Places to eat in Maldives

Easy to reach by boat, no booking required, dress comfortably, enjoy the atmosphere...the pic shows this particular "restaurant" I had the pleasure to eat at in the moon light...

Favorite Dish: Fresh fish was served sitting on the beach on comfortable green leaves, drinking from coconuts' mugs and other local food...dancing barefoot on the sand following...

I was lucky enough to be given a wonderful surprise dinner by my husband. Taj Exotica has several Private Dining Experiences available, and I had commented that I'd like to see the wine room.

One evening, expecting to dine in the main restaurant, we arrived at the bar for Martinis, and had our usual chat with Rajan, the bar manager. As we got up to go to dinner, Rajan invited me to look at the wine room. Great, I thought.

The room is great, white washed rough stone walls, candles slots, with an amazing medieval feel to it. There was a table set out, beautifully presented with candles and beaded placemats. I didn't want to be so rude as to immediately assume it was for me, so I glanced around the wine room until the look on my husbands face meant this was all set up for us.

2 scrolls, tied with gold twine, with burnt edges were on the table, titled "Dinner in the Wine Room - Personalised Menu for Mr & Mrs Jackson". It listed 7 exquisite courses, each accompanied by a different wine appropriate to each dish.

This was the best meal I have ever experienced. Each individual dish was like a masterpiece. We began with Veuve Clicquet champagne and it got better from there.

Below are some more pictures of the dishes.

I can't describe how 'out of this world' the whole evening was. When we surfaced, chocolate dipped strawberries and petit fours were waiting for us in the bar, and we had a nice chat with Rajan and watched some of his many card tricks!

A slip up by my other half meant I discovered the cost of the experience, and later thanked the Lord for husbands and credit cards ;-) Yes, it was that expensive, but the life long memories I have from this will made it worth it.

At Taj Exotica, there is an Ocean Pavillion/Snorkelling point, about 1/2 a mile off shore, completely stand alone. A daylight picture is below.

It's about 15 ft x 15ft, with a thatched roof, and decked floor. You have to catch a boat to get to it.

They offer a private dinner on this Pavillion, so I decided to surprise my husband with a meal there. Obviously due to it's location, the food is a specially made cold buffet (for want of a better word because the food was delicious!)

There are 2 menus available, one is U$350 + service charge & whichever wine/champagne you want to choose from the cellar (at extra cost). The other menu is $450 + service/wine.

At 6pm, I took my husband to the lobby area, are we walked to the jetty. The boat was waiting for us, and we headed to the Pavillion. What was waiting was beyond words, but I'll try to describe it!

Each of the four pillars supporting the thatched roof had billowing white curtains attached. 2 low lying sala day beds with comfy cushions scattered on them awaited us. A low lying table with beaded runner, candles, lanterns, and flowers was laid out with fine cutlery. Crysanthenums were scattered all over the pavillion. A huge rustic wooden barrel/bucket acted as a champagne cooler. It was the most romantic, isolated and special place to have dinner.

The In Villa dining manager, Rajwan, served our first glass of wine for us, and gave us a mobile phone, telling us to call when we wanted the boat to come pick us up. He and the boat crew left, leaving us alone to enjoy this magnificent experience.

Favorite Dish: I chose the $350 menu. The $450 had a big wow factor, but included much more seafood, caviar, oysters etc, which sadly we wouldn't have enjoyed as much.

On my 'wining and dining' travelogue is a picture of the spread of food & dessert we had, all presented on stands of various heights. The menu had included lobster, but as we weren't keen on this, I asked for some homestyle chicken tikka, which came with with nan, breads, pickles and chutney. I told them we love cheeses, so they had a plateful with walnuts, apricots and olives.

The other dishes included salmon, king prawns, australian grain fed beef, vegetable rice, dips (houmous, tahini, etc, 4 in total) cold cuts of meat - pastrami, chorizo, hams etc, salad with olives and feta cheese - all top quality considering is was cold foods, and absolutely delicious.

Dessert consisted of a huge exotic fruit platter, a couple of fruits I'd never seen before, trio of creme brulee, and chocolate torte.

Pictures can be seen in my 'wining & dining' travelogue.

We couldn't move by the end of it! But at around 9.30pm, called for the boat to collect us, returned to our room, and found the bed beautifully decorated with flowers, and a hot bath waiting, with flowers in the water and candles on the marble ledge - you get the idea. There is a picture in my travelogue somewhere.

A highly recommended experience.

The first night we arrived, I ordered the homestyle chicken curry and rice. I expected to receive one plate with a serving of chicken curry and rice, but my my I was wrong.

An empty plate was placed in front of me. One waiter served rice onto my plate, another approached with the curry and served me. The the first waiter returned with a lentil dahl. Then a bowl of nan. Then 2 spicy popadums, then a pretty platter with mango chutney and pickles. All of the above was squeezed onto the table, and each time I reached to serve myself (happlily) some more rice or curry, one of the waiters would quickly stop me, take the bowl and say 'No Maam, let me do that for you'. They really did treat you like royalty, add to that the fantastic curry and I was happy as Larry.

The duet of chocolate parfaits was so beautifully presented that I photographed it. The smug look on y husbands face is actually embarrassment.

The is the more formal restaurant, serving Mediterranean and International dishes.

There is a very wide range available, a few examples.......

Tartare of yellow fin tuna
Lobster Ravioli
Champagne & Fennel risotto with victorian brie
Chefs exotic Mezze, seafood or vegetarian
Various soups/gazpacho
Scallops
Oysters
Moscovite duck breast
Salads

Wild Mushroom Spaghetti in a cream sauce
Seared tournedos of beef with roma tomatoes
Truffled stew of mediterranean vegetables
Spinach tortellini
Penne in home made tomato sauce with kalamata olives
Rack of australian Lamb
Garlic & herb rubbed fillet of angus beef
Lobster thermidor
Catch of the day
Salmon

There is lots more, but you get the idea!!!

The restaurant is at the far end of the island, approached via a torchlit plankway. Inside the restaurant, is a large gallery, where you can view the water and sealife below, and see the ocassional shark go by. The whole restaurant is over water.

It is romantically lit, marble and polised woods, and tables spread out a nice distance from eachother. Service is exceptional, with Vivek heading a brilliant restaurant, and all of his staff are a credit.

When we left, we were always given 2 small jars of lovely ground coffee, to enjoy the next morning, wrapped in sellophane and tied with gold twine.

Favorite Dish: Champagne & Fennel Risotto to start, and I couldn't choose between the Truffled stew of mediterranean vegetables, in skin of potato with mushrooms, and a red wine treacle, OR,

Wild mushroom spaghetti with cream sauce, aged parmesan, and thyme infused olive oil.

My husband would have the tournedos of beef.

2 course meal, with wine would be in the region of $150 - $180 inc. service charge.

Having had the pleasure to spend an unforgettable experience in Maldives I would suggest you to enjoy a saphari boat, which offer you the possibility to have your meals on board, in a relaxing atmosphere and ...what a panoramic view!

Favorite Dish: We bought something in Male before starting this saphari boat, but most of the time the guys on the boat cooked some fresh fish.

This is the only Thai restaurant in the city...well there're other restaurants that can prepare Thai food too but this is the only one that only makes Thai food. The owner is a Sri Lankan guy who got married with a Thai woman. This woman's sister is the one who supervises in the kitchen so the food tastes very Thai :)

Favorite Dish: All is great!

I had quite a trouble getting something to eat for a lunch on Friday as most places open late. This was the only place I could find that day. This restaurant is in Nasandhura Palace Hotel. They offer many kinds of food and the price is very reasonable...For example, spaghetti meat sauce costs 50 Rufiyaa.