tansmets

We are finally off to Sri Lanka soon, and while I suspect in Yala, Ella and Nuwara Eliya we will likely eat in the hotels due to remote locations / convenience, in Galle I definitely would like to enjoy restaurants in the fort and town. Any recommendations greatly appreciated - preferably for Western food as we don't eat fish and I avoid spicy food. Any thoughts on Amangalla for a treat meal? Unfortunately none of these restaurants publish menus online.

Kathie

I've heard good things about the restaurant in Fort Printers. There are many options. I would just wander the streets and look at places - they likely have menus posted.

Mohammed

Hi

In Nuwara Eliya there is a nice fine dining restaurant called the supper club at the Grand Hotel, very English/Western Style food, some nice wines etc too.

In Galle...

WB - Italian
Peddlars Inn at Galle Fort
Wijeya Beach - on the beach but good pizza and Italian/Med Style food very relaxed atmosphere
Talpe Beach Restaurant - good steaks
Nico - artsy fartsy place but nice

Mohammed

Oh and Amangalla, very stylish silver service lot of huffing and puffing and white coats etc etc but terrible food. That is my honest opinion. Even the cup of tea was useless.

Galle Fort Hotel is much nicer for a good tea/coffee and the chocolate cake is divine!

Mohammed

My brother just told me that Fortaleza in Galle fort is very very nice, in fact I might go their tomorrow for lunch.

Mohammed

Hi I just found out that the Nuwaraeliya Grand Hotel fine dining restaurant has been converted to a Thai restaurant.

tansmets

We are currently in Sri Lanka and had dinner twice at Fort Printers, which we really liked. Thanks for the recommendation. They serve Mediterranean food rather than the usual mix of curries and western food. Galle Fort Hotel had a great menu that they only served until 6pm, from then on it was a set not to our liking. We stayed in the Lighthouse hotel which is stunning but with poor food and even worse service so Fort Printers was a nice treat.

Kathie

Thanks for reporting back, tansmets.

Mohammed

I must try Fort Printers for a meal as never have before. Kathie, you were spot on on this! Only been there for a late morning refreshing lime juice. Sad to hear about lighthouse, I only go there for kind of business related stuff, meetings conferences etc as i don't really like the big impersonal hotels even though The Lighthouse has a lot of character.

Hope you have a great trip in Sri Lanka tansmets.

tansmets

The Lighthouse does have a lot of character; maybe the Sri Lankan food at the hotel is better, but the service is an issue. Definitely a bit of a language barrier and lack of training. We had wanted to eat at Deco on 44 but the menu there was almost the same as in the Lighthouse and many other cafes so we had 2 meals at Fort Printers.

Just returned from a great trip though a very rough end having contracted food poisoning at the Tea Factory hotel in Nuwara Eliya (from chicken at dinner). Too bad as I liked the hotel but now my memories will be a bit tainted!

Kathie

So sorry you got food poisoning. That really does take the gloss off an otherwise wonderful trip.

annhig

We stayed at the Fort Printers but for some reason didn't eat there apart from breakfast, which was pretty good. I've no idea why we chose not to eat there - obviously we should have done. We did eat at its sister hotel on the beach and that was excellent.

sorry about your tummy trouble - i was similarly afflicted in Australia, but still haven't managed to pinpoint the culprit.

Mohammed

Bad chicken at the Tea factory is bad bad news, very sorry to hear this. Was this from a buffet or an ala carte order. I find that many buffets don't have the freshest of food.

tansmets

Hi Mohammed, it was from an ala carte order. Our first night we both ate the buffet dinner, the second night the choices weren't to our liking so we ordered a la carte. My husband had a burger and was fine, he thought the chicken wrap I ordered had a bad sauce - a white sauce- that was the culprit. My husband share at least 75% of our meals and the 3 times we had food poisoning in SE Asia it was only one of us, distinctly after one of us was the only one to eat something. The worst was by far after my husband ate pineapple served by Jungle Flight in Chiang Mai. He was sick for 3 days!

I'll try to write up some thoughts about the trip later. Overall, it was lovely. I'll still look back fondly upon the rest of our time at the Tea Factory hotel. A very unique place though the rooms could use some work.

mareeS55

Hi, tansmets, 3 occasions of food poisoning? I've never had a dose, but the spouse picked up a bug in the army in 1966. Shared it with the e3ntire platoon (or someone else shared it around.}

annhig

tansmets - you were very unlucky. I nearly always pick up a dose of the trots when on a holiday abroad [it was an aussie pizza did for me this last time] but strangely enough, Sri Lanka was the one place where this didn't happen at all.

I'm not claiming that it was due to anything special we did or didn't do, BTW - we took hand santisizer but hardly ever used it, we ate in local restaurants, off restaurant buffets, and had fruit from roadside stalls. just lucky, for once.

tansmets

Yes, all of our food poisoning issues were in Southeast Asia, where we avoid street food and are pretty careful. Aside from Sri Lanka the other times we got sick were fairly mild. Both of us with nausea in Laos but nothing serious (mainly ate in La Residence Phao Vao) and me in Chiang Mai from a mango stick rice. The ironic thing is that since I was nauseous from the mango sticky rice, I avoided the tainted Jungle Flight pineapple 2 days later which made my husband violently ill for over 48 hours. I have a serious, chronic digestive disorder so whatever he had might have sent me to the hospital. I'm very glad whatever made me sick early on made me avoid fruit/acid/hard to digest things!

I was fine in India but we didn't eat fruit until Devi Garh and sanitized everything. One thing to note is that all over mainland China we eat anything and everything - fruit, vegetables, food off carts/bikes/whatever and have been completely fine. China might not have better standards of hygiene than southeast asia, but the water won't make you sick which is why I think we are safe in China.