram as many tables in as they can. The overall service was also slow, you can tell they are very very busy. Food was tasty and good, and so there are some stars in this review. But totally agree with the other reviews, the portions are small for the prices on the menu. If it wasn’t for the Eat Out Help Out Scheme I think it’s not worth the money to come here.

I’ve just seen your response below for this. From what I’ve seen of how you ‘disinfect’ your tables, it was NOT done properly, as I watched your staff briefly wipe the table with the spray and cloth and bits of food dropping to the floor and chair. Then he left. The chairs still had food on them and we had to use our hand to wipe them off. The floor had bits of food which I made clear to you at the beginning when we sat down, to clean it up for us. It was just disgusting! You said you’ll ask someone to come. But they never did. So we repeated it to someone else halfway through our meal, who then came with a broom while we ate, but obviously she couldn’t get to the food under my feet, as it was so crammed and tight with space. Being heavily pregnant as well, we didn’t feel safe in last night’s environment. The chairs behind us of the other table was practically touching, with only this screen to keep it apart. It is a very very crammed environment. I don’t agree that you had taken extra precautions. Your waiter also had his mask falling below his nose.....it’s not safe. About my daughter’s nut allergy, yes we took time to discuss this, as you use the same oil to fry nuts and not able to use new oil to fry prawn for her. Anyway we got there in the end with plain rice and potatoes for her and so it’s ok. Just being in a crammed environment and the long waiting time just made the whole dining experience stressful. The environment certainly do not match up to the prices...

Question what they are actually serving you! What is written on the menu is NOT accurate (cutting corners) if you do not know what Sri Lankan/Asian food is all about you won't be none the wiser.

A good 3 years ago I used to rate this place but as the years have gone by Sylvia Perera looks worn out and is cutting corners. I invited my parents, my father and mother cook roti and wanted to sample their handmade Gothamba (Layered Roti otherwise known as Paratha (Menu also clearly illustrates this) ITS MEANT TO BE LAYERED FULL STOP) My father and I spotted that it was NOT what was served to us. The server kept quiet thinking we would not spot it. What was served was just a flat/oily/rather hard roti. I pulled them up on it and they confessed the chef had some problems with the roti.

The Live Kottu used to be great..but my god..over the years it has become saltier and Saltier to the point it feels like you can have a heart attack from this. In general all of their seasoning is not balanced and some dishes are far too over powering and you can't taste the array of spices. What a let down. After this was remade for us, it was okay but not great!

The last and final straw was when I went for my husband's birthday..I ordered the two roti tacos with deviled prawns. I looked at this and could see that these two tacos were 100% bought and NOT flaky and handmade. I wished I had said something earlier but needed to double check if the menu said (taco or homemade). I questioned the 1st waitress on previous problems raised but she was not at all serviced orientated..she looked at us like we were the problem. The chef insisted that the tacos were homemade roti which was laughable. Please, if anyone Is reading this, order it and see for yourself. I felt insulted that they would lie to us.

I will never ever step foot in the place again.. What a let down. This place has gone downhill and the Chef really needs to stop cutting corners otherwise proper foodies/people who know what Sri Lankan food/Indian/Asian food is all about will suss them out and give them a real good piece of their mind. I will be very surprised if this place wins any further awards, they...