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.

Impressions

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.

TL;DR - MEX has the potential to become Colombo’s go-to Mexican restaurant, but they’ve got plenty of room for improvement both in terms of execution and service. Here’s hoping they iron out the kinks when we drop in for our official review.

HVN has been replaced by MEX as of May 2016.

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.

Food

Compared to other establishments in the same price range, the menu at HVN is very limited. It's pretty much just 4 pages, with around 6 or 7 options for each course. They've got some classic western dishes and some local favourites like cheese koththu thrown in the mix as well. From what we tasted though, it would seem that the few dishes they do offer, they do pretty well. Most of their mains are priced between Rs. 900 - Rs. 1500, with a few dishes pushing the Rs. 3000 mark, but in general expect to pay around Rs. 2000 per head.

We ordered the pepper crusted tuna steak (Rs. 980) and the slow roasted beef fillet (Rs. 1200). We felt the prices of the dishes were not too bad, but it should be noted that these don't include either taxes or service charge. Portions were adequate, not large but not small either. They also offer a complimentary basket of roast bread with tomato and mint dips. While the bread is nothing to talk about, the dips were very flavoursome.
 

Tuna steak

The tuna steak was served with an interesting gotukola salad (which was pretty much a mallung) and a drizzle of pesto sauce. The tuna was cooked well and the pepper crust (spice rub) was seasoned perfectly. We weren't sure how the two would go together but the gotukola salad complemented the tuna steak quite nicely. Each element on the plate was cooked well, though we would have liked a bit more pesto sauce and maybe a carb on the plate as well.

Beef fillet

The beef fillet was served with a bowl of garlic rice and boiled asparagus. We asked our beef to be cooked medium, and were happy to see it was just right when we cut into it. It was topped with a thick jaggery sauce, which both added a layer of smoothness and a nice sweetness to the beef. The garlic rice was also cooked brilliantly, one of the best we've had. The asparagus on the other hand was bland, lacked seasoning and under cooked, which is a shame since it would have completed a nearly perfect dish.

Dessert

The dessert menu at HVN was pretty decent with some varied choices. We ordered the hot chocolate cake (Rs. 550) and chocolate empanadas (Rs. 400).

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.



The chocolate empanadas were served with a candied orange crisp and a strawberry coulis. An empanada is a sweet pastry (or as we Lankans call it- "pattis"). It was baked very well and filled with chocolate which oozed out when you cut into it. The strawberry coulis had the right mount of sweetness and combined to give us the taste of chocolates and strawberries which we love.

Service & Ambience

This is where HVN dropped the ball. We went during the lunch service and were the only patrons at the time, so they don't have an excuse for slow service. It took nearly 30 minutes for our dishes to come to the table which is far too long by any standards. The waiters were friendly, but were nowhere to be seen most of the time. We had to wait nearly 10 minutes for a waiter to come and finally take our orders. Hopefully this isn't the case during busier times.

The ambience at HVN is just as over-the-top as the rest of Casa Collombo. The interior of the restaurant is brightly lit, with a golden baroque ceiling, mosaic tiles and two massive black fans (which don't really do much spinning). The most gaudy feature though, has to be the wall painting of the four rishis, who seem to just be chillin' on the clouds and what not.

Conclusion

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. While the choices are limited, the food is pretty great. Hopefully the disappointing service we experienced was a glitch rather than the norm.