WHERE TO EAT
**Paradise Road Gallery Café
** Set in a walled garden at the rear of architect Geoffrey Bawa’s former office in fashionable Kollupitiya, Paradise Road is where the smart set gathers for cocktails (try the frozen Tamarind Chilli Margarita), cakes (displayed on Bawa’s original desk) and exceptional baked crab. Allow time to browse contemporary homewares in the store and rotating exhibitions by local artists in the gallery.
2 Alfred House Rd, paradiseroad.lk
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Paradise Road Gallery Café
Rare at Uga Residences
Rare caters to the corporate heavyweights and chic shoppers of Park Street with a 150-label wine cellar and a menu of mostly organic produce from Uga’s high-country gardens. Expect modern takes on traditional ingredients – perhaps local yellowfin paired with foie gras, or a coconut sambol ice-cream.
20 Park St, rareatresidence.com
Kaema Sutra
Ministry of Crab in the Old Dutch Hospital is a package-tourist favourite full of diners sporting “Keep Calm & Crab” bibs (Old Dutch Hospital, ministryofcrab.com). For a more sophisticated taste of high-profile chef Dharshan Munidasa’s cooking head to Kaema Sutra at the Shangri-La Hotel.
1 Galle Face, Colombo 2, Sri Lanka, shangri-la.com
Ministry of Crab
WHERE TO STAY
Maniumpathy
This ancestral mansion in Colombo 7, the elegant embassy district, is a quiet oasis of eight suites decorated with sepia-toned family portraits and four-poster beds. Most have a terrace onto the pool or a balcony above it. Expect the kind of style and service that distinguishes its sister properties, which include The Kandy House and The Last House.
129 Kynsey Rd, maniumpathy.com
WHERE TO SHOP
Plâté
Colombo’s premier photographic studio cince 1890, Plâté comprises five floors crammed with vintage prints, collectibles, antiques and books.
580 Galle Rd; platelimited.com
Rithihi
Hand-woven saris at Rithihi in Kollupitiya are sourced from across India.
19 Alfred House Gardens, rithihi.com
Barefoot Gallery
Barefoot Gallery continues to be the most reliable barometer of the country’s creative scene.
704 Galle Rd, barefootceylon.com
Barefoot Gallery
DRINK
The Sky Lounge at the Kingsbury Hotel
The 11th-floor Sky Lounge at the Kingsbury Hotel has views of the Indian Ocean but it’s best known for its Martini menu and spirits sold by the shot or bottle.
48 Janadhipathi Mawatha, thekingsburyhotel.com
Whight and Co
At Whight & Co, pure Sri Lankan arabica beans are roasted on site and served with sea views from a converted Art Deco space.
24 Marine Dr
THINGS TO DO
Hear fascinating stories of commerce and crime, sieges and civil war on a city tour by architectural photographer Mark Forbes, ending with a G&T at the Grand Oriental Hotel. combocitywalks.blogspot
GETTING THERE
SriLankan Airlines flies direct from Melbourne to Colombo. Singapore Airlines flies from major Australian airports to Colombo via Singapore.
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