Nuga café, located on Green Path, is the latest addition to the healthy and sustainable food outlets in Colombo. Although relatively new they support an extensive menu with plenty of vegetarian and vegan dishes available in each category. The choices are varied, the food delicious and to top it all everything is organic and affordable.
Meatless Monday decided to drop by Nuga Café and try some of their many vegan and vegetarian dishes.
The Food and Drinks
The menu of Nuga café contains a range of cuisines from Mexican, Italian, Western and to Sri Lankan rice and curry.
As soon as we got seated we were welcomed with a complementary plate of garlic bread. The bread was warm and well toasted with plenty of garlic butter to make it flavourful and was a great start to what became a wonderful dining experience.
To start things off, we ordered the Hummus (Rs.600) which came with a platter of vegetables and pita bread. The platter included an abundant portion of carrot sticks, celery, cucumber, lettuce, olives and gherkin sticks. The Hummus was creamy with the perfect blend of spices and an ample amount of olive oil and was a great accompaniment for the vegetable platter.
For mains we ordered the Veggie pasta and the Peking tofu roll with sweet potato. The Veggie pasta (Rs.820) was spaghetti pasta tossed with fried cottage cheese with a lovely tomato sauce and plenty of vegetables. The sauce was marinated with a medley of vegetables such as zucchini, broccoli, mushrooms and asparagus. The dish came with a side of two garlic breads neatly tucked into the corner of the dish. The portion was generous with plenty of vegetables and cottage cheese tossed in it, which gave it a lovely balance of flavours and left us very happy indeed!
The Peking Tofu Roll with Sweet Potatoes (Rs.820) is one of Nuga’s many vegan dishes. It was grilled tofu and eggplant with cucumber, sweet potato, bell pepper and an avocado base to tie the filling inside the whole wheat wrap. The wrap came with a beetroot dip and a generous serving of sweet potato and breadfruit chips. Needless to say that the chips were an instant hit and they disappeared almost immediately. The grilled tofu was seasoned perfectly with a variety of spices and with every mouthful you get an abundant amount of tofu, eggplant and vegetables with the avocado base and the beetroot dip adding the perfect amount of sweetness to make it a well-balanced dish.
Nuga café also serves a vegan chocolate cake (Rs.450) which we were very excited about. The chocolate cake was on point and it was hard to believe that it was made without any of its required dairy elements. The cake was soft with the perfect amount of moistness. It was a luscious chocolate cake, dripping with chocolate sauce and perfect to satisfy your sweet tooth.
Nuga café’s Ginger Black Tea with Jaggery (Rs.200) was the perfect beverage to wash off our vegetarian/vegan feast, while we stayed true to the Meatless Monday message. The tea had chunks of ginger which gave it a wonderful spicy kick and the jaggery was a great accompaniment to nibble on.
Nuga café also has a variety of milk based drinks where you can substitute with either almond milk or soy milk in order to make the beverages diary-free.
Conclusion
Overall, it was an excellent experience! The service was prompt, with our orders coming in well below 15 minutes and the staff was friendly and warm. The café is spacious with plenty of natural light seeping in which gave it a nice garden summer house vibe.
Nuga café is the perfect place to visit with your family and friends and enjoy their many vegan/vegetarian dishes which are not only generous and full of flavour but fresh and organic as well. Meatless Monday Sri Lanka team gives it a happy thumbs up!