Cannon Bar & Grill – Reviewed

The Cannon Bar and Grill located on the upper floor of the Dutch Hospital in Galle is an establishment managed by the people of Lucky Tuna and could use some serious improvements. Maybe the subpar lunch we had was a result of walking into the restaurant only at 4.30 or a result of an understaffed restaurant due to it being a Poya day, but I’ll just let this review speak for itself.

Food & Drinks

Drinks: Chocolate Milkshake – Rs. 450, Lime Soda – Rs. 400 and Watermelon Juice – Rs. 400

Being a Poya day, we couldn’t try any of their cocktails, but we did opt for some non-alcoholic beverages to battle the heat, though our choices were terribly limited.

The Lime Soda came in a perfect balance of tang and fizz and was the most refreshing thing we had. Think of an amalgamation between lime juice and soda, coming together to make an ideal heat-beater.

The chocolate milkshake was a bit of a letdown – heavy on the milk and way too light on the chocolate. The drink was subpar but at least the sweetness wasn’t overwhelming, which could be an easy mistake.

The watermelon juice wasn’t chilled enough, and what with the overwhelming heat of the seaside town, it was slightly difficult on the palette. The tonne of water, fruit and sugar were a welcome refreshment though and gave us new energy to devour our appetizers.

Appetizers: Special Prawn Cocktail – Rs. 800, Hawaiian style chicken and pineapple salad – Rs. 550

Not particularly sure what the “special” in the special prawn cocktail was – probably the especially un-fresh seafood they used, but this dish didn’t taste as brilliant as it looked. Coming in a large margarita glass with vegetable garnish, the cocktail sauce that the prawns were doused in was perfectly balanced and very tasty, but the prawns, unfortunately, had a bit of a bitter tinge to it. Overall the dish was satisfactory, but for Rs. 800, I expected much, much more.

The Hawaiian style chicken and pineapple salad was served, surprisingly, slightly warm. This dish probably would have worked better if it was cold. The most presentable so far, the salad was mixed with something like a thousand island dressing that complimented the flavors of all the ingredients involved. An interesting thing here was that they had used shredded chicken and cubed pineapples, so by the time the dish arrived at our table, the chicken had all but dissolved and turned to mush, which was wholly unappetizing. Once you get past the texture though, you begin to enjoy the salad with its cashew garnish and its quirky edges, so no big fuss.

Mains: Batter fried prawns served with sweet chili sauce – Rs. 1180, Chicken Mexican Wrap – Rs. 870, Herb and peanut stuffed grilled chicken, served with pot roasted jus, baked vegetables and saffron rice – Rs. 980

Look, I really had high hopes for the batter fried prawns. What with the restaurant right next to the ocean, and for such a hefty price, I expected nice jumbo prawns with a thick batter. I’ve even dreamed of these prawns so I was super excited ordering them. What came to us were 15 (yes, I counted) measly morsels of prawn, too sparsely coated in an unsatisfactory batter with a pineapple sauce (that I actually mistook for seeni sambol). I almost cried.

That being said though, the prawns were nice and crispy, albeit a little under seasoned, but the sauce fixed that right up. It came with French fries too, fried straight out of a Food City packet, probably, but they were crisp and well salted so what’s to complain.

Let’s get down to the Chicken Mexican Wrap. Firstly, there was nothing Mexican about this wrap albeit the one or two tiny pickles they’d stuffed in there. It came loaded with well-seasoned (and again shredded) chicken, caramelized onions, tomatoes and the very rare pickle, in a slightly rubbery parata roti with a side of French fries. It was probably the tastiest of our mains, if you forget its false claim on being Mexican, and was instantly devoured with a fork and knife for fear of spilling any of its delicious contents on our laps. For Rs 870, this was a worthy and delicious meal.

Here lies the other star of our nose-wrinkling food adventure at Cannon. The chicken was grilled to perfection, still tender and succulent and flavored very very well. The only disappointment here was that there were zero peanuts to be found stuffed in the chicken, but the “herbs” here were things like spinach and weirdly, meatballs. The baked vegetables also tasted slightly funky and were definitely curried, not baked. The saffron rice had raisins in it and was an absolute winner, with the saffron flavor and spice definitely coming through and making an extraordinary combination as a meal. Everyone agreed that this dish was an absolute value for money and one of the few good things that we had that day.

Desserts: Pineapple Fritters – Rs. 450, Fruit Salad – Rs. 500

We were super excited for banana fritters, but unfortunately they were fresh out of bananas that day and said they could do pineapple fritters instead, which we were totally down for.

The fritters came freshly fried and smelled like the best thing that could ever happen to me. Excitedly digging in, I cut into the pineapple to find it absolutely oozing with honey. Afraid I might suffer instant diabetes from this dish, I hesitantly took the first bite and cringed. Though the fritters were fried to perfection and had a delightful crunch to it, I realized the reason for the overdose of honey was to compensate for the very sour pineapple. The ice cream it was served with made the dish a delectable balance between hot and cold and would have been perfect if not for the sour pineapple swimming in honey.

For lack of another option, we ordered a fruit salad as a last resort. It was a typical Sri Lankan combination of mushy pineapple, papaya, apples and raisins with melted ice cream and a red cherry for garnish. The chocolate ice cream was basically a milkshake by now, already running down the side of our dish and the flavors of the dessert were mediocre at best.

Service & Ambience

The Dutch Hospital is nothing short of relaxing. Cannon has multiple seating options with booths and wooden tables inside the restaurant, and high tables right outside. With a constant breeze from the ocean below and mellow tunes, we found ourselves thoroughly enjoying the outside seating at Cannon until we found that the only thing our table had were table mats and a posse of red ants. We had to keep asking the waiter for tissues, cutlery and glasses, all of which was brought one by one for a table of four people.

The service was slow and the waiters seemed a little lost, but the atmosphere was otherwise chilled-out with some mellow music to add to the vibes.

All in all, we spent Rs. 7,300 for an unsatisfactory meal with too little perks. I could make many excuses as to why the restaurant wasn’t at a great standard, but the bottom line is that I expected much more than what I got. Have you had better experiences at Cannon? Let us know in the comments below!