One of the main reasons that we celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary at the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island was so that we could have our anniversary dinner at Ithaa Undersea Restaurant.
Being able to eat at an underwater restaurant was an amazing experience, but it was made even better by the fact that we happened to be the only people booked in for dinner that night. Having an already-intimate restaurant all to ourselves only served to make the night even more special.
Arriving At Ithaa
On the main (family) island at the Conrad Maldives, there’s a walkway that leads out to both Sunset Grill and Ithaa. You walk through Sunset Grill in order to reach the pavilion above Ithaa.
Despite it being a fancy restaurant, in keeping with the rest of the resort you don’t have to wear shoes to dinner. In fact, you can’t wear shoes to dinner as the restaurant requires that you be barefoot. When arriving, there’s an earthenware jar out front for you to ladle water over your feet to rinse them of sand.
Lunch at Ithaa is at a set time of 12:30pm, while dinner is at a set time of 6:30pm. We arrived at 6:15pm and so took a seat in the pavilion where they served us a glass of champagne while we waited.
To get down to Ithaa, there’s a staircase leading from the overwater pavilion to the underwater restaurant.
It was soon time to head down – here’s a video of what it’s like to enter the restaurant:
I’d seen plenty of photos of the restaurant online, but those don’t do justice to how magical it is being there in person.
Our server/host Rimah showed us to our table on the right hand side of the restaurant. The right side of the restaurant is next to the reef, while the left side has a lagoon.
Although Ithaa has space to seat up to 14 guests, we were incredibly fortunate that night to be the only ones dining there. We visited in early August which is the off-season for the Maldives as the weather tends to be more rainy. The resort was therefore much quieter than it might be at other times of the year which worked in our favor.
Before getting too comfortable though, Rimah offered to take photos of the two of us.
It was fun getting to watch all of the fish and sharks swimming around us while deciding on what drinks to order.
Rimah pointed out that there’s one specific fish with large eyes who looks like he’s staring directly at you. Sure enough, this fish swam around throughout our meal, staring at us in what seemed like a very judging manner!
As might be expected for an underwater restaurant in the Maldives, drinks don’t come cheap. However, it was our 20th anniversary and so we splashed out for a bottle of champagne; the bottle of Bruno Paillard Cuvee Extra Brut we ordered was $270.
Dinner At Itha
Dinner at Ithaa is a fixed menu, but they do have a vegetarian menu for those who don’t eat meat and fish. You can find the latest menus here; here’s what the menu was the night that we dined there.
The meal began with something not mentioned on the menu – a rye bread roll with cinnamon butter. I’m partial to Texas Roadhouse’s cinnamon butter, but as would be expected the cinnamon butter at Ithaa was very good too.
Next up was an aperitif of crisp potato tart with local swimmer crab, avocado and caviar. It was remarkable how something so small could have waves of flavor, with the crab being particularly tasty.
The amuse bouche was Rangali fresh tuna crudo which came with local red capsicum puree, wakame, salmon roe and orange ponzu dressing. Shae and I both enjoy raw fish and this tuna crudo was no exception.
Our appetizer was veal roulade with roasted beetroot, celery root puree, caramelized pearl onion and port jus. It had been many years since I last ate veal and this was a great reintroduction to the meat.
Next up was one of my favorite dishes of the night. The Maldivian crisp lobster fagottini came with eggplant pickle, curry leaves dust and Dhivehi coconut curry sauce. The curry flavor was fantastic, the crispy texture of the fagottini was excellent and the meaty lobster inside was delicious.
Rimah then brought out the palate cleanser – a lemongrass and basil sorbet. As you can see with all of these photos, everything was beautifully presented.
We then had a choice of main course. One option was Sarawak pepper crust Wagyu beef tenderloin which came with a taro root and vanilla puree, local pumpkin, brioche crumble and morel jus.
The other option was Cajun spiced green jobfish. Both those dishes sounded good, so seeing as there were two of us we ordered one of each and shared them. Shae and I both enjoyed the steak, but we both thought that the jobfish was the best of the two mains.
The final course was dessert which came with a message wishing us a happy anniversary.
The Ithaa pearl had a crisp white chocolate shell and a milk chocolate mousse inside, with passionfruit and other fruit beneath. It was a light, tasty end to an excellent meal.
The portion sizes were all perfect too. There was enough food to be able to enjoy all of the flavors, without being so filling that we were stuffed by the end. Overall, it was a superb meal, not only due to the food but the awesome service from Rimah too. He was very personable, friendly and attentive, without being too attentive.
If you have an opportunity to stay at the Conrad Maldives, I’d highly recommend visiting Ithaa, whether that’s for drinks, lunch or dinner.
How Much Is A Meal At Ithaa?
If you have dinner at Ithaa, it costs $300 per person plus taxes and tip. At the time of our stay in August 2024, taxes were an additional 16% and a 10% service charge was added automatically; you also have the option to add an additional gratuity.
Lunch at Ithaa is a four course meal that costs ~$235 per person plus taxes and tip.
The visiting hour from 11am-12pm includes a glass of champagne or mocktail and light canapes and costs $100 per person plus taxes and tip.
The visiting hour is therefore the most budget-friendly option if you simply want a chance to experience Ithaa without breaking the bank. There is an opportunity to (sort of) do the visiting hour for free too. Hilton Experiences has a number of experiences you can book at the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island using Hilton Honors points. One of those is the visiting hour for 25,000 points per person. A 25,000 point redemption is a fair value for the experience given its cash cost, so if you have enough Hilton points then that’s a good option too.
Are Children Allowed At Ithaa?
Children are allowed to join parents for lunch at Ithaa, but dinner in the evening is for adults only.
Can You See Marine Life Throughout Dinner?
Dinner at Ithaa starts at 6:30pm. When we were there in August, it was still daylight out when we arrived and so we got to see lots of fish and sharks. As the evening goes on, it gets darker and so the marine life heads elsewhere on the resort as they’re attracted to the lights elsewhere. Many fish and some sharks did return later in our meal though once the lights were turned on outside of the underwater restaurant.
If seeing fish and sharks swimming around throughout your entire meal is important to you, it might be best to have lunch at Ithaa seeing as that takes place entirely during daylight hours. I would say though that with lunch only being four courses, you probably get just as much time admiring the marine life during dinner as you do at lunchtime as I think we had at least four courses in enough daylight to see fish.
How Old Is Ithaa Undersea Restaurant?
Although there are now more underwater restaurants around the world, Ithaa was the world’s very first underwater dining place. It was installed in November 2004 after being designed in New Zealand and constructed in Singapore. Its opening day was delayed though due to the tsunami on December 26, 2004 that affected a large part of southeast Asia. It subsequently opened in April 2005.
How Big Is Ithaa?
Ithaa is 16 feet wide and 30 feet long.
How Much Does Ithaa Weigh?
When constructed, Ithaa weighed 175 tons. Despite that heavy weight, that apparently wasn’t enough to sink it to the bottom of the ocean. Our server Rimah shared that they therefore had to add about 85 tons of sand to sink it to the floor, at which point it was secured to steel piles on which it was placed.
Happy anniversary!
Thank you!
typo?
“Its opening day was delayed though due to the tsunami on December 26, 2024 that affected a large part of southeast Asia. It subsequently opened in April 2005.”
Oops, yep – that was a typo; it should’ve said 2004. Thanks for letting me know – I’ve just fixed that.
Looks like a great “20” celebration. Great pictures.
Yep, it was a lot of fun!