MAIN RESTAURANT

Our Main Restaurant at in the Bandarawela Hotel, is among the most sought after restaurants in Bandarawela as it is architecturally designed to create an old British Colonial atmosphere while gastronomically designed to satisfy your appetite with succulent flavours.

Using a simplistic style of preparation, the restaurant unites classic and colonial tradition to deliver a lavish buffet of healthy, delicious Eastern and Western delights. Focused on preserving natural flavours, our menu offers a delicious departure from the ordinary. Taking you to the streets of Italy with our spaghetti arrabiata and then to Mexico with a flavour-packed enchilada, you can explore the world from our resort in Bandarawela. An array of native dishes are also available: curries simmered with scrumptious coconut milk and flavourfully spiced with cinnamon, cardamom, and other local spices, locally grown grains of rice, and vegetables fresh from the local farmer’s market.

The Main Restaurant can seat up to 70 people at a time and provides a panoramic view of the surrounding mountainside. Our cooking style offers a feast for your stomach and your soul.

MEAL TIMES

Breakfast – 7.00 to 10.00 hrs
Lunch – 12.30 to 15.00 hrs
Dinner – 19.30 to 22.00 hrs

THIRD DIMENSION CUISINE

It is said that everything that tastes good is probably bad for your health; Aitken Spence Hotels pushes the boundaries of this statement with the introduction of our ‘Third Dimension Cuisine’, meals that look good, taste good, and are good for you.

The concept is headed by award-winning Chef Dimuthu Kumarasinghe and his talented team of culinary experts, and combined they make an unmatchable gastronomic experience that will ensure you a remarkable escapade of dining in Bandarawela. Using fresh ingredients and rich spices, our kitchen produces delectable meals that are full of flavour and filled with nutritive and medicinal qualities.

A typical Sri Lankan lunch comprises red rice, a chicken or fish curry cooked in savoury spices, a serving of lentils, and a variety of vegetables and herbs including local favourites such as gotu kola, kankun, and bitter gourd. The health benefits of these dishes have long been identified, but they were yet to become the highlight of five star cuisine. Our ‘Third Dimension Cuisine’ combines the best of traditional and fine dining to make your meal a lasting culinary experience.

AUTHENTIC CUISINE

Aitken Spence Hotels showcase a unique gastronomy. It is built on authentic Sri Lankan cuisine developed not only through generations of tradition but by using the latest scientific advancements and outstanding culinary skills of our internationally award winning chefs.
Sri Lankan cuisine, which we have inherited, is based on local ingredients and enriched by the history of influences the island nation has faced over its long history.

LOCAL INGREDIENTS

The island is said to have been colonised by the Balangoda people about 34,000 years ago. Veddas (forest-dwellers) are believed to have inhabited Sri Lanka for at least 16,000 years. Although originally believed to be hunter-gatherers, evidence suggests that they grew agricultural crops such as oats and barley. As Sri Lanka has a vast coastline, fish was also a major part of the diet of the islanders. In the 5th Century BCE, the migrants from North India (later to be called the Sinhalese) settled along rivers and introduced the cultivation of wet paddy.
Subsequent elaborate irrigation systems allowed the development of a thriving hydraulic civilisation which utilised many tropical ingredients.

HISTORY OF INFLUENCES

Sri Lanka’s location made it a popular stop-off point for foreign traders, especially as it produced many fine spices such as cinnamon and cloves. Cinnamon, a spice native to the island, was used in Ancient Egypt in about 1,500 BCE. Sri Lanka was frequented by Arabs traders and also entertained explorers, emissaries and spiritual leaders from Europe to China. It also experienced the South Indian invasions in the 10th century CE. The island was partly or fully colonised consecutively by the Portuguese (from 1505), the Dutch (from 1658) and the British (from 1796) that also resulted in a rich variety of cuisine being introduced to Sri Lanka.

Examples of gastronomic influences include Arabs who introduced the use of saffron and rose water, Portuguese who not only introduced chillies to the island but also culinary terms such as ‘temper’ which is derived from the Portuguese word, temperado – to fry and season – and the Dutch who introduced recipes rich in eggs and butter such as Breudher, a Dutch Christmas cake, plus savoury recipes such as Frikkadels (meatballs). There are also Malay influences as can be seen in the dish watalappam, which is a steamed dessert, and the rice dishes pilau and biriyani.

A GENERATION BEFORE

The local cuisine built on indigenous ingredients was enriched by a diverse mix of culinary influences from around the world. The common Sri Lankan cuisine perhaps a generation earlier was not only a wonderful mix of colour, taste and aroma; it was also of high nutritional value.

THE REVIVAL

Aitken Spence Hotels seek to revive Sri Lanka’s heritage in gastronomy in a way that uses modern knowledge to identify and sustain optimal nutritional value. In addition to taste and presentation, Aitken Spence Hotels have introduced nutritional value as the third dimension to cuisine. We take extra care, from choosing just the right ingredients, to careful attention to cooking methods, to ensure that only the best of Sri Lankan cuisine is served at Aitken Spence Hotels. All this is delivered by an award-winning team of culinary experts who have set global benchmarks in culinary art.

The Bandarawela Hotel is part of the Aitken Spence Hotels family, and in being so lives up to the standards that our guests expect. Facilities offered at one of the renowned hotels in Ella Sri Lanka such as ours ensure that your experience is unique and personalised to your needs.

Our Front Office is a start off point to expressing your needs; our Front Office Manager can assist you with a safe for your important documents and personal belongings. Here, we also assist in porter service, foreign currency exchange, or connect our guests with our on-call doctor if the need arises.
Room service and laundry service can be scheduled directly from guest rooms while internet facilities, a lounge bar, and pub are available in the lobby. There are many family-friendly activities and excursions guests can book during their vacation.

As a family resort in Bandarawela, our hotel appeals to kids of all ages with the availability of additional children’s cots, separate children’s menus, high chairs, and a playground.

Our facilities and services for our guests include: