The Gourmet Station at Kingsbury Apartments

A Subpar Short-eat Joint

Walking through the doors, we were a little disappointed with the setting of the café since we expected it to live up to the be as top notch and on par with Kingsbury. Space was very limited and looked too cramped up, with a couple of high stools and merely two tables to sit at. This looked like your average bakery except smaller, with bright contrasting colours that weren’t easy on the eye. The men behind the counter were alright, but we didn’t feel anything special about their service.

Drinks

Jazzy Mint Tea by Mabroc (Rs.300)

This looked like your usual cuppa, but when you bring the cup up to have a sip you get an aroma of mint, which I was fond of. However, the tea did not taste minty, probably because they use tea bags.

Iced Coffee (Rs.350)

I preferred the iced coffee to the tea since it was very creamy and sweet. Probably a little too sweet for the general public, so stay away and stick to the almond squares if you don’t like large quantities of sugar or condensed milk.

Food

Fish Roll (Rs.100), Prawn Wrap (Rs. 190), Mutton Samosa (Rs. 100) 

Presentation wise, meh. These short eats were designed simply to ease your hunger and not please your eye. However, we were quite surprised with how the fish roll was quite big in quantity for 100 bucks. The outer layer was golden brown but rather soggy and the filling did very little to live up to our expectations. The fish roll was quite bland and was nothing out of the ordinary. The wrap was also not exceptional since the prawns were not seasoned well and the wrap tasted a little stale, in all honesty. The mutton samosa proved to be the only good thing on the plate since there was a generous amount of mutton filling which tasted quite nice with a mild tinge of spice.

Prawn Roll (Rs. 100), Chicken Spring Roll (Rs. 100), Chicken Samosa (Rs.100), Mutton Wrap (Rs.160)

In contrast to the chicken roll, the prawn roll was very crispy and seasoned well. It was very creamy, although it consisted almost entirely of potato, we weren’t complaining. Every other item in this plate was a major let down. The spring roll was alright, but we only tasted bell pepper and onions. The chicken samosa weirdly tasted the same as the mutton samosa, making us believe that the only difference was the texture of the meat. The mutton wrap was just as sad as the prawn wrap, so let’s not waste our breath.

Desserts 

Blueberry Cheesecake (Rs.270)

Topped off with strawberry and a swirl of whipped cream, we were pleased that the gourmet station made some effort with the presentation of their desserts. You could visibly see the blueberries that were mixed into the cheesecake and the blueberry purée looked quite thick and consistent. However we did notice that there was quite a little base under the cheesecake which tasted like a very thin layer of chocolate cake. Not great. Taste wise, the cheesecake was quite alright since the blueberries blended well with the rest of the dish, and what more would you want for 270 bucks, right?

Almond square (Rs.270)

Topped off with shavings of white chocolate and a coating of sliced almonds, I had a fairly good feeling about this cake. If you want cake but don’t have a huge sweet tooth, you should try this out. It did taste a little dry, although the icing did help with that. The almond brought in the crunch factor and this slice of cake had us feeling different textures with every bite.

Macaroons  – Lime, Raspberry, Blueberry, Vanilla (Rs. 100 each)

What’s dessert without some macaroons, eh? We had a tiny assortment of macaroons of different flavors, sadly though 3 out of 4 were not great. I like my macaroons soft, not hard and powdery. The raspberry macaroon was the only exception since it melted in your mouth and properly gave off a raspberry flavor. The rest of the macaroons were just.. no. We believe this was because we might have been served an old batch and not the macaroons that were on display.

All in all, we were quite disappointed with our experience at the Gourmet Station down Galle Road. We also noticed that some of their cakes had visibly been on display for a long time, so we wouldn’t necessarily make a trip back there again.