Cafés in Cinnamon Gardens

Flower Road, Ward Place and Horton Place

Flower Road took its name from P. D. Siebel’s nurseries.² It was renamed Sir Ernest de Silva Mawatha after the businessman and banker who lived on it was knighted on 1 January 1946.³ Brew 1867 by Dilmah is at 57/1 Sir Ernest de Silva Mawatha, The Commons Coffeehouse at 39A Flower Road, and Flower Road Cafe and The Embazzy at 74 and 76/1.

Ward Place has Coco Veranda at number 32, Caramel pumpkin at 38, with Wi-Fi and hours of 08:00–22:00, and Divide Specialty Coffee & Matcha at 48A, with outdoor seats.

On Horton Place, Seed Café is run by Mahesh Alkegama, who moved to Sri Lanka after a decade in London. At the end of 2025 it was in half of an old colonial house with painted ceilings while its main site was renovated, with a bigger bar, a micro-bakery and a roaster planned.⁵ Milk & Honey Café is at 44 Horton Place.

Specialty coffee near Independence Square

Department of Coffee, at 10A Philip Gunawardena Mawatha near Independence Square, offers home-grown Lak Parakum alongside beans from roasters abroad and calls itself “Sri Lanka’s First Specialty Café”.⁷⁶ Its brew bar makes V60, Kalita Wave, AeroPress, syphon and cold brew, and an air-conditioned dining room upstairs has a book corner.⁶ It opens daily 07:00–23:00.

London House of Coffee, in a restored granite building on R. G. Senanayake Mawatha (Gregory’s Road), was set up by a father and son to revive the coffee culture of the mid-1800s, and serves organic coffee grown in the central highlands.⁸ Café Kumbuk, at 3/1 Thambiah Avenue, pours a Kumbuk Blend from Kotmale roasted by Temple Grounds and sells the beans by the bag.⁶ It opens 08:00–18:00.

The racecourse and Reid Avenue

Colombo Racecourse opened for horse racing in 1893 and served as a temporary airfield in the Second World War. It was redeveloped in 2012 as a rugby ground, and in 2014 much of its grandstand became shopping and dining space.⁴ The VOC Café is at 114 Reid Avenue, and Barista has a branch at an Alexandra Place fuel station.

Early and late coffee in Colombo 7

Peppermint Cafe, at 76 Wijerama Mawatha, is open 24 hours, with Wi-Fi and outdoor tables; Black Cat, at number 11 on the same street, opens 08:00–21:00. The brown bean, at 104 Srimath Anagarika Dharmapala Mawatha, opens at 07:00 and closes at 22:00, as does koffee kulture on Dr C. W. W. Kannangara Mawatha.

Coffee and Co, on Pedris Road, was described in 2020 as a small, homey café with a simple menu and good hot chocolate.⁸ The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf on Horton Place stays open until midnight.