Café Kumbuk

Café Kumbuk is the café to head for in Colombo if you want a healthy breakfast or lunch. Its motto is eat, drink, meet, think, and it describes itself as a space that promotes healthy and sustainable living. The café avoids refined white sugar and artificial flavour enhancers and puts the emphasis on fresh, locally sourced ingredients. It moved from Horton Place to its current address on Thambiah Avenue, off Independence Avenue in Colombo 7.

Everything savoury is prepared to order, including sandwiches, salads, brunch dishes and lunch plates, and a full menu is published as a PDF on the café's website. The baking is a big part of the appeal: recent items have included a strawberry cheesecake croffle, vegan-friendly pani kadju bliss balls, homemade granola in four flavours and the café's well-known KLP slice. Custom cakes can be ordered for celebrations. Coffee comes from Temple Grounds, which roasts in Colombo, and tea from Peekoh Tea.

The café suits health-conscious travellers, vegetarians and vegans, remote workers looking for a calm table and friends meeting for a long brunch. Note that the café is closed on Tuesdays, and that its website and social media give slightly different opening times, so check before you set out if you are planning an early breakfast.

The café's website also mentions Srilax, a five-bedroom bed and breakfast on the same street, which may appeal if you want to stay in Colombo 7. The café can be contacted by email for orders and enquiries. It describes its sandwiches, salads, brunch and lunch as freshly prepared to order, so allow a little time at busy periods, and look out for the specials it posts on Instagram, which have featured new bakes and granola flavours.

Thambiah Avenue lies close to Independence Avenue and the green spaces of Cinnamon Gardens. Independence Memorial Hall and the restored colonial buildings of Arcade Independence Square are a short walk or tuk-tuk ride away, and the National Museum and Viharamahadevi Park are not much further. A late breakfast at Café Kumbuk followed by a morning at the museum makes a good, unhurried start to a day in the city.