It’s clear that us Yamu chaps love the Cakery. Their great taste and fresh ingredients are a given, but their experimental style is what’s kept them popular. The owners try out new stuff on an almost daily basis and use their staff and customers are guinea pigs to see what will click. If it does, they hone and continue it. They also encourage their staff to experiment which keeps them motivated and keeps new ideas churning.
Since Panino has moved to their new location at Cotton Collection at Dharmapala Mawatha, The Cakery has the entire place to itself and decided to expand into savouries as well. At the introduction stage they’ve launched into tartlets (essentially quiches), lasagnes, roast vegetables and these fun sandwiches they’ve named “stacks”. For now all their food is vegetarian and pescetarian, and it’s not really clear whether they’ll choose to include chicken and meat in the future.
Price wise it’s not exactly cheap but great quality. The lasagnes come in lovely clay pots fit for take away. The medium is Rs. 1200 and feeds two easily as it’s pretty heavy on the cheese and sauce. The tartlets are 300 each and come in smoked salmon with quail egg, and cheese with assorted roast vegetables. They come with a nice side of herby roast potatoes that are best hot out of the oven.
The piece de resistance however, are the stacks. They’re just two pieces of fresh-baked pita bread with filling – either assorted cheese and vegetables, prawns (our pick!), or fish. The taste is spectacular. This is partially due to the locally sourced ingredients – seafood picked daily from Narahenpita fish market, and various cheeses from local expatriate artisans. At around Rs. 550 a pop they’re absolutely worth it and very filling.
They’re planning on introducing a whole range of new stuff so this really isn’t a comprehensive look at the menu. We went on the first day so everything was a big flurry and orders took a while, but we hope they’ll work out the kinks over the coming days.