The Barnesbury: Fab food at pocket-friendly prices

By Rashika Fazali

When you first see The Barnesbury, you think it’s a small high-end pastry shop, but it is neither small nor ‘just’ a pastry shop.

The Barnesbury stands on a 60 perch land that consists of a small pastry shop, a huge fine dining space surrounded by fancy boldly shaded British high chairs and comfy couches and a courtyard decorated with pretty umbrellas and funky white chairs.

Since its inception in February, it has extended its service from coffee to light eating to fine dining. Opened by two friends, Barnesbury Director Sharfan Meeran stated that their idea was to bring out the style of foreign coffee shops to Sri Lanka.

“We wanted something grand. Every coffee shop you got to in Sri Lanka, it becomes just another coffee shop.” He said they wanted to create another country within Sri Lanka, which they have surely managed to do.

He noted that they place a lot of emphasis on a customer’s privacy and because of that they have set up the place in a quiet area with seating placed far apart. “In Sri Lanka, it’s difficult to find a proper place with privacy and a big garden. Whenever I go to coffee shops here, I suggest they should have a proper garden.”

So what made them name the place ‘Barnesbury’?  Barnesbury Director Shiyam Jainul Abdeen mentioned that they wanted to have a modern name that also reflected on the road, Barnes Place, where the shop is located.

Edward Barnes, a former Governor of Ceylon in the 1800s, introduced coffee cultivation based on the West Indian system to Sri Lanka. To honour Barnes, the road was named after him as Barnes Place. Abdeen added: “So we wanted to put his name as part of our shop. The ‘bury’ was added to give a modern touch to it.”

The Barnesbury is quite a laid-back hangout area, yet an interesting place to have your meals for three reasons:

The place looks quite funky. One wall at The Barnesbury is decorated with passages taken out of books.

Their prices are very reasonable ranging from Rs. 250 upwards for drinks and Rs. 300 for food.

Interesting enough, the third reason is the food alone. Customers can ask for what their heart desires as The Barnesbury believes that their customers always have a say. If you want a unique drink according to your specifications, feel free to ask The Barnesbury Manager Naseem Haseem.

Due to this flexibility, Haseem noted that their menu has grown from 170 to 260 items. Simultaneously, the staff has also grown from 13 to 21 employees in a span of two months due to over 100 orders placed each day. Meeran revealed that he was quite shocked with the rapid growth as they were expecting a slow start.

Their food styles range from American, Asian and Italian and is produced by the award winning Emirates Culinary Guild Salon Culinaire Chef Manjula Dharmasiri who has over 30 years of experience. With the usual menu consisting of salads, meat, vegetarian, burger, pasta, rice and sandwich, they also have a kottu station, a rotti parlour and a health food range.

The Barnesbury believes in healthy eating and it starts from their storage unit. Meeran stated: “Most hotels and restaurants have a huge store consisting of frozen food. We don’t freeze our items as much as most places do.”

So what must you have at The Barnesbury? In this hot weather, I suggest you have a Strawberry Crush from their range of fruit crushes. The Strawberry Crush is made out of fresh strawberries with crushed ice and is quite refreshing.

They also have a selection of other cold drinks such as milkshakes, floats, ice coffees and frappes, including the Barnesbury Chocolate Fantasy produced for chocolate lovers and the Date and Honey Shake with Vanilla Ice Cream.

If you are more of a hot chocolate person, then do try out the Classic Hot Chocolate topped with marshmallows from their range of hot beverages.

Next on the main menu, I tried out the stir fried beef in oyster sauce. It wasn’t the best dish as it lacked something, but the fried beef bits were delicious.

For dessert, you should definitely try the French macaroons, which melt in your mouth and come in three flavours: vanilla, chocolate and strawberry and in all sorts of lovely colours. The best dessert of all at The Barnesbury is the Strawberry Meringue Cake, which is made to perfection and isn’t too sweet. Try out the signature dish, a White and Chocolate Brownie Bar.

Since there has been a rapid growth at The Barnesbury, they have decided to start a delivery service inside Colombo and two km outside Colombo starting from May. Due to customer demand, they will also be launching a breakfast menu consisting of an American and English breakfast ranging from pancakes, French toast, oatmeal and scrambled eggs starting at a price of Rs. 300++.

All in all, The Barnesbury is a place for high quality food at an affordable cost.

Pix by Sameera Wijesinghe