Anyone who drives through Pitakotte-Thawlawatugoda Road makes a stop at the Sweet Surrender to satisfy their daily, quick sweet and savoury needs. However, what drew our attention to this place was a couple of posts on Facebook about their fiery crab curry – roast paan combo, and we had to try them out.
Food
Aside from the popular crab curry, they also serve a couple more meat-based curries (pork, chicken) along with a whole bunch of short eats, bread, snacks and cakes.
A well puffed up pastry filled with a mixture of egg and chicken, the Creamy Chicken Pastry (Rs. 110) was all right. The pastry had a good crunch to the bite, but the filling could use a bit more chicken in the mix. Plus, they can work on enhancing its creamy factor too. We liked their Chocolate Eclair (Rs. 160). The pastry was a bit stale, probably because it's not from the freshest batch, but the chocolate cream filling in the middle was quite good; creamy, light, and not overly sweet. Whatever the sweetness this one had, it was drawn from the slathering of chocolate icing on top.
As anticipated, the Crab Curry with Roast Paan (Rs. 650) was the showstopper. Seasoned to high heaven with a whole array of spices, this one can make a grown man cry. Gorgeously red in colour, there was a lot of gravy here; very thick in texture and managed to smother every ounce of the succulent crab all the way to its core. Plus, despite being sea crab, it carried a decent amount of meat. The roast paan had a very crunchy texture to its outside, and they serve two of them. Coupled with the serving of mildly spicy and sour pol sambol, this meal is pretty dang solid for Rs. 650, and easily sharable between two.
Sweet Surrender's offering of cakes is quite easy on the wallet. This slice of Red Velvet was only Rs. 150, and for that price, it's worth it. On the good side, the texture was light and soft, but unfortunately, albeit dry for our liking. We do wish if they could ease up the sweetness too, especially in the frosting.
Drinks
Out of the options available, we decided to go with the Lemon & Mint Boost and Watermelon Boost, each priced at Rs. 380.
*Pictured above: Lemon & Mint Boost (left) and Watermelon Boost (right)
Both of the drinks were quite refreshing. The Lemon & Mint Boost was lemony and minty as promised, while the Watermelon Boost had natural watermelon flavour popping through, along with a bit of fizz as it had been infused with soda.
Ambience & Service
The ground floor at Sweet Surrender caters to quick grab and go, but if you want to properly sit down for your meal and take your time with it, we suggest going upstairs. They've got an ample seating space here, lit with lots and lots of natural lights. The service was a bit slow as they had only two staff members behind the counter. We had to wait over 10 minutes just to place the order.
Conclusion
While their other stuff can improve with a few tweaks, we highly recommend Sweet Surrender for their brilliant crab curry.