Kimbùla Café

A local favourite with a twist! 

Kimbùla Café, owned by Shamini Galagedera, is a bright and aesthetic café. Attached to the main body of the café is a section that sports several collections of clothing by local designers, and Kimbùla Café’s’s own organic household, beauty and skincare products. The menu is creative and adds a twist on the familiar, delicious local Kimbùla bun. 

Appetizers

Falooda Glaze Kimbùla (LKR 500)

The Kimbùla arrived at the table fully coated in a bright coloured, almost neon pink glaze. It was very fragrant and tasted very prominently of rose and sugar. If you love sweets the sticky saccharine glaze will be right up your alley. However, it is VERY sweet; we couldn’t manage more than a few bites each before needing water. 

Strawberries and Cream (LKR 800)

Cut in half and stuffed with pillowy soft cream and syrupy strawberry compote with strawberry chunks, this was like a full meal. Well balanced, the cream toned down the sweetness of the strawberry and added some creamy softness to the bready Kimbùla.

Plain Nutella Kimbùla (LKR 550)

Stuffed with a line of plain Nutella right through the centre, the soft Kimbùla with the sticky oozing inside was perfectly balanced. This was simple and enjoyable, especially if you love Nutella. We really appreciated that this wasn’t overpowered with excess Nutella as most Nutella-infused dishes are. 

Jam Kimbùla (LKR 450)

The Kimbùla to jam ratio was spot on and reminded me of the butter and jam sandwiches I used to have as a kid. If you want something simple but you also want to venture out of the realm of the regular chocolate routes, this might just be the option for you.

Nashville Hot (LKR 950)

In recent years much to the credit of food and travel shows, Nashville Hot Chicken sandwiches have become somewhat of a trendy food. The idea is to have a spicy marinated chicken, dredged in seasoned flour and fried, after which the fried chicken is then glazed in the frying oil, infused with spices to create a spicy, unctuous piece of chicken. This Nashville Hot, however, wasn’t spicy at all, well-seasoned yes, in fact, it tasted just like KFC! But we were all missing the lip-tingling sensation we imagined when we saw the name of the sandwich. With the combination of mayo and malu miris inside the sandwich, the flavours were well balanced, and this was a very good chicken sandwich, just not the one we expected.

French Dip (LKR 1100)

Having not seen a sandwich like this on the café scene in Colombo, we had to try this one out. Between the halved Kimbùla bun was a generous amount of sliced roasted beef that was buttery and soft (probably marinated and slow-cooked to perfection), juicy and rich-tasting the incredibly savoury flavour had a mild smokiness to it. The accompanying seeni sambol added a sweet and spicy element to the sandwich. The “dip” part of this sandwich was a small bowl of consommé that came on the side, essentially just a beautifully rich stock, it had a mild tang and a heartiness to it. 

Cheese and Tomato (LKR 850)

With a generous layer of toasty cheese melted onto both sides of the sandwich, this was the perfect grilled cheese! The marmite that was added gave undertones of saltiness and savoury that worked incredibly well with the cheese. The house sauce on the side tasted like a chilli mayo and added some creaminess to each mouthful. 

Mains

Sri Lankan Big Breaky (LKR 990)

Their big breakfast could feed a hungry table of two, or put one very hungry individual into a food coma. They let you choose how you want your eggs and so we opted for the classic poached egg, which came out perfectly. When we cut into it, the oozy golden yolks spilt all over the Kimbùla. On the plate, we also got two kochchi sausages, two hash browns, some dhal, seeni sambol and Sri Lankan style baked beans. Usually, this dish comes with pol sambol but due to unavailability, they subbed it in with seeni sambol. The dhal and Sri Lankan style baked beans honestly stands out on this plate; the baked beans were our favourite! Not mushy, they added a fantastic bite to everything and the flavour was otherworldly, sweet, smoky and tasting almost like a masala I could have eaten a whole bowl of it. 

Ambience 

Bright and open with tons of natural light streaming through, the café’s clean and almost minimalist aesthetic matches the Kimbùla café’s brand to a T. The service could do with some minor improvements, such as informing customers of what is available before the order is placed. Otherwise, everyone at the restaurant was friendly and attentive. 

Tip – The Strawberries and Cream Kimbùla was heavenly! If you’re looking for something savoury, the French Dip Kimbùla is something new to try!