Long Bar – Reviewed

by Anuki Premachandra

A millennial bar for the old souls

Long Bar is the revamped millennial bar at Waters Edge, Battaramulla. It’s one of those bars that, during the weekdays, facilitates a corporate crowd and from Friday to Sunday, facilitates the party-crowd. It does offer the best of both worlds. An absolutely sleek interior, crafted with club-like lighting and environment but one that at the same time is absolutely chilled and guarantees a great time.

Ambience

The ambience, we were told, is why people come to the Long Bar. For one, Waters Edge is blessed with the abundant greenery that is both pleasing to the eye and the soul and Long Bar seems to have been set in the same way. It’s a glass walled long rectangular space beside a small lake like area connecting to the hotel. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not out in the wilderness; It actually is the passage that connects the rest of the hotel to the grand ballroom building- hope this gives you a better sense of the place.

The electric, and sleek interior is what I loved about the place the minute we walked in. A tone of neon blue coupled with jazzy lights and cozy sofas are everything you’d want a bar to be.

The music I think needs to be heavily emphasized upon. The usual crowd at the place claimed that they come for the music. It really is the ideal place to get your groove on. They’ve got an interesting line-up of bands/singers Wednesday through Sunday. It starts off with the 80’s and as the week progresses, so does the music. Following is their current lineup;

Wednesday – Manila Perera

Thursday – Coreen Almeida

Friday – Magic Box Mixup

Saturday – The Slipping Chairs

Ah, who would appreciate an economical happy hour. They’ve got happy hour from 6 p.m. – 8 p.m. and serve pouring brands at 50% off.

Food and Drinks

Drinks: Kir Royal – Rs.800, Citrus Rush – Rs.700, Cosmopolitan- Rs.700 and Long Island Iced Tea – Rs.980

The Kir Royal is a champagne based cocktail with a mix of one part of Crème de cassis. This is great to start of the night. It’s very smooth to drink and a great way to begin a good night.

Their take on the Citrus rush impressed us. Out of the few Citrus rushes I’ve tried in Sri Lanka, the only downfall there has always been is the alcohol being too less, and the citrus being too tangy. This did not seem to be a problem at the Long Bar. The ingredients: Absolut Citrus, Gin, Lemon, Orange and Grapefruit were just the right quantities.

What can you say, a classic cosmo! Girls, the Long Bar is definitely a place you’d want to hang out at your next girl’s night out.

Nothing to complain about the long island either. Right amount of strong.

Tapas:Cheese Toast – Rs.700, Buffalo Wings- Rs.650 (Half a dozen), Hot Butter Cuttlefish – Rs.780 and Long Bar Triple Decker – Rs.655

First off, their menu was the best!  A quirky pocket like menu segmented into different courses. As millennial the menu looked, we knew for sure that it promised us some good food.

We picked the Cheese Toast among the options their waiters recommendation, and boy, we were absolutely blown away. For only Rs.700, this was an absolute win. It was cheesy AF with sliced tomatoes and tons of green topped over it.  If you’re conscious over your oil intake and pry away from food items like garlic bread or cheese toast, you don’t have to if you’re at the Long Bar. Their Cheese Toast is not even close to being considered oily or looking the part. The Cheese Toast was served in a dim sum basket – looked pretty cool. The only improvements we feel like this great dish could make are it having more gooey-stringy cheese and opting for chili flakes over green chilies. Because man, the green chilies nearly burnt our tongues, (Yes, we are Sri Lankan, and yes, we eat a ton of spice.)

We really enjoyed the Buffalo Wings and think you would too. They were juicy to the bone. It wasn’t the oily kind of juicy, but the ‘I’ve been marinated for a while and the juice in my meat has been retained’ kind of juicy. The sauce the wings were bathed in was super thick and would do a traditional New York Buffalo Wings proud. They don’t serve blue cheese dipping – but we ain’t complaining. The wings were served to us in a neatly aligned form on a long plate. The presentation was good and it definitely checked the boxes of consistency and taste. An all-rounder.

Sadly, we can’t really recommend their Hot Butter Cuttlefish. As much as it’s the first thing on a menu we Sri Lankans would want to dive into, the Hot Butter Cuttlefish here was not satisfactory.  It was pretty spicy and meaty. But it was soggy and caused the cuttlefish circles to end up being really tough. We did had to pull it apart in our mouths and do a strong game of chewing to eat the fried cuttlefish. The portion did actually have so many and we were really sad that it didn’t taste so great.

The Long Bar Triple Decker is a god sent! After our not-so-maxing experience with the Hot Butter Cuttlefish, the Long Bar Triple Decker was our knight in shining armor.  It was absolutely loaded! To the point where every bite out of it left us hanging for more. Layers and layers of bacon, egg, cheese, sauce and veggies, oh boy, the Long Bar Triple Decker, will leave you so stuffed at the end of the night. That’s probably why they’ve got the good music, so that you can burn off all those calories.

Dessert: Pistachio Ice-cream – Rs. 300 and Baked Cheesecake – Rs.450

Best. Pistachio. Ice Cream. Ever. I’m a die-hard fan of pistachios and have always been very disappointed with the options Sri Lanka has to offer. I think the ice-cream here is homemade and it’s heavenly. It’s the kind of ice cream I’d want tucked under my covers on a rainy day while binge-watching my favourite season of Friends. Did I tell you that it was amazing already?

The Baked Cheesecake was pretty good, too. Not only was it layered with jam on top, but it was also beautifully constructed and it was reflected with every bite. We hoped the base was more biscuit though, but all in all, we were satisfied.

Have you tried The Long Bar yet? Let us know what you think of it in the comments below! Is there anything we’ve missed?

Tip: It’s a great place for a girl’s night out!