D & D's eat out:

Eastern with a mix of Arabic, Indian and Chinese

Demi HEWAMANNA and Dilanka MANNAKKARA

Located in the center of Galle Road and Duplication Road and down Walukarama Road, Eastern Wok has the works and tastes of three exquisite countries. The line of up of dishes that one gets to savour will be Chinese, Indian and Arabic with a touch of Italian to spice it all up.

Eastern Wok was originally the Eastern Dragon, the first ever Halal restaurant opened in Sri Lanka in 1992 and was located at Deal Place. Eastern Dragon was taken over by A D A Jezmi, after a few changes here and there, they had the soft opening in January and in March 31 the real opening up took place and to date, the feedback and the likes of the customers have been good.

Dilanka: I am a person who is much more concerned about the quality of the food and the service when it comes to restaurants rather than ambience and fancy interior decor, but Eastern Wok's walls of bright orange with dashes of sky Blue and pale cream was indeed an eye candy to start off with.

Demi: When one steps into a place, they would like to feel welcomed not just by the people but by the place itself. That's the feeling we got when we stepped into the newly refurbished and redefined restaurant Eastern Wok.

The Restaurant has two floors and plans are being made to change the outlook of the rooftop and make it a place for private functions and other parties. Eastern Wok is the first restaurant that not only gives one their own private air conditioned room with their a rest room plus a television but also gives a prayer room for the ones who want to pray when breaking fast or any other time.

1The friendly and energetic manager of Eastern Wok, M Z Azaam helped us a lot with the selection of the various Chinese, Indian,Arabic and Western dishes including the hot favourites and chef's specials.

"We serve a variety of western and eastern delicacies and so far we have received excellent customer feedback," Azaam said when asked about the customer comments and satisfaction and as listening while sipping fresh juices we ordered from the juice bar which was both refreshing and cool.

Dilanka: I went through the long menu which boasts of more than 200 dishes including appetizers, soups, salads, main dishes and deserts. We first tasted the Prawn balls with Hot and sweet sauce which was highly recommended by Azaam.

The prawn balls were made with fresh minced prawns and the spiciness was just about right for both of us. It was drizzling in a sweet and hot sauce and it complemented the fried prawn balls nicely, but i would have preferred the sauce to have been served separately.

Demi: My favourite dish was the prawn balls served with sweet and hot sauce that was simply divine. One must simply try the sauce when its warm and you can top it to any dish and have it.

Dilanka: The Chicken and Sweet Corn soup was my favourite among the Chinese dishes served. Unlike other places where they serve this traditional soup, it had actually chicken pieces and the thickness of the soup and texture was perfect and it had the authentic Chinese flavour in it.

Demi: I agree with him on the soup as well. From all the sweet corn chicken soups I have tasted as well, this particular thickness that one needs was not met before.

We were then treated with two grilled chicken dishes which were going to be new additions for the menu.

Dilanka: I absolutely felt in love with the Chicken Pola ala Ponki as the chicken was well done to perfection and was embedded in a creamy mushroom sauce which was amazing. The chicken was marinated well and I felt the exotic flavour in every bite and sourness of the sauce added extra zest to the dish. The succulent two pieces of Chicken Wel Vidi Stano,was also grilled to perfection and was topped with a melting cheesy spread and was accompanied with a mouth-watering brown BBQ sauce.

These two dishes were my absolute favorites in Eastern Wok and after they add them to the menu, I am sure that these two chicken dishes would become hot picks among chicken lovers.

Demi: Pola ala Ponki was cooked just to the right temperature and so was the other Italian dish Welvi di Stano that can be eaten either with rice or French fries.

They also served us a Chicken biriyani with a piece of fried chicken.I found that the biriyani had an unusual spicy flavour to it. Personally I found the chicken a bit over fried for my liking and would have preferred roast chicken.

"Our signature dishes are the hot butter cuttle fish and the Singapore Chillie crab, in fact we were the first to introduce the ever popular Hot Butter Cuttlefish to Sri Lanka through Eastern Dragon," Priyantha,the experienced Food and Beverage Manager of Eastern Wok said. The menu also includes Arabic Salads, authentic hamus and chicken, fish, seafood, beef dishes.

"We have a staff of 28 and we have provided staff quarters for the ones who live far", Azzam added. The main chef we have here is the one who has been here from the inspection of Eastern Dragon and came along to Eastern Wok. He had a break for 2 years and came back, the other chef has been in Dubai for 11 to 12 years.

The restaurant has free Wi-Fi for the ones who are always working on the go. It is a cool place for friends to dine as well, have a conference,to have a quiet and cosy family dinner or even a party and the seating capacity is provided for 120 and more.

They have parking for their customers just 100 yards away from the restaurant.

The restaurant is open for lunch from 11.00am to 3.00 pm and then for dinner from 6.00pm to 11.00pm. They do outdoor catering, delivery within an 8km range.

The friendliness and the spontaneous service of the staff were excellent.This is a place where flavours from three countries can be tasted with a Sri lankanized touch to suit our palette.

So make a date to be at No. 38, Walukarama Road, Colombo 03 or call +94-2576576 for more information and enjoy the dleicious food at Eatern Wok as much as we did.

[D & D rating ]

Dilanka:

Food - great

Ambience- good

Service - great

Overall - 4 stars

Demi:

Food: Great

Ambiance: Good

Service: Good

Overall: 4 stars