The Cauldron

​Positive vibes all the way!

The Cauldron is a cute little café that opened up along the stretch of shops down Stratford Avenue. It shares the stretch with other great shops like Gandhara, the Design Collective and Schakasz. The Cauldron is a beautiful little café that serves a variety of food out of which most are an amelioration of your Sri Lankan favourites.

Besides pairing the two good things in life; coffee and food, this café is also a space for dreamers and change makers. In a conversation with the owner, he mentioned how, as kids, we often tend to dream big but that power of thought is lost as we grow into adults. What he wanted his café to promote, was a space for dreaming and thinking out loud. You can see this concept beautifully depicted through the many portraits of change-makers, including icons like Audrey Hepburn, Martin Luther King, the Beatles etc. He mentioned that he was looking to promote The Cauldron as a curator space and was planning to host poetry readings in the coming months.

​Drinks

Hot Chocolate with Marshmallow – Rs. 500

It was a rainy Wednesday, and a cup of hot chocolate and marshmallow was everything I needed and more! Nothing to complain about this drink!

Nutella N Coffee Blend – Rs. 550

Although the title of this drink sounds exciting, the taste didn’t translate. It was a pretty milkshake in a mason jar drinking glass, and topped with a whole thump of whipped cream. It let us down in the sense that it lacked the taste of Nutella – which is what we were yearning for!

Peach Iced Tea – Rs. 380

The Peach Iced Tea was also another favourite. If we had to grade the drinks, we would probably have the Hot Chocolate on top, and then the Peach Iced Tea to follow. It wasn’t too sugary either, which is the case with most Iced Tea served here.

Mains

Red Chili Seafood Pasta – Rs. 830

We were warned that the pasta was a little on the spicier end, but we were up for the challenge. The Seafood pasta was super creamy, the pasta was al a dente and we loved it. We would have appreciated it to be a little more loaded on the seafood varieties/elements though – since we are paying LKR 830 for this pasta. What constituted this dish was a few prawns, and a few bites of squid (if our seafood trivia was right).

Pol Roti Kottu (served with Cauldron gravy) – Rs. 580

The Pol Rotti Kottu was a classic! It was a lot more in terms of quantity and the roti was a lot less tough than the one we tried out at Taphouse by RnR.  The Kottu was served over a thin fried egg (that we loved) and served with a yummy coconut milk based (we assume) gravy. The gravy was sweeter and paired well with the pol roti. Wasn’t a fan of the chunks of chicken – that were over fried. This dish would have tasted a lot better if the chicken was perhaps cut up and mixed into the kottu.

Pol Roti Sandwich with Jaffna Prawns – Rs. 580

We loved how The Cauldron menu had a few dishes that were twists on classic Sri Lankan favourites. This was one of them. The Pol Roti was quite tasty – judgement by the mother, what I liked was the Jaffna Prawn Curry inside. The prawns were delicious. Like Jaffna curries are, this one too was packed to the brim with spices and flavour. The portion however, does not qualify as a main.

They’ve also got an extensive menu of desserts that we couldn’t try out. Will let you know how they are when we pop in for a visit later again!

One complaint that we had was their pace and service. I think its excusable for now, because it’s only been a few weeks since they started running. Our drinks took at least 40 mins to arrive, and our food an additional 10 or 15. We were not impressed. The waiter let us know that they were short-staffed in the kitchen that day –  which was the reason for the delay in the meals.

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

Tip:The Pol Roti Sandwich is quite an interesting one!