231, Galle Road, Colombo 04
This place has closed down
MEX is Casa's new traditional Mexican restaurant which replaces HVN.
HVN at Casa Colombo is no more, now replaced by MEX, their take on traditional Mexican. Mex looks to offer Colombo’s only real Mexican dining experience, but they’ve got a ways to go both in terms of execution and theme. Here’s our first look.
We definitely think a good Mexican restaurant in Colombo is long overdue. So we were pretty excited to hear about MEX, Casa Colombo’s new Mexican restaurant which launched a few weeks back. It takes the spot of HVN, which we felt was somewhat underrated in the past. The new menu is almost entirely Mexican with staples like tacos, burritos and enchiladas. They have, however, kept some of HVN’s most popular dishes like the crab kottu and arrack calamari, which we think is a good call.
There are certain dishes which are relatively affordable, while other less substantial dishes are priced higher (example: Nachos for Rs. 1800++, which we don't quite understand). In any case, expect to pay around Rs. 2000 per head. MEX also goes with a step-by-step menu where you choose your base, filling and then salsa.
Besides Casa's usual bar menu, they’ve got a special tequila cocktail menu for MEX. We tried the the 3 Amigos (Rs. 450) and The Worm (Rs. 450) both of which were tiny and not very strong. These were cocktails for ants, just barely more than a shot. They were both okay, but these probably had like 5 ml of tequila so you’d need to have around four to feel anything. The other cocktails were about Rs. 700, and we hope they weren't the same size.
They’ve got a few taco options, but we opted to make our own taco (Rs. 1100) since it comes with three fillings and salsas, but in smaller quantities. This comes with soft tacos, but they do have an option for crispy tacos as well. The tortilla itself wasn’t as soft as we would have liked, with certain bits being stiffer and some tacos cracking as oppose to bending when folded.
For the three fillings we chose char-grilled chicken, carne de asada (beef) and Baja style crab meat (+ Rs. 175). Alas, none of the three were particularly impressive. The chicken was the best of the three with balanced seasoning and well cooked meat, but the beef and the crab meat were incredibly dry with the crab having an almost pol sambol like texture and overstated spices which dominated the flavour.
The pineapple and mango salsa were probably our favourite part of the tacos. It was sweet, lightly spicy and added a much needed contrast. The green tomato and jalapeño salsa lacked sweetness but had a good amount of heat coming through from the chillies.
The Chimichangas (Rs. 900) were the better of our two mains. For the filling, we went with the cochinita pibil which is a sort of spiced, lightly tangy pulled pork. This worked well with the crunchy, deep fried burrito. It didn’t have quite enough cheese but was otherwise fine.
We attempted the Ice Cream Churro (Rs. 690) for dessert. The ice cream was served in a churro cup which was chewy (or as Kinita calls it - a chewwo). The ice cream had also melted so the center of the churro was soggy making it difficult to eat.
We ran into slow service during our earlier review of HVN, and we had a repeat with MEX. Our entire meal took two hours, because our waiter disappeared. He was friendly but attentiveness was not the strong suit here.
HVN didn’t really have a theme per se, but it worked well with Casa’s chaotic and over-the-top ambience. Despite MEX being an entirely different restaurant, the look remains the same. There isn’t anything remotely Mexican about the place with baroque ceiling and the painting of the four rishis being retained, but at least there's a little tequila corner to gaze at.
If you are in the mood for some tacos, quesadilla and chimichangas, Mex has got your back.
MEX at Casa looks to offer Colombo’s only real Mexican dining experience, but they’ve got a ways to go both in terms of execution and theme. Here’s our first look.
Casa Colombo has a reputation for being more than just a bit over the top, and HVN is no different. They offer continental fusion cuisine and they do it quite well, but the service is slow, so be prepared to stick around for a while.
Address
Directions
On Galle Road, past Holy Family Convent, Casa Colombo is on the first small by-lane on the land side before Visakha Road.
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This place has closed down
Price Range
Dish Types
Ratings Breakdown
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4/5
"HVN is not your typical restaurant, with it's extravagant architecture and over-the-top interior decor, but we think Colombo needs more of these."
"The hot chocolate cake was served with a scoop of ice cream and salted caramel. The cake itself was somewhat similar to a lava cake, but instead of a chocolate center this had a salted caramel. It doesn't ooze out like a lava cake but it does make the center of the cake nice and moist. The ice cream, which was just a scoop of elephant house vanilla, actually worked quite well with the hot cake."
SMH.
To anyone wondering about this Sularefdo. I know her IRL and she's just a general pain in the butt. She thinks she's a foodie and takes photos of everything she eats and posts it on fb. She's the type of person that goes around looking for mistakes even if there are none, rather than appreciating the good people do, and of course her opinion is always the right (or so she believes).
Anyway I've always wondered about this place so as per usual thanks Yamu.
" It took nearly 30 minutes for our dishes to come to the table which is far too long by any standards"
Waiting for up to 30 minutes for a main course is perfectly acceptable, unless of course you are referring to the appetisers. In most Michelin starred restaurants you would end up waiting close to 45 minutes for the main dishes. Frankly, I'd be worried if anyone serves the main dishes in less than 15 minutes.
@Ydha OMG this person is a big meany because she posts food pics on fb and doesn't like reviews :( What are you like 5 years old? grow up.
PS. the word foodie isn't reserved for any special use so anyone can use it however they like.
At Michelin restaurants you don't wait 45 minutes ever, especially as they generally do courses. Just ate at a few. With tasting menus you wait maybe fifteen for the first course and then it's one after the other. But that's really another thing altogether
Well if you want a steak well done it will take at least 20 minutes and when you mention saying ' nearly 30 minutes' its neither here nor there so try been more specific please.
Also Photos do not lie……as you mention that you could find or there was no waiter to be seen for more than 10 minutes when the photograph clearly shows two waiters on the other side of the room probably doing some mis en place for the shift so please do not lie saying there were no waiters around.
Been here twice now… This years Valentine's Day 4 course menu was outstanding. It set high expectations for our second visit today.
The free roast paan bread basket was awful. Instead of crispy on the outside and warm and soft bread on the inside this was more like sun dried bread where inside outside both were dry more than roasted. Well the free bread set the tone for the evening. The prawn bisque soup was unflavouful, the coconut crusted tiger prawns in sweet chillie sauce was well below average. The batter was too deep fried to the point you couldn't make out the coconut crust… Tasted like a Chinese roll crust. Sweet chillie sauce was just brushed on the plate it was inadequate for even one bite. For mains Lamb poriyal with milk rice was pretty good spicy and flavorful. The other main of ginger and lemongrass chicken fillet with milk rice was just ok. Quite a large chunk of chicken breast unlike a fillet and flavored on the outside with white tasteless meat on the inside. The chef really doesn't seem to know how to do a fillet. For desert had a Belgium chocolate empanadas. This was pretty good. fresh pastry with warm chocolate filling. Service was ok.
Made up our mind this would be the last time at HVN CASA.
Absolute disgrace as the first mexican in Colombo. They need to build a wall around this shithole so no one ever gets in.
http://www.kiransawhney.com/2016/12/mexican-restaurant-in-sri-lanka-mex.html
I loved the restaurant. You can see my review with pictures.
4/5
sularefdo
"HVN is not your typical restaurant, with it's extravagant architecture and over-the-top interior decor, but we think Colombo needs more of these."
"The hot chocolate cake was served with a scoop of ice cream and salted caramel. The cake itself was somewhat similar to a lava cake, but instead of a chocolate center this had a salted caramel. It doesn't ooze out like a lava cake but it does make the center of the cake nice and moist. The ice cream, which was just a scoop of elephant house vanilla, actually worked quite well with the hot cake."
SMH.