Blackbird Brekkie & Brunch – Reviewed

by Anuki Premachandra

The latest brunch addition

With the exhilarating trend of brunch spots popping up around Colombo, we were pleasantly surprised when we saw Black Bird’s Facebook page. With high expectations set for the place, we decided to hop in for a quick first look of it. As we walked in, we felt slightly rather disappointed. This I think, is because the place has a pastry shop kinda vibe to it. From the chairs being positioned in a sequence to the cash counter and racks overlooking the seating area, we felt like we walked into a P & S, but with an upgraded facelift.

I liked the colours and the décor. Pantone yellow and hues of it are something we general pair with the morning sunshine and they’ve certainly nailed the colour palette.

They share the Which Way West Café’s space. Quite interesting to be able to know that you have quite a few options under one roof. The fact that their cash counter and blenders were right next to the seating area was a mistake they shouldn’t have made. Every time a smoothie was made, the hairs on your neckline would jump to attention because the noise filled the room!

Also, they need to do something about the in-house flies, because so many of them everywhere!

Service & Ambience

In terms of service, we felt like they have space to improve and grow. It could be because they started out only a few weeks ago. The waiters seemed a little inexperienced and tardy. Also, they were super slow. We had to wait for about 15 minutes for the smoothie to be brought to our table, and then another good 15 more minutes for the food.

Their chef was nice enough to personally serve out dishes which we felt was a great gesture of customer reciprocity. Only later did we find out that he did that because they were short of staff! So much for us feeling like we were in for a good experience. They are also quite clumsy. In the few minutes we were there, they broke at least two plates and dropped cutlery every time they cleaned a table.

The music is pretty good and they had an overhead speaker playing some chilled out music.

Food and Drinks

Disclaimer: All their prices are inclusive of service charge and taxes.

Drinks: Blackbird Smoothie – Rs. 450

When shifting through their menu, the Blackbird smoothie felt like an exclusive and we knew we had to try it. As the drink was brought to our table, my excitement took a toll! It looked magical, it had three beautiful layers of black current, yogurt and peach. Once mixed, looked more like a chocolate smoothie, but tasted pretty good. A pretty satisfactory option for the morning. It tasted like smooth drinking yogurt and we were pretty happy with it.

Mains: English Brekkie – Rs.800, Arabic Chicken Wrap – Rs. 585 and Chicken Snitzel Burger – Rs. 575

The English Breakfast looked like royalty as it was brought it the table. The dish had two slices of poranu toast paan, an omelette, 2 pathetically small overly fried pieces of bacon, a sausage, half a hash brown, baked beans, sautéed mushrooms and a grilled tomato. Let’s get down to the elements one by one. The bread felt a little hard and we suspected that this was probably old bread. The Omelette was pretty filling. Packed with green chillies and tomatoes, it was crispy on the corners and fluffy towards the middle. The sausage, the tomato and the baked beans were a letdown. The sautéed button mushrooms weren’t any better either, and there were very few. They were fried the way too much and anything left of the usually creamy and soft mushrooms, were long gone. The hash brown though, was pretty great. I’ve never had hash brown that’s tasted this great before. The bacon too, was overly fried. There were two tiny pieces of edible bacon on the plate, followed by a few toasted bits of the remains. We only liked a few elements of their English Breakfast, and at Rs. 800, it’s not worth your money.

Now I pictured a furiously hot but neatly wrapped shawarma brought to our table. But no, that’s not what we got. What we got, was a sloppy shawarma that tasted as bland as something could possibly get. It tasted so bland that Arabs would refuse to have any connection to it. The only good thing about this dish were the chunky fries that accompanied it. The raita that also accompanied it was a joke. It was super watery and did not serve the purpose.

The menu promised the Chicken Snitzel Burger to be a ‘dish you can really sink your teeth into’. You can sink your teeth into it, but you won’t take them out a happy man. The outer layer of the crispy chicken was one good thing about the burger, and the other was the mayo inside that helped combine the elements together. If not for the mayo, then the burger would end up being a typical burger you’d have from a mediocre place like P&S. The French fries that accompanied it at least gave you something to munch onto. The chili sauce that accompanied the dish was a pathetic loss.

Sidekicks: Toasted Garlic Paan – Rs. 290

We were served 4 strips of roast paan that were brushed with a garlic and parsley paste. The roast paan was overdone and was a nightmare to eat. The bread had hardened and the sloppy application of the garlic paste just made it a whole lot worse.

Have you tried Blackbird Brekkie and Bruch yet? Let us know what you think of it in the comments below! Is there anything we’ve missed? If you’re looking for more places to have a good brunch all day erryday, we’ve got you covered.

Tip: The Blackbird smoothie is good start-up gear for the morning.