The Hill Club

We arrived at the Hill Club without a booking with our 3 grown up sons and needed somewhere to stay unexpectedly and were given the warmest of welcomes. Thank goodness our plans had changed as without doubt this was one of the highlights of our trip. The Hill Club is a gem. A stunning building full of character and history (don’t miss the excellent guided tour with Hassim), delicious food - wonderful beef and an outstanding chocolate dessert made by Omaya with excellent service from our waiter Dayalan in the stunning formal dining room with a roaring fire. The bedrooms are delightful too and all service outstanding - hot water bottles bought to our beds and jackets and ties provided! It was a wonderful experience staying here. We wish the Hill Club all the very best for the future.

The environment here is fantastic and the service and food are nice here. Kavinda from the reception showed us the history of the Hill Clubs, he’s very dedicated.

The hotel is a heritage with modern amenities and elegance. Breakfast is nice but there is scope to improve the taste in my opinion. Stuffs are really well mannered and helpful. They provided hot bag to warm the beds although you will find room heaters. Nice and elegant rooms specially the lobby. This is a member only club. There are some dress code during evening for dinner and bar. However they also have casual bar which is not restricted. Only foreigners can book the stay. We really enjoyed our stay and would recommend to stay there and experience the colonial architecture with elegance . :)

Interesting experience! If you want to have the Victorian period experience....it's the place to be! It's kind of a museum! No ....it's a museum! Dinner... dress code is required! Casual dinner is also possible! Very pricy! The hotel room is generous....of course Victorian style with a modern bathroom! Highlight.....you get a hotwaterbottle and chocolate before you go to bed! PERFECT, haha!

Is this Sri Lanka's answer to Fawlty Towers? Probably. Stayed 2 nights here as part of a group tour package but from the get go they seemed totally overwhelmed with the number of guests. I try to imagine what this place would have been like in its hey day in the late 1800s. But now it is rundown and in need of a revamp. The common areas ooze rustic charm and historic lore. The staff were trying their best despite being overwhelmed. The hallway carpet is threadbare and bald in the corners. The rooms are large enough but have no aircon or heating. It gets nippy at night and the only saving grace is hot water bottles delivered to the room at around 7.30pm (hope you like an early night!). The dinner service was woeful. The main dining room demanded a formal dress code which split our group of 40 odd into those who had appropriate clothes and those who did not. We were not warned about this beforehand. Same food served in both. The formal dining room service was dismal. Despite ordering in advance at 4pm on the day we still waited over 1.5hrs to be fed. I ordered a veg Sri Lankan curry set which was huge but blew my head off in spiciness. The bar gets points for not watering down their gin and tonics. Breakfast was slow, but eggs benny was good grub. Shocked they would try and charge guests to use the pool table - what a joke. Gardens and lawns were nice with flowering geraniums. Tennis courts have gone to Jesus. Hotel is a good 10 minutes walk from downtown where there are better food options. No pool.

We had one of our best dinner evenings in Sri Lanka. It’s truly a one-of-a-kind experience that you won’t find anywhere else in the world. The old British hotel is amazing, but the food is even better. What adds a really special touch is that you are actually asked to suit up for the evening. Don’t worry; the hotel can provide a shirt, jacket, and tie for the evening (free of charge). It was just so much fun to dress up. Of course, you’ll pay a bit more than in a local food stall, but here you get a 6-course dinner for $30 per person. Bottles of decent wine are between $20-$30, and they have amazing, award-winning cocktails. We will definitely come back.

A beautiful place left after Brits..very helpful staff. Hashemi was very helpful and old us super interesting stories abt the place. Royal family visit and nice flower story. The food was good. Prices were surprising good.

What a place. A members-only club that's open for visitors-in-the-know. We turned up at 7, and were registered within minutes. Invited to have a pre-dinner drink at the Bar, then slowly moved into the beautiful candle-lit dining room. Delicious food and wine selection. As it was late at night, we weren't able to take the Club tour, so the host invited us back the next day with coffee/tea on the house.