Going for lunch to UK!

Well guess this is the most obvious attention grabbing headlinethat any moron can think of. And guess I am one of them too. There were too places in Sri Lanka which was known as UK before. And I am sure many a people would have spouted the words I am going to UK trying to surprise or impress people. Of course till now UK meant Uswatikiyawa near Pegasus Reef Hotel and the other was Udawatte Kele in Kandy. Now there is a third UK fortunately one does not have to travel too far to go there. Of course I am talking about the Urban Kitchen at Arpico.

What was the former Arpico food court was taken over by four astute businessmen one being Raju Chandiram famous because he was the ex husband of Otara and the other being Jehan Kumara who I believe is a musician. I have heard of this place before mainly because one of my friends is doing their marketing and communication plan as well as implementing it for them.

After dropping my domestic in the main bus stand I had nothing to do till I had to pick my family up when they got back from camp. I was hungry and was thinking maybe I should head down to the CH and have a beer and a nasi goreng. But when I took the turn past Arpico Hyde Park corner - since I had heard about UK so much from my friend - I thought I might as well give the place a try.

So I walked in.

Well I must confess it was not your usual food court. And though the furniture was nice I really did not like the green plastic furniture somehow. From the way the entrance was done I somehow thought the setting would be more elegant. But I loved the look and feel of the open kitchen all stainless steel and light and with the chefs working hard behind the counters.The first thing which struck me as I walked in was what should I do? Is this place self service or do the waiters serve. My friend has told me it was a sit down diner but as far as I could see there were two self service

stations and no one told me what I should be doing or where I should sit. Well after observing things for a few minutes I sat down at a table and had to wait a couple of minutes before I could catch the eye of a waiter and ask for a menu.

I must say the menu was wide and amazing. There were lots of stuff I wanted to try. There was Western, Middle Eastern as well as Asian and Italian items on the menu. The drinks menu was nothing too exciting but there was one particular item which really caught my attention it was called crusty orange on further enquiry I found out it was fresh orange liquidized with crushed ice and then sugar syrup added to it. Wow it sounded heavenly. Well I asked for that and a nasi-goreng and the food was served pretty fast. The crusty orange lived up to expectations but I must say the nasi was average. Firstly I expected the quantity to be a little more for the price I paid. I must say it came with a kick ass chilli paste which really rocked. But overall my impression of the food was average. In fact now I was regretting not having gone to the CH because the nasi there is soooo good. My mouth was yearning for a CH nasi even though I had just finished a UK one. Well the food being average was further reiterated when I ordered my dessert which was fruit salad and ice cream which was nothing much as we

ll. But overall the place is nice. And there were many dishes and salads I want to try out in the future. One other thing which I really want to sample is the pizza provided by Regina Magherita the Italian restaurant down park road. Overall the bill was a little less than a 1000 bucks and I thought it was value for money considering it was slightly upscale than the food court at MC and I had the privilege of being served at the table instead of going from pillar to post to get my food. Which I absolutely hate.

Well another little delightful thing I found out about the place was that it had free wi fi so I spent some time there just surfing and looking at all the people who were walking in and out. A point I made to myself is I am going to bring my kids and come over there one of these days soon. But it won’t be because of the food.