We have eaten at Isso Prawns' restaurant; in fact it was our very first review back in October. We enjoyed most of it and a few days ago we decided we were ready for another round of prawns but this time we would get them delivered.
Address: 53 Ananda Coomaraswamy Mawatha, Colombo 00300
Phone: 011 777 0300
Website: https://www.isso.lk/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/prawncrazy/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/prawncrazy
When we went to the Isso Prawns restaurant we quite liked much of it. We were not really enthusiastic about the sweet potato fries - we had nothing against the idea, but found them far too dry and salty. We did, though, enjoy several other dishes including the toasts, burger and fish and chips.
So a few days ago we were discussing what to order; we didn't feel adventurous that day, we wanted to have something that we had tried before. So when someone suggested Isso, we all agreed.
Menu
We found a menu on their Instagram page but it was very fragmented, one dish per post so it took a while flipping through; luckily we all knew roughly what we wanted.
It's very similar to the dine-in menu, with starters such as prawn tempura, spring rolls, prawn toasts, coconut crumbed prawns, calamari rings and similar in portions of 2, 4 or 8 pieces.
For the main courses you can choose from the "combo" menu where you choose what style you want - Thai red curry, Jaffa curry, Singapore Chilli, Teriyaki and what you want it on: regular or jumbo prawns, barramudi, octopus, veggie or lobster. It all comes with your choice of one side. Alternatively you can order a "value meal" such as a prawn burger, nasi goreng, kottu, biriyani and good old fish & chips.
For sides there's couscous, roast paan, sweet potato fries and several varieties of rice.
We decided on a few starters to share and a couple of mains.
Ordering and Delivery
We tried to call with the order but could not get through so we visited their website and found a link to order online. It's fairly straightforward; for most of the starters, you specify what size you want (how many pieces). For the meals, just choose; for the combos you choose your flavour then the base, We plugged it all in, paid online and got a message that our order had been accepted.
A little over an hour later it hadn't arrived so we called to check. After a few minutes they found the order; it had somehow not been placed. They were very apologetic and assured us it would be handled immediately and we should get it in about half an hour. Computer glitches happen, right, so there's no point getting stressed. We did wonder if half an hour might be a bit optimistic but we agreed. However, 55 minutes later it still hadn't arrived and we were debating whether to call and just cancel the whole thing when we got a call asking our location and a few minutes later he arrived. By then our late lunch was becoming an early dinner, but we let it go and settled down to eat.
The Food
It looked quite good when we opened up the boxes. There were barely any grease spots (unlike another meal that we ordered recently) nor did it look particularly dry. The sweet potato fries looked a bit inconsistent, but no matter. By then we were also rather hungry so we tucked in.
The calamari rings looked promising: they were well covered in a flaky, crumbly coating, none of it falling off as is often the case with calamari, and cooked to a nice golden brown. They were nice and crunchy too, though a little dry even inside, but lacking real flavour. The tastiest part was probably the coating.
The same can be said of the coconut crumbed prawns. The prawns were a fair size, well coated with the flaky crust and they looked great. As for the taste; the prawns themselves tasted bland; again, most of the flavour seemed to come from the coating and that, while being crispy and crunchy, had only a mild flavour itself.
It's probably the coconut crust, but we found both the calamari and the crusted prawns to be better than the spring roll which was basically a prawn wrapped in spring roll pastry. Again although it was cooked just right, there was very little taste to it.
Finally the main dish of fish and chips. There was a generous portion of fish with several pieces of fish, well coated in a flaky batter that looked similar to the coating on the prawns and calamari. It was quite nice and crunchy, and the fish inside was quite tender and juicy, but overall it seemed quite bland, mediocre. We remembered it being somewhat better at the restaurant.
The sweet potato fries were as we had remembered them, in fact probably drier. While not real fans of sweet potato fries, we have had some that were quite good, but not these, they were just dry and sorry to say they were left and thrown out.
Overall, it was a bit disappointing. Sure, the ordering glitch didn't help and by the time the food came we were hungry and wolfed it down, but it just tasted mostly rather bland, with the batter coating being the saving grace. We remembered it being better in the restaurant.
Prices:
The starters were all Rs290 for two pieces, Rs490 for four and Rs890 for eight pieces. They do have some other starters priced differently but we hadn't chosen those.
The fish and chips were Rs1490. The other main courses start at Rs790 for prawn kottu, Rs990 for the prawn burger, nasi goreng, crab kottu and wrap. There's a seafood platter on offer at Rs3990.
Summary
Overall we were left a bit disappointed, both by the delay, though they were very apologetic and did try to get the food to us promptly, and that some of it was a bit bland behind the coconut crunch. It definitely was better in the restaurant itself.
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