2016 Jan 23
Affordability amongst the hustle and bustle
Located in the heart of Colombo, the commercial and entertainment city in the country, Ceylon City Hotel is your ideal place to stay if you are looking at both affordability and convenience. Opened just nearly a six months ago, Ceylon City Hotel is equipped with modern facilities which will be great for both business and leisure holidays. Situated at 11, Upatissa Road Colombo 04, the hotel makes it an ideal location if you’re on a business visit or even if you’re an average foreign tourist who wants to stay in the heart of Colombo and is looking for a place that is both affordable and convenient. If you are coming down Marine Drive, then the road is the one adjoining Keels Super or if you’re coming down Galle Road, then you would find the road approximately right opposite Raja Jewellers. It’s literally affordable luxury in the heart of the city.
Specially metioning they recently won the Trip Advisor Travellers Award for 2016, and were also adjudged Best Budget City Hotel of Sri Lsnks at the World Hotel Awards.
Rooms
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The hotel comprises of three room categories; Standard, Deluxe and the Junior Suite. The pricing ranges from USD 110, USD 120 and USD 130 accordingly. In a nutshell, I must say, the rooms did do justice to the pricing range. All three types of rooms were spacious, with state of the art wireless door-key mechanisms and other facilities like Wi-Fi, a 32 inch LCD TV with cable TV, Air conditioning and an add-on, completely carpeted room floors!
The Standard Room was considerably smaller with an equally in proportion small washroom. It fits perfectly if you’re in the city for business or work reasons or if you are a solo-traveller. The Deluxe room, was a bit bigger and looked to seem a lot more comfortable than the vibe of the Standard Room. The Junior Suite needless to say, would give you a run for your money. Spacious, beautiful interior and a bathroom that fits the space and the comfort of the room perfectly.
However, one let down was the musky smell we got when entering each of the three rooms. Analysing it carefully, it was probably the carpets. But in terms of first impressions, it certainly did let us down. The rooms we felt, especially the Junior Suite, was a tad bit too small for a normally sized Junior Suite, but all in all, I think we can let this one go.
Food
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When walking in to the restaurant, Flamingo, the smell of spices and the authentic Sri-Lankan aura wafts in the air. The smell of spice had literally taken over the dining area. We were greeted with a fairly good Black Current drink. The same must be said about the Beverages they had to offer. Sadly, we didn’t try out any beverage containing alcohol or so but we went for the Lassi and the Chocolate Milkshake. The Hot and Cold beverages are within the RS.300-500 price range. The Lassi was moderately good, wasn’t the best I’d say, but the Chocolate Milkshake for that price, was absolutely worth it.
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The Menu starts off with 4 types of Breakfast listings that they offer; Continental, English, A-la-Carte and Healthy. The complete meal type categories, Continental, English and Healthy cost over a Rs.1000. Their Appetizers, Salads and Soup range between Rs.400-Rs.900. We tried out an egg Caesar Salad and it tasted pretty good for a price of Rs.850.
In terms of Mains, they offer a cuisine from all over the world. From various types of Pasta from Little Sicily to Cuisine from the Great Walls to Middle Eastern to Indian and the Great West. We tried out two dishes from two very contrasting food cuisines. Italian and Indian. When we asked the waiter what their best-selling dish was, he told us that it was their Chicken Biryani and I can assure you, he was not pulling our leg. The spices were so well infused, I’d rank it amongst the top few Biryani dishes I’ve had. The gravy was so well mixed into the rice, it kept my mouth watering for more. The tiny dishes of Chutney and Curd they served along with the dish complimented it so well. However, for a Rs.900, we felt that the quantity of the dish was quite little.
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Our next dish was Tagiatelle with Pesto Cream Sauce that was on for Rs. 1350. The white sauce was definitely a show stopper. It was so thick and cheesy, it definitely did the dish justice. All of the main dishes can be approximately said to be in the price range Rs. 1000 – Rs. 1500.
Overview
All in all, keeping up with the concept of affordability and convenience, The Ceylon City Hotel has that box ticked.
