This place has got quite a lot of bad reviews. We came here when it was quiet, ordered from the menu and the food arrived promptly considering it was fresh cooked. Food was nice, not special but nice enough. Service was similar to the food - perfectly acceptable, nothing special, but fine. The setting and decor is beautiful. Anyway, give it a try.
Food: 4
Service: 4
Atmosphere: 4
Wonderful family run hotel, restaurant & bar in a divine location. With so many wonderful touches both in the decor and food including great coffee ( Lavazza - italian), Pasta ( Barilla- italian) , fresh local traditional foods, all lovingly prepared.
Memo's is a post covid, local developing business project that appears to be being beautifully nutured by a young professional couple, Harshini & Kris, along with their local staff.
I just had their pittu (red rice & coconut) with some side pots of dhal, fish curry sambol & coconut milk 😎👍.
Well, I have been in Sri Lanka for over 4 months now and had many great meals. But this was right up there as the best, in terms of flavours, textures, presentation lovingly prepared, all in this wonderful setting x
I highly recommend this place, Memo's. Please slow down and get into the Sri Lankan pace, beauty, is a slice of heaven on earth for sure 👍😎
Food: 5
Service: 5
Atmosphere: 5
Very nice place. We went there twice. I especially loved the mango milkshake that i recommend to all the sweet lovers out there. We had several things and they were good. The place has nice furnitures and many photo ops for those who want. The staff was very friendly and there are cute dogs around.
We enjoyed super delicious italian pasta and nice drinks. The prices are really fair, as the portions are quite big. The manager is super friendly. He offered cookies for our little daughter and also made her a big portion of plain pasta for free. The restaurant is really nice decorated and the beach area is beautiful. We totally recommend this place. They also offer kids toys 👍👍👍 Perfect for families.
Really nice café/restaurant by the beach. We found it by luck when we were enjoying the sea and beach. Came first time for drink and dessert, decided to come back for the dinner. Both times everything was perfect from service to food. Really recommend this place. Also we loved the interior. Thank you for nice experience.
Service
Dine in
Meal type
Dinner
Price per person
Rs 3,000–3,500
Food: 5
Service: 5
Atmosphere: 5
For me, the food was disappointing here. I was really starved after diving, so I just needed some food quickly. I was a bit shocked at the high prices, 1500+ for a pasta and 350 or 400 for a lime juice, after which they still add 10% service charge. It took about 30 minutes for my pasta to come, and it was actually still a little bit raw. Not al dente, but really just a bit raw. I was so hungry I ate it, but at this price level it was really a stupid experience. It was a pretty small portion too (see photo). In other places you can get really good, high rated pasta for way less, although in Nilaveli everything seems to be a bit overpriced. The owner is a nice guy though.
Edit: Just to reply to the reply from the restaurant, maybe this employee should speak to the owner/manager. He agreed with me it should've been cooked a bit longer, it wasn't al dente (I know the difference between al dente and a little bit raw). I told him then too, because of the long wait I didn't want to have you sort out the pasta to cook it a minute longer, I just wanted to eat. Also, great you don't use cream, but then maybe add a bit more egg because there was almost no sauce. Really, for a pasta of about 1600 rupee, it was just not worth the price. The service charge is normal in restaurants, but waiting for the food (yes, I ordered 16.20 and got my food 16.50, that's 30 minutes) and then again waiting a long time for the bill isn't called good service, is it? Local/smaller restaurants sometimes don't charge this. I don't recall seeing the service charge on the menu, but maybe I didn't pay attention to the small print. And sure, if you use small plates it's easy to fill them. Finally, 350+35 rupee for a lime juice which costs 10 rupee for limes and maybe 30 rupee for water and ice cubes is high, anybody will agree with that. Calling it 2 dollars just shows you only charge way too high tourist prices - you're in Sri Lanka, not Canada anymore. The reply here shows the kind of restaurant this is. If you think I'm talking as a stupid tourist in this review, maybe you can disregard this. Changed from 2 to 1 stars because of this "but we did nothing wrong, you're wrong" reply.
Great little place by the beach. We went during the off season so we had the entire place & beach to ourselves. Great food, and the staff (and the animals) were really friendly!
Lovely place to stay and enjoy a great food right on the beach with an amazing view 🤩🌴 We had pancakes for breakfast and pizza for dinner and it was delicious 😍 I absolutely recommend this place even though it’s a bit pricey 😁 They also let us stay on their beach chairs for the whole day!
It's my first 1-star review on internet, but this cafe fully deserves it.
The dinner started started with quite a wait of pre-ordered food following three approaches for lime juices which we had to wait for 30 minutes. After that the manager got frustrated and claimed they didn't have ice-cream while bringing it to another table.
After that we had to wait for 20 minutes to get a bill.
But the most interesting thing was to see almost every other client besides us also approaching and complaining about food or service.
I can't recall any similar dinner experience in my life with such a baaad service.
Service
Dine in
Meal type
Dinner
Price per person
Rs 2,500–3,000
Food: 3
Service: 1
Atmosphere: 1
yesterday I gave the shop five stars, today I was asked to pay for a lounger on the beach, even though I ordered drinks and food. the day before I drank and fed there for about 8500 rupees. can understand if you need the space of the beds otherwise for the guests ... but does not look fully booked. it's not as easy as it should look. Too bad
