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Robin Yong
16,365the biggest and the best!
This is probably the biggest and the best of all restaurants at Conrad Maldives Rangali Island. Located just opposite the Rangali Bar, it also has white sand floors and a good view of the surrounding lagoon. And you can choose to sit indoors or outdooors under the shady trees. The restaurant is open for breakfast and dinner and is probably best known for its buffet dinner. It boasts of eight specialist kitchens: Asian, Japanese, Italian, Indian, the Grill, the Delhi, the Bakery and the dessert counter, all these coupled with an exciting wine list featuring all the rising stars of the wine world. I first heard about this restaurant from a Chinese lady working at the hotel while I did my booking over the phone. She told me this is her personal favourite and I must come here one night, and with this restaurant around I will never have to worry about thinking of what to eat.
We came here on our very first night for dinner because we were quite hungry by 6pm and did not bother to make any booking at the other restaurants. We were pleasantly surprised by its space and it being quite airy. Food wise, the selection here is actually huge, in fact the biggest buffet selection I've seen in any 5 or 6 star hotel! There is just no way one can sample everything in a single visit. Buffet dinner costs USD$95 per person, well worth the price considering the selection and the quality of food. Reservations are not exactly required because this place is huge, much much bigger than all the other restaurants combined, so it does have enough seats for everyone. We were also pleasantly surprised by some of the tables having been specially decorated with flowers picked from the garden, love shaped napkins etc, nice tables to choose if you are on a honeymoon or have a special date to impress. I find the Asian section to be really quite good, although everything here is really tasty. The Asian part had quite a few stir fry dishes, including a fried noodle dish which was so good I came back for 3 helpings! They also had 1 or 2 Thai curry dish. Japanese wise, they have the usual miso soup, sushi/ sashimi and udon noodles. Italian wise, there were different types of pasta and pizza. I think there's a roast beef and some other meat for the Grill. Can't comment much on the Indian food part cos my knowledge with regards to Indian food is close to zero, but there are quite a few different dishes. Loved the poached prawns, mussels, crabs and fresh oysters offered at the Delhi.
The best part of the buffet must be the desert counter, (also the largest amongst all the other counters) with everything beautifully made and believe me, they taste even better than they looked! They had all the different sorts of cakes, tarts, cut fruits, choclolates and sweets. There is a nice ice cream counter as well, with a huge selection of flavours and quite a big selection of toppings that you can choose to add. I personally think that this restaurant has the best and biggest selection of deserts.
My advice is that you have to come to this one at least once for dinner. You can either save it for the night when you can't get a booking of the other smaller restaurants or you can come here on a night when you are really hungry.
There are only 2 places where you can have breakfast, I think this one, and the comparatively much smaller Vilu Restaurant located on the island across. We were told Atoll Market has a much bigger selection. As we stayed in a beach villa quite close to the lobby, we had breakfast at the Atoll Market for all our breakfast meals. Selection as usual was huge, they have all the Continental breakfast stuff, and smaller sections for Asian, Japanese and Indian styled breakfast. The large desert counter in the middle is now being replaced by a whole collection of fruits. Some of these are imported and they even have the rarer things such as the jambus, longans, snake fruit (usually only seen in Indonesia), starfruit, green mandarin oranges (usually seen only in IndoChina). Again, it is impossible to sample everything in a single visit, (maybe a good excuse of us not wanting to try the other place for breakfast).
Conclusion: we actually liked this one very much, it's a great all-in-one place with everything for everyone. A must try!
Stayed August 2012
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Robin Yong
16,365Restaurant > Mandhoo Spa Restaurant | 14 September 2012
Excellent
Healthy food, vegetarian options
The Mandhoo Spa Restaurant, another restaurant at Conrad Maldives Rangali Island, is named after a nearby island, and has a spectacular location built on wooden stilts which extends about a 100 meters out into the Indian Ocean. It is the restaurant that is located furthest away from the hotel lobby area and furthest away from most other attractions or venues apart from the spa retreat. I think one of its purpose is to offer organic bio-dynamic calorie counted foods which can be combined with spa treatments to invigorate, relax, purify or detox depending on your mood.
It is an extremely beautiful place but perhaps because of the distance factor, it appears least crowded when compared to the other restaurants. The surrounding seas here appear clearer than those at the other parts of the island. We could really see the different types of colorful fish that swim beneath us here. The restaurant was bright and airy, with 3 sides of the restaurant walls consisting of foldable glass panel doors which were all kept open to let in the sunshine and the sea breeze; and certainly very quiet. One side of the whole connects directly to the kitchen. Outside the kitchen, there are these rows of neatly placed potted plants, which adds a modern and green touch to the building. Dining here was a wonderful experience on a hot sunny afternoon. There were only 2 other couples in the restaurant while we were there and it is so quiet and calm that you actually hear the lapping waves.
The restaurant is open from 7am to 11pm and serves gourmet spa cuisine with everything made using the finest organic ingredients only. During our periord of stay, afternoon tea at this restaurant is free, and there is a designated time for this, I think it is 4 to 5pm. We had initially planned to go for afternoon tea but did not do so because we spent all our time on all the other water sports activities instead. But we did come here for lunch because we wanted to experience a different restaurant for each meal whenever possible.The food here is actually quite tasty but servings are much smaller than what I had at other restaurants at Conrad Maldives Rangali Island. One interesting thing at the Mandhoo Spa restaurant is that they have an in-house nutritionist whom you can consult if you want to ensure that the food you order from the menu can be one that will be of most nutritional value to you. And their menu is classified according to 5 different elements: air, fire, earth, water and plant. Yes, their main courses, deserts and even juices are all classified according to the 5 elements. And they all have their nutritional values stated on them, a typical example would be say: “ Ptn 26.3g Cho 2.7g Fat 1.8g Sat 0.5g E 602.3kj 139.4Cal”. According to their menu, “ the Fire element represents detoxification and purification” and dishes classified under this category “stimulate the appetite and aid with the assimilation and absorption of food, in the cases of excess water, they can be used to drain the sinuses, to promote expectoration of phlegm and to decongest cholesterol blocked arteries.” And each of the other element will represent something different. In short, air is supposed to be "energizing", earth as "nourishing", fire for "detoxifying", water for "relaxing" and plant is for "fortifying". Pretty interesting concept altogether. Most dishes and deserts are priced around USD$20, but remember, servings are really quite small. Juices are priced about USD$10 each. I also noticed there are more vegetarian dishes at this restaurant.
I had the baked local tiger prawns gravlax style on the plancha, organic salmon with green leaves,fresh tomato tea with diced tofu under the Air category, which was light and tasty but as you can see from my pictures, quite a small serving. My travelling companion had sage marinated chicken breast, pumpkin and confit shallot risotto, warm orange broth, apple and horseradish chutney under the Earth category. Both dishes cost USD$19 each. They have some interesting drinks on the menu as well, such as the white wellness shake (consisting of kiwi, banana, apple, yoghurt, vanilla powder and grated chocolate), vitality fruit cocktail (banana, blueberry, nectarine pear, cocoa powder and ground cinamon) and melon shake (watermelon, orange, fresh mint leaves and cold low fat milk). Unfortunately, we were having a rather late lunch at 2pm and were abit pressed for time, so we did not try these nor the deserts. ( We had a Nemo submarine ride booked at 3pm, and had also made another reservation at the Vilu restaurant for dinner at 630pm, plus we were invited to a private Maldivian night party at 10pm).
Because of its distance, I’d recommend you call for a buggy to take you here and back if you are coming from around the lobby area or maybe borrow a bicycle. Walking back can otherwise take around 20 minutes.
In short, a gorgeous restaurant just next to the Spa, wonderful seating over the water and great healthy food. Food servings are small but sufficient for an enjoyable, healthy and very tasty lunch. (From a health point of view, we really do not need to stuff ourselves so full each meal, 70% full is actually quite sufficient). I was not expecting to like this restaurant as much as we did, and next time I come back here, I want to try their deserts and shakes. I'd actually give it 5 stars for quality, setting and afforrdability.
Stayed August 2012
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Robin Yong
16,365Food, ambience
Vilu Restaurant, Sunset Grill and Ithaa are all very popular restaurants at Conrad Maldives Rangali Island. I've heard from some travellers that you need to make bookings for some of these places well in advance. Some even book 2 weeks ahead of their scheduled date of arrival. If that was the case, we were quite lucky during our stay at the end of August to have secured reservations for both Vilu Restaurant and Ithaa (which I recently did a separate review). We made bookings only after day 1 of our stay. Unfortunately, we missed out on Sunset Grill because that one was fully booked.
August was not really a high season this year and the hotel don't look half full, I think it might be the tail end of the summer holidays for much of Europe coupled with the current economic downturn and of course the Chinese 7th month, which the Chinese consider somewhat unlucky to visit beach resorts. But trust me, these restaurants were extremely popular and tables were full! I suppose most tourists that stay at the hotel would want to try all these restaurants, after all, the many restaurants themselves are considered an attraction on their own! In fact, one of the reasons why we chose this resort over others was because it has so many different restaurants, so many different types of food to choose from and these restaurants are just so beautiful! You won't go hungry if you missed out on bookings for these 3 restaurants because there's always the Atoll Market, which has the biggest spread of buffet dinner one can imagine, so there's plenty of choices.
The Vilu is one of the most beautiful restaurants on the resort, in my opinion second only to the Ithaa. It is located on the opposite island of the main check in lobby so from the lobby, you will either have the walk or cycle across the bridge and after this go past the so-called Quiet Zone (swimming pool area) to reach this place. You can also catch a buggy to reach the place more quickly. Or alternatively, catch a dhoni ferry that comes every 10 minutes or so. The drop off point for the ferry is just a couple of minutes' walk from the restaurant. Vilu Restaurant serves up fine dining cuisine with a Mediterranean touch and showcases an exceptional wine collection. The restaurant is open daily from 7am to 11pm, so you can have breakfast here as well. The Vilu is also much larger compared to the Ithaa (which only seats 14) and Sunset Grill. You can sit indoors in a two different large typical beach huts or outside. One of this huts is where the kitchen is located and you can see some of the chefs at work. There are 3 large tanks of lobsters to ensure that these are fresh. The area is particularly great for photos in the evening during sunset. On that night, my friend ordered some combination seafood stuff while I had some roast pork thingy. Really high quality fine dining stuff! I didn't have any alcohol that night so I can't comment any further on the wine selection. Prices of the food was quite reasonable, main courses were about the USD$40-60 range, though I'm pretty sure those things (live lobsters) in the fish tanks will cost more. A la carte food portions/ sizes were just right, definitely bigger than those at Ithaa and another Mandhoo Spa restaurant. They actually are much bigger than what my photos suggest. We were actually quite famished that evening after going for huge array of activities thru'out the day. My friend who travelled with me to Conrad Maldives Rangali Island thinks this is the best place for food, although foodwise I prefer Atoll Market. Ambience wise, second only to the Ithaa.
The washroom of this restaurant is also very trendy and clean, dressed in its fresh colors of blue and white. There is a small bar in another hut just adjacent to this restaurant and a small gift shop about 1 minutes' walk away. I find the items offered for sale here much better than the one at the main lobby and those at the other islands and airport. So you might want to check out this souvenir shop if you are at the restaurant. As expected, service is always good, they always seem to have enough staff around who all knew what to recommend. The place does get quite dark after sunset, especially near the jetty so if you are living on the other side of the sea, I'd recommend you to get the restaurant staff to call a buggy for you rather than take the ferry.
In summary, a very nice restaurant, my highest recommendations! The sunset views were most unforgettable, really hope to be back here some day soon!
Stayed August 2012
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Robin Yong
16,365Restaurant > Ithaa Undersea restaurant | 2 September 2012
Excellent
Dining under the sea
Ithaa, which means mother-of-pearl in Dhivehi, is the world's first undersea restaurant. With its seven different restaurants, award winning Conrad Maldives Rangali Island is renowned for its exceptional international cuisine and wine selection and this one is apparently their flagship restaurant. Set 16 feet below sea level, this world class undersea restaurant offers spectacular 180° views of the surrounding coral and marine life. The structure was made overseas in Singapore and the subsequently lifted onto an ocean-going barge to be transported to the Maldives in late 2004. The restaurant first opened in April 2005. The 5-by-9-metre (16 by 30 ft) mostly acrylic structure has a capacity for 14 diners and is thus really an exclusive restaurant. Not sure about Sunday, but otherwise the restaurant is open daily for lunch, dinner and cocktails. Prices are not cheap, I think lunch costs USD$195 per person, less for cocktails and much more for dinner. But what you are paying for is really quality time in an exquisite environment and of course fine dining meals. Food served here is Western-Maldivian fusion. Reservations are strongly recommended as this restaurant is really getting quite popular despite its high prices and apparently a few tourists staying at other resorts come here for this as well.
The restaurant is located in a wooden hut past the also very famous Sunset Grill restaurant. Shortly after arrival to the resort, we were quick to make reservations for this restaurants after we missed out for dinner at the nearby Sunset Grill because it was fully booked and we had to settle for another restaurant. We managed to get a table for two for cocktails during the late morning on our departure date.
To get to Ithaa, we walked past the Sunset Grill restaurant and into a nice wooden thatched hut. The interior of the hut is air conditioned and simply decorated with three sofas, colored in either red or yellow, which sits nicely against the backdrop of a blue sea and sky. They had some beautiful transparent stickers of the restaurant logo pasted on the glass wall behind the sofas. Hmmm...I think I have just forgotten to ask the very nice and friendly staff there if they have an extra one to give me, it would look nice on my car windscreen and be a good reminder of this very wonderful place....
The glass coffee table has small streams of water on it which was cleverly decorated with fresh frangipani flowers. A blue wall at the left side of this hall has the beautiful restaurant name and logo on it, and past this a spiral staircase leads you down to the restaurant. Shoes are not permitted in the restaurant so we left them near the inside of the entrance. We didn't mind this because the expensive wooden flooring was actually quite comfortable for bare feet.
The underwater restaurant was shockingly beautiful, much better than what we saw of the pictures from the internet. On that day, there were only six other diners and the 7 tables made sure that the restaurant could not be overly crowded and everyone had plenty of space to move around and take pictures. We had champagne and cocktails and they served us some finger food as well, some tempura thingy and another smoked salmon type of food, which were really fine dining stuff. Personally, I preferred the Rangali Bar (also situated within this resort) for cocktails although the ones they served here are quite nice as well. The experience of dining at Ithaa was most enchanting. We could see out of the transparent walls the surrounding corals with all its marine life. Schools and schools of fishes, the occasional stingray, some eels, a shark or two and even one jelly fish! Someone mentioned that they might actually be feeding the fishes around the restaurant to attract them here, but even if this was true, the views were spectacular. I enjoyed pointing my camera to the transparent roof to picture the schools of fish swimming above us and the sun's ray piercing through the clear blue waters. The water is really so blue and beautiful! You won't see anything here that you don't see during snorkeling or diving, but for those that do not want to go diving or snorkeling or for whatever reason do not want to get wet, this is yet another wonderful and safe option to see the underwater world. I heard that the tsunami which followed the December 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake topped at 0.31 metres (1 ft 0 in) below the staircase entrance, and caused no damage to the restaurant!
Someone told me that the restaurant does not allow children because they want to maintain a calm and serene environment for other guests but I don't think this is true. From some of my pictures, you will all see that there is a young child in the restaurant, no he's not mine, but certainly he's really well behaved.
We spent about an hour in the restaurant, happily sipping champagne and cocktail and watching the fish around us swim by. We thoroughly enjoyed the drinks, the food and the experience. This is really one great place I'd recommend if you can afford the price and want something special for that special date or celebration. Truly an unforgettable experience. I hope to come back again and do dinner next time, I'd love to see how this place looks like at night.
Stayed August 2012
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piermaria.simionato (165,217 - 87,400) = 77,817 Points · 68 Reviews · 4,564 Photos · 64,572 Likes Paola (78,152 - 10,000) = 68,152 Points · 46 Reviews · 2,147 Photos · 35,481 Likes Stefano Bertolone (20,853 - 0) = 20,853 Points · 14 Reviews · 890 Photos · 9,195 Likes Robin Yong (16,365 - 0) = 16,365 Points · 18 Reviews · 451 Photos · 2,936 Likes Matt (6,784 - 0) = 6,784 Points · 11 Reviews · 781 Photos · 364 Likes
