The sizzle

Everything sizzles...even your appetite:

Ganga ILLEPERUMA

Sizzlers probably originated a few centuries ago when meat was served on a heated cast iron plate to keep it piping hot, while the diner ate his meal. Today, however, they have become a cuisine of sorts by themselves as many specialty restaurants serve only Sizzlers on their menu. A sizzler is a combination of a main dish served with a choice of sauces and a large variety of accompaniments, making it a complete meal by itself!

The Sizzle was started in 2007. “The first year was a very tough period for us to maintain this restaurant because this is a very new concept for Sri Lankan. This idea is from Viraj Panchal who is the owner of the Mango Tree and the Jack tree restaurants. Beginning of this place we didn’t have much more experience about this kind of restaurant. So we went to India (Bombay). There were two chains in India which have this concept restaurants. We interviewed chefs in India and it was also a hard work for us to search really good chefs for our business,” said Director of the Sizzle, Tushar Amalean. “But today we have very good customers and since this is a halal food restaurant we have lot of Muslim clients. We don’t serve pork and liquor,” he added. Sizzle is a suitable place for small parties and they can be accommodated 100 people inside and 12 people in outside. In additionally they have three private dining rooms which can be accommodate 12 to 24 people.

I have been to several restaurants in Colombo, but in this restaurant everything (drink, main dish and dessert) was sizzling. This is a uniqueness for me. “For being sizzle we add some special thing to our dishes but they are not harm to people in any condition. All of them are edible items,” Panchal said.

In India sizzle is a very famous concept and it originally comes from Japan. But they offer more Western food in there restaurant. “It was very hard to introduce sizzle concept to Sri Lankans because people were not familiar about it and they didn’t know how to eat this food. But after 6 months we became popular because of our client’s comments on our food. Today it is hard to make reservations on weekends. We have a special selection for kids. We added names on boxes for our food items. It is also another uniqueness of this place,” Tushar added.

At the end of the first visit they gave information card for guests and from their second visit they have privileges.

Everything was sizzling at The Sizzle but taste was good. Service was also great. The Sizzle concept is a meal on a cast iron platter, placed on a wooden base and served sizzling and continuing to cook in front of you, while you dine. There is a good choice of steak, mutton dishes, chicken dishes, lamb, fish and prawns with some Eastern choices too, and a variety of sizzling desserts.

They will be introducing the “Smelting Pot” Concept in August this year. This will be another excitement for everyone in Colombo. The concept will have “food served with fire underneath”. It’s best that you come and experience it rather than reading it out.