Café
Barefoot Garden Café
The courtyard café behind Barefoot's Galle Road shop, serving daily specials, sandwiches and drinks, with Sunday jazz sessions that have run for about 20 years.
Butter Boutique
A Colombo 7 bakery café that grew from Rukshi Nethicumara's home baking business, known for cinnamon rolls, tres leches and layer cakes.
At a glance
- Type
- Bakery café
- Area
- Cinnamon Gardens, Colombo, Sri Lanka
- Price
- $$ · Mid-range
Good to know
- Cakes
- Specialty coffee
Why we recommend it
Butter Boutique is one of the best-known names for cake in Colombo. It grew out of a home baking business started by Rukshi Nethicumara, and it moved into a shop at the top of Rosmead Place, off Wijerama Road and opposite the Tintagel hotel, after an earlier site on 27th Lane closed. A 2025 round-up of the city's best dessert spots still described it as having some of the best cakes in Colombo, and singled out its tres leches as the most popular choice.
The cake counter is the main event. Favourites have included tres leches, Black Forest, peanut butter caramel and classic chocolate cakes, a dark chocolate salted caramel cake and a cinnamon roll cake. The rolls are another speciality, with classic cinnamon, apple cinnamon and Nutella versions, and the café has also sold jars of granola in flavours such as chai spice and banana bread. Cakes are sold by the slice, which makes it easy to try two or three with friends.
Coffee is taken seriously too. A 2019 guide to the city's coffee noted that the café used a blend from Niccolo Coffee in Melbourne, air-freighted to Sri Lanka, and that the baristas were trained each year by Niccolo's Davide Drummond. Its signature drink was The Magic, a double ristretto topped with steamed milk in a small cup, alongside lattes, a red velvet latte and hot chocolate. Ask what is currently on the coffee menu when you visit.
The shop shares its space with the boutiques Salt and Stripes and Checks, so a visit can double as a little shopping trip. The setting is small and cosy, with the smell of cinnamon and baking, and it suits a mid-morning or afternoon break rather than a full meal. Opening times have varied over the years, so phone ahead if you are making a special trip.
Rosmead Place is in the leafy heart of Colombo 7. Tintagel Colombo, the Paradise Road hotel in a heritage house, is directly opposite, and The Commons on Kynsey Road and Paradise Road Café by the Town Hall are a short tuk-tuk ride away. Viharamahadevi Park and the National Museum are also close, so it is easy to fit in a cake stop between sights.
Butter Boutique FAQs
Where is Butter Boutique?
At 70 Rosmead Place, Colombo 7, at the top of Rosmead Place opposite Tintagel.
Who founded it?
Rukshi Nethicumara, who started it as a home baking business.
What is it known for?
Cakes such as tres leches, Black Forest and peanut butter caramel, and cinnamon rolls.
Are cakes sold by the slice?
Yes, which makes it easy to share and try several.
Does it serve coffee?
Yes, including lattes and its signature small milk coffee, The Magic.
Is it a good place for a meal?
It is best for coffee and cake rather than a full meal.
How do I check opening times?
Phone the café on +94 11 269 0028 before a special trip.
What is nearby?
Tintagel Colombo, Viharamahadevi Park and the National Museum.