We tried to order some bread and a light lunch from Sen-Saal. They were only able to send some of what we wanted, but it came quickly and was good; some was very good.
Address: 267 Kaduwela Road, Battaramulla (there are nine other branches)
Phone: 011 287 1497 or for delivery 0740 499990 / 0740 487777 / 0740 477770 / 0740 466660
Email: sensaalcatering@gmail.com
Website: http://www.sensaal.com/
Social: https://www.facebook.com/SenSaal
During the last curfew, in April, we tried to order some bread from Sen-Saal but they said they were not able to deliver. Now with a similar curfew in place we decided to try again, for some bread and also a few light bites for lunch. We have not tried them since but, with a new curfew and running out of bread, we decided to give them another try.
We found the menu on their facebook page, along with delivery numbers and we sent the request by whatsapp. The reply came quickly, within a few minutes.
The bad news: they could not send the bread, or a couple of other items that we requested.
The good news: they suggested a few alternatives.
We decided to go ahead and order some lunch snacks.
Menu
Sen-Saal seem to be primarily a bakery, but they do also offer a range of basic meals.
Their normal menu is extensive, with a selection of around 20 different types of bread; around 30 types of savoury pastry and buns; lots of cakes are available either whole or by the slice, as well as confectionaries. They also have a selection of sandwiches and meals, mostly curries with rice, noodles or kottu but also a few salads, lasagne and pasta.
We decided to try a few pastries, savoury and sweet, muffins and a loaf of banana bread.
The Food
The sausage pastry is a chicken sausage wrapped in a flaky pastry, similar to British sausage roll. The pastry was wonderfully "short", very flaky, but it was let down a little by the sausage inside which was very thin and a little dry. If they did these with a thicker sausage it would improve the result tremendously.
The Egg and Fish cutlet was quite good, containing a hard boiled egg alongside a spoonful of tangy fish mix, a little spicy and an interesting combination.
The Kimbula bun is something like a sweet croissant; less buttery, more dry and flaky, straightened and coated in sugar crystals. It was surprisingly light (but probably heavy on the calories) and the pastry would be quite tasty even without the sugar coating.
The banana bread was good too. It was firm so it was easy to cut, but was slightly sticky so it didn't crumble. It tasted good, not too sweet. It tasted mild; there was only a light taste of banana, but overall tasted good - and went well with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!
The real star, though, was the double chocolate muffin. We've tried muffins from many bakeries and Sen-Saal's are, without a doubt, one of the best that we have had. The muffin tasted good and chocolatey without being too sweet; it was slightly sticky and gooey, not at all dry; and there were enough chocolate chips to add to the flavour and give each bite a little bit of crunch. Excellent, and thoroughly recommended.
Pricing:
It's hard to summarise where there are so many products to choose from but as an idea:
The breads start at Rs60 for a basic loaf. The special ones - garlic, wholemeal and so on - are typically Rs130-Rs150 and up to Rs220 for the premium breads.
Buns are mostly Rs45 up to Rs80, savoury pastries Rs70 to Rs95 and cake slices Rs80-Rs150.
The curries are mostly Rs100-200 and curry/rice combos Rs240-320.
However this is just a guide.
Our sausage pastry cost Rs80, the egg and fish cutlet Rs65 and the Kimbula bun Rs50.
The banana bread was Rs210 and the muffins Rs110.
Delivery charge was Rs150.
Delivery
This was surprisingly quick, it took barely half an hour before the order was here. The delivery driver found our house without difficulty and spoke reasonable English. The food came in cardboard boxes and plastic bags.
Overall
When they told us that they did not have the two things that we most wanted to order, we almost decided not to go ahead with the rest. However, we are glad that we did. While the sausage pastry was nothing special, the banana bread was pretty good and the muffins were excellent. We plan to try some other dishes once their available dishes are back to normal. We will definitely be ordering more soon.