- The highs and lows of Mövenpick Hotel
Live entertainment, sushi, and a relaxing night’s sleep overlooking the Colombo skyline. Sounds like a dream, right? That’s what we were expecting when we made our way over to Mövenpick Hotel Colombo last weekend to catch a live gig, followed by their Tokyo Nights promotion, and to indulge in a staycation to escape the stress of the week.
It was disappointing to learn that the show was postponed indefinitely just a few hours before they were set to perform, but the promise of sushi platters still had us in high spirits. Tokyo Nights, advertised as plates and platters of sushi for a fixed price, turned out to be somewhat of an exaggeration of what they had to offer. While the offer detailed plates of sushi starting from Rs. 590, once we got there, the waiters seemed clueless as to what we were inquiring about, and after much back and forth, we were directed to the manager who informed us that they only had one option for a plate – cucumber sushi.
We believe it to be slightly misleading when one promises a variety of options for a certain price, and then finds out it’s simply one vegetarian option that barely passes as authentic cuisine. The platter, for roughly Rs. 3,700++, was passable. Nothing earth-shattering in terms of taste, but it did have some of the better known types of sushi, sashimi, and nigiri. However, for the price, the portion size was quite disappointing, as the platter is advertised for two, but we found that one could easily consume the whole platter and still have room for more.
We tried some of the sushi off their main menu, and picked the sushi you can’t go wrong with – Spicy tuna rolls – and an assorted platter of nigiri. It was nothing to write home about, but wasn’t too bad. While the food was mediocre at best, even before the food came, we must mention that the service was quite bad. We generally make a lot of allowances for slow service, especially given the current situation, but being ignored for over 20 minutes, and then having to ask several times for a menu, again wasting time, is not a great start to a night. Overall, it was not such a great experience.
Despite the setback at dinner, we made our way to the rooftop for drinks and were pleasantly surprised at how good they were, in contrast. We highly recommend the Achcharu cocktail – a surprisingly spicy concoction that works. The light breeze and the music made for a good end to an otherwise disheartening night.
We decided to stay the night and try out breakfast the next morning. The room was lovely; ultra-comfortable with a stunning view of the Colombo skyline. We had a great night’s sleep and woke up energised and ready to hit the breakfast buffet. We went a bit late, but the spread was great value for money – not a huge variety of options, but they did have all the standards required of an continental breakfast. They even had a range of smoothies that we enjoyed, along with live action stations for eggs, bread, pancakes and waffles, and sausages.
So, despite the ups and downs, a relaxing night and a nourishing breakfast made up for the lacklustre dinner affair. While we wouldn’t recommend the Tokyo Nights spread, choosing Mövenpick for a weekend getaway wouldn’t be such a bad idea.
