Club Villa

The room was clean, with quality furniture and bathrooms, and the rates were reasonable compared with other places in Ella. The entrance path from the main road is very narrow, though there’s enough width once inside for two vehicles to pass. There aren’t many views, but it’s still a worthwhile place and I’d recommend it for families.

We made 9 dishes in two and a half hours and picked up lots of techniques for preparing traditional Sri Lankan food. Our teacher was funny, knowledgeable, and happy to chat, joke, and have fun. He gave us recipes afterward and took our email so he could send more dishes. We dropped in after the spice gardens were fully booked and were really glad we did. Best cooking class ever, and we’d do it again.

We can’t recommend their cooking class. The chef’s English was very poor, and he couldn’t even name the main ingredients or spices in the dishes. He repeated maybe two or three sentences throughout, like “with this system you can cook,” and “very good, very healthy, all vegetable organic.” The class was crowded: there were 11 of us instead of the announced 8. It cost 2500, and we didn’t get any recipes at the end. He said he’d email them, but they never arrived. We also can’t imagine how this chef would write an English recipe. The food was good in the end, but you can get rice and curry for less than 2500.

Rodrigo made us feel welcome and was quick to help with anything we needed. The kitchen is well equipped if you want to cook for yourself, and the villa is close to Ella's main road. We had a great stay.