Galle Fort Hotel

Eating

The hotel is a superb environment in which to enjoy an excellent breakfast, lunch or dinner: white pillars, grand vistas of high ceilings and archways, good music and a jovial, bustling atmosphere.

Stroll down from your room to breakfast on the veranda – it consists of the usual fruit, toast and eggs, although there are lovely coconut hoppers (a new take on an old Sri Lankan favourite) and the coffee is excellent.

For lunch and dinner, the food is an adventurous combination of Chinese, Thai and Western flavours. Cooking is overseen by Chris Ong and is generally of better quality when he is in the kitchen himself. Expect dishes such as crab cakes with coriander and lime, huge chilli prawns the size of lobsters and wok-fried chicken with jasmine rice, perhaps with pineapple and mint sorbet or espresso panacotta for dessert.

For all meals, you can sit in the lounge at a long, communal table, in the more formal air-conditioned dining room or – best of all – outside on the veranda beside the candle-lit, turquoise pool.

The hotel also serves excellent afternoon tea, has an extensive cocktail list and offers a good wine selection.