Feasting on Crab at Ministry of Crab, Colombo

We had been advised by our friend in Colombo to visit Ministry of Crab restaurant the day we landed Sri Lanka. But we had not booked our tables there and on 31st December 2013, it was a rush day at the restaurant, touted as one of the best crab restaurant in Asia. There were some tense moments while we were having lunch at WIP (Hilton Colombo) that we might not be able to feast at Ministry of Crab. But our friend using his contacts managed to book seats for 5 of us for dinner. I had crab earlier and has seen big crabs at Kulda (restaurant) at Richmond circle (Bangalore, India). But I was told this is different and size of the crab will be gigantic. The tempo was always rising thinking about the special last dinner of the year 2013. We reached the old Dutch hospital where the restaurant is located at 8 pm. Around 9 pm we got our table. We were greeted by the owners of Ministry of Crab through a message card signed by them. Another specialty of this restaurant is, it is owned by two famous Sri Lankan cricketer, Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakara apart from Dharshan Munidas.

Now onto food. Since it was a crab specialty restaurant, we decided to have only crab as main course. However, other types of sea food like prawn, fish etc are also available. We went for chilli crab and pepper crab with bread. The weight of the crab should have been one kilo plus. The taste of a crab is like fish to an extent. Its hands and legs has the most of flesh and center body is mostly juicy. Crab’s skin is very strong and one might need to use the strong scissor provided by them. To top it we ordered two bottles of red wine (Cabernet). The old Dutch building already has a old world charm built-in plus the service and ambiance at Ministry of Crab is great. Well, all these did not come cheap. As usual the good things in the world do not come cheap! I ended the last dinner of 2013 with a nicely prepared lime soda. So if you visit Sri Lanka, do make your way to Ministry of Crab. Its worth it!

Address:

Old Dutch Hospital,
Colombo 01
Phone: 2342722
Email: info@ministryofcrab.com
Website: http://ministryofcrab.com

Opening Times:

Weekdays : 6pm to 11pm (Lunch on request)
Weekends: 12 noon onwards
Closed on Poya (full moon) Days

Cost per person: Rs 4000 LKR (1883.40 INR) onwards