Explore with the ‘Explorer’ Let’s first travel to ‘explore’ the City. In this special column, we take you the readers to the trendiest places to hang out…enjoy sumptuous gourmet food in the most mesmerizing and scenic hot spots in the city.
It has got the best address in town, and at that address, it has got the most breathtaking view of the ocean front.
Be it day or night, a super work station by day, just to chill at sun down or a meal to tantalize your taste buds or down the best of beers, liqueurs and for thatvodka, Gin, Tonic or scotch on the rocks after a hard day’s work, HANGLA’s got it !
If it’s a mix and match, a mock-tail or cocktail, they serve with ease and what more with the background music, you can dance your cares away in the spacious separate area allocated for such, even to the wee hours of the morning!
HANGLA Ocean Lounge- is one place, one can safely conclude, that ithas got all that too.
We chose HANGLA as the very first to feature in this new column, because of all those positive attributes and it’s rated amongst the top rung restaurants where cuisine ispar excellence,in a high league its own and the surroundings, oftendescribed as breathtaking
In real estate they say location is everything. Privileged to be located six floors up at the roof top of One Galle Face, the biggest luxury shopping mall in the country and in the very centre of the commercial hub of the country’s capitol city Colombo,HANGLA- Ocean Lounge has flags of many countries fluttering at the entrance to greet you.
@ One Galle Face roof top
There is a history to every significant decoration at HANGLA- particularly to the flags of different countries colorfully lined up the ceiling. The Managing Director of the HANGLA restaurant, Capt. Anirban Banerjee from India now domiciled in Sri Lanka has visited 83 countries in his young days of sailing and it was his voyages that propelled him to anchor onto the hospitality business although he is firmly docked at the top of his career, now managing his very own shipping company, Krypton Shipping Pvt. Ltd.
The indoor sitting and dining area is very spacious that can house 100 pax. HANGLA has a large screen, a stage, all the equipment and facilities that one needs, be it a high end business presentation or just a simple birthday party.
Work at HANGLA
Captain Banerjee revealing the newest concept that is to be launched at in the month of July, said that HANGLA during the day will also serve as a Work Station. Offering the services under the theme, ‘Work @ HANGLA’ the restaurant will provide all the facilities that are required for such to carry out in all the comfort one can have.
There is going to be an executive lunch buffet offered at a very competitive cost for those who register for the work station for the day. A package that will include a buffet will be available. There is olso a menu with a wide variety of dishes to tantalicze your
taste buds The location is just right for the sophisticated young or old to make HANGLAtheir work station with all these attractive offerings lined up for just that.
This concept is going to be welcomed by quite a number of those working off their laptops during the day and looking for that space, especially wanting to get the surroundings right.
HANGLA- for the night owls
The night birds or owls who are looking to hang out for a sing song, a place to party well onto the late nights or till very much after midnight– HANGLA’s got the vibes for just that with light and sound to match the mood.
Another rare concept that has caught the regulars into the HANGLA net is the ‘bottle bank’ that the restaurant has under lock and key.
Upon a deposit everyone who becomes a member of the ‘bottle bank’ can store their very own little cupboard specially allocated, separately for each individual under lock and key and consume as they wish their securely well stored beverage, whenever they visit HANGLA.
Captain Banerjee is confident that HANGLA is well staffed to handlethe volume they can expect at times with the One Galle Face Mall over flowing with a load of local and overseas guests and are well prepared to serve the customer, he says believing in the saying that customer is king and a feast needs to be prepared to welcome the guests.
In conclusion I asked Captain what does the name HANGLA mean and what made him name it so and also diversify into the hospitality field in particular. Captain smiled, “it was my mother who would tease me, when I was at a young age, I loved food so she would call me Hangla, in Bengali, it means foodie, someone who loves food”.
With much sentimentality attached to the restaurant, for Captain Banerjee, hailing from our neighboring India, and one who belongs to another profession, HANGLA- Ocean Lounge at One Gale Face has become his passion. “There is a small Hangla in all of us, and it would be nice to provide a place that can fulfill it” he says. Indeed it is, just the place for the good connoisseurs and the ‘hanglas’.
pix by- Shan Rambukwella
