Shopping and Eating in Colombo
My favorite stores are:
Paradise Road - (Dharmapala Mawatha Street)- near the Town Hall, is a chic Asian Conran of antiques and fine crafts designed on the island.
Barefoot (704 Galle Road) – brilliantly hued textiles and clothes made exclusively for the company, as well as a café and beautiful Zen garden.
Many recommend Odells; it is worth the stop but IMO is more for the expat on the island. It has lots of international brands, and several seemed to me to be imported with import prices rather than locally made. I don't keep track of Birkenstock prices, but the sandals they had were about $65. It is like a mini-mall within one store, with a cafe, chocolate shop, tea shop, clothes, crafts, books, and more.
Restaurants I like:
I had lunch at the Gallery Cafe, owned by the Paradise Road folks, and liked it very much. This was built in the old offices of Geoffrey Bawa, Sri Lanka's most notible architect. It has a beautiful, contemporary, indoor outdoor room, and the food is very good. You pay a price for the style; it is similar in price with a bistro in the US - albeit with considerably more ambience. It has a small shop with some of the stock found at the address given about for Paradise Road.
The Gallery Café
2, Alfred House Road,
Off Alfred House Gardens,
Colombo 3.
I also enjoyed lunch at Mount Lavinia. This hotel is a little south of Colombo. It is an old colonial property, named after the mistress of a Sri Lankan governor. It is right on the water with a wonderful view. They serve an extensive and delicious buffet. You can buy any combo of salads plus main courses plus desserts. Their mango lassi is superb.
The Hilton gave me a price of a car and driver for 4 hours for $22. This seemed fair enough, but I had a driver from an excursion I had taken elsewhere on the island. All of the stores that appeal to tourists are within a relatively small range, although not within walking distance of each other.