Rio’s Ice Cream #yamu
Raisa has a review of the new Rio’s Ice Cream truck on Marine Drive. Rio’s (and Lingam’s) are the bomb ice cream spots in Jaffna. I always stop there when I’m in town, as does everybody, so it’s great that they’ve set up a truck in little Jaffna, Wellawatte, CMB.
Here’s a bit from Raisa’s review:
Try one of the specials. The Rio special, for example, is four scoops of ice cream- fruit and nut, vanilla, mango, and milk, with a healthy sprinkling of nuts on top. While you can find the other flavours at pretty much any ice cream parlour/supermarket easily, the milk ice cream is quite unusual- and delicious, too. The ice cream overall is sweet and tasty- lighter, somehow, than the varieties you find in Colombo.
But the Rio special isn’t just about the ice cream. Once you dig past the ice cream you’ll find cubes of jelly and fruit in there too. All of this for just Rs. 100. Be warned though- the Special’s very sweet, and liable to send you into an instant sugar coma if you eat it too fast, so it’s probably best to share, or just eat slow. (YAMU)
I passed the truck yesterday on Marine Drive. We’ve geotagged the location as much as possible but I’m assuming it moves. It’s definitely worth checking out.
Posted on Wednesday, August 1st, 2012 in Colombo, food, YAMU.
Mohsin Hamid, author of How To Get Filthy Rich In Rising Asia, has a nice 
I’m happy to be featured in Echelon magazine’s 40 Under 40 feature, profiling young people who contribute to the economy in some way, mainly in business but also in terms of innovation and thought leadership. It’s an interesting article not just in that I’m in it (mainly for work on indi.ca and 
I won’t add too much commentary, but just read I guess. The youngest Rajapaksa, Rohitha (Chi Chi) has given an amazing interview to the 
In 2009 this strange character appeared on the Sri Lankan Internet scene, getting angry, flaming, trolling whatever. Then he started naming anonymous bloggers, posting comments as people’s kids, nasty stuff, for which I removed him from 
I’ve got a few more constructive criticisms to make about yamu.
(1) You need to advertise the website in newspapers. This can be expensive obviously, but you reach so many people. It does not have to be a massive advertisement, but it needs to appear for a few weeks. A few of the online Sri Lankan shops were successful because of this approach. Your target clientele seem to be the ESEs, so I would suggest the English newspapers, or events magazines.
(2) The YAMU logo is, well….not that great (being honest here). It looks like a car logo, or the peace logo upside down. I’m sure you have friends who have photoshop/design skills who will be able to lend a hand. Also, consider having a tag under the logo like “food | events | services” or if you want to add a local lingo flavour something like “kaema | beema | joli veema.” For example, urbanspoon has “restaurants and reviews from critics, food bloggers, and friends” which lets people visiting it know what the website is about.
(3) This may affect your independent reviews, but if you can arrange coupon offers with individual restaurants you will be getting a lot more hits. That is, if people print a particular coupon off your website and present it, they will get a discount at a particular restaurant. This can change from week to week or month to month. This could be a members-only feature. Not limited to restaurants, can be used for other shops/pubs/cinemas etc.
Will let you know of any other thoughts that pop up.
Just thought of another one:
(4) When you are reviewing a restaurant ask whether you can have a copy of the menu and scan it/take a photo of it (the whole menu, not bits of it) and upload it to the website so that people reading your review can see it. This is really helpful for people wanting to see what is on the menu and the cost before choosing the restaurant and it is convenient (people don’t have to leave your website to go to the restaurant’s website and then search for the menu). Also add the service hours.
If you are willing to spend some money on getting help with designs, see:
https://99designs.com.au/launch
Consider their logo designing service, it’s a pretty good deal I think:
https://99designs.com.au/logo-design
“Host a “design contest” and our community of talented designers will compete to create a professional logo you love, or your money back!
- You describe your exact logo requirements
- Dozens of designers submit logo concepts for review
- You only pay for the logo you want to keep!”
Thanks for the feedback jujubes. I rather like the logo, so that’s not changing :)
Advertising is obviously a good idea, but we’re still growing the site. We’ve started the Sinhala side with a few talented writers, so it’s not like we’re just targeting ESEs. That said, we are tying up with a major newspaper, first section should be out probably this Saturday. No guarantees on that tho.
Coupons and stuff in time. This isn’t a Colombo guide primarily and we don’t want to depend on the people we’re reviewing for revenue. We’re actually developing apps that deliver services to customer (ie, cabs).