I was recently on a cruise in the Maldives for my friend’s 30th birthday, and as part of that itinerary, she booked out the entirety of Ithaa, the underwater restaurant at the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island. The restaurant has capacity of 16 or so, so that’s not as ridiculous as it sounds.

We booked a late lunch for 3pm, but as the Conrad is 1 hour ahead of normal Maldivian time, this was more like 2pm in our time. After two early morning dives, our yacht headed towards the Conrad, where we took a speedboat and got off on the Conrad’s jetty. We were welcomed by a host, who provided us with cool moistened towels, then another member of the staff who offered a welcome fruit drink, before we were ushered towards the restaurant. The host warned that because of the size of our party, it might get a little hot inside, so they had preemptively set up a number of fans.

Walkway to Ithaa, the underwater restaurant at the Conrad Maldives

the sign inside

The first floor of the restaurant was a nice lobby with couches, a table, restrooms, and a small prep kitchen. The main kitchen was at the outdoor restaurant back across the walkway. It was quite nice and comfortable up here, and I frequently came back to hang out to escape the heat during our meal.

Chilling in the entrance lobby

We took the staircase down to the dining area, and WOW, what an amazing sight. We were seated promptly and offered a cold towel. I wish they didn’t take away our towel so quickly though!

A view of the restaurant

The menu for lunch was a 4 course tasting menu, with the option to upgrade the main from a sous vide chicken to a Maldivian reef lobster. I took the lobster upgrade. We were given the wine list and wow, everything was super expensive. We ended up with 3 bottles of white, a Riesling, a Chardonnay, and a Chablis for our party of 15.

Overall, all the courses were very tasty and presented very well. Service was very attentive. It was awesome to see fish swimming right over you while eating. The only downside was that as warned, the restaurant started to get extremely hot during the meal, to the point that the butter completely melted! I can’t imagine how hot it would be during noon time! I frequently would go hang out at the upstairs lounge between courses, and people took to sitting directly on top of the air conditioning vents while not eating. Our negotiated price to book out the entire restaurant at $344 a head plus service charge, not including drinks. So while very tasting, as compared to several other fine dining options that I’ve been to, you are definitely paying for the view and less so the food.

After the meal concluded, we were lead back to the reception to pay for the bill, which will tie into my next post.

The pictures of the meal follow:

Our lunch menu

From left to right: normal sea salt, some kind of spiced salt with a woody flavor, citrus salt (good with seafood!) and hibiscus salt

Butter poached lobster and white peach salad

Sous vide chicken breast

Reef lobster. Whole meat chunks on the skewer, and ground up meat with hollandaise sauce in the lobster

Artichoke and garlic veloute, with caviar on top of a toasted brioche

Honey roasted pumpkin cheesecake

Chocolates to follow the meal