Ithaa - Dining With The Sharks
One of the most unforgettable experiences Conrad Rangali Island resort offers is dining at Ithaa, world’s first undersea restaurant. You are given a rare opportunity to dine, as it were, in the company of sharks and fishes who are all around you. I will let you in on a secret: you will not be the only one who is offered a multi-course gourmet meal. While you dine sharks and fishes are fed too. This explains why there is so many of them swarming all around you. Actually, they are so used to having a meal at the same time humans do that they show up immediately after guests are seated at the restaurant, way before their meal arrives.
Ithaa, in fact, can be better described as a dining hall since the meals are cooked and delivered from the nearby Sunset Grill restaurant. It is open for a cocktail hour, lunch and dinner. It is open three times a week and has only six tables. So, reservations are a must.
Sunset Grill in the front with Ithaa in the back.
Once you enter Ithaa you will find yourself in a waiting room which features comfortable sofas. There is also a shoe rack for your shoes which you will have to take off before proceeding downstairs into the dining capsule. The restrooms are on the entrance level.
Ithaa has only six dining tables, so reservations are a must.
Lunch menu, which is a prix fixe deal. Dining at Ithaa is a four-course feast. All dishes were exceptionally tasty.
Warm bread and infused butter.
Appetizer: Dill infused salmon with caviar, beet, caper mayo, pistachio and pickled radish.
A very vegetarian entree: Foie gras tourchon with pecan granola, poached rhubarb, fried shallot and green apple.
Main course: Miso & truffle marinated black cod with green pea, edamame bean, snow pea, crisp noodles, and onion sauce.
Dessert: Yuzu set mousse with passion fruit, pineapple, coriander and butter milk.
Meanwhile… While we were enjoying our lunch diverse schools of fish and reef sharks (thankfully, they are vegetarian) were swarming above and all around us, first, waiting for their own meal, then eating it.
Watch looks like scratching on the protective glass is, in fact, fish food ‘leftovers.’
Having lunch for two at Ithaa does not come cheap as you can see from the check below. Seven-course dinners are even more expensive. Depending on your budget, you may want to opt for the cocktail hour with canapés. It is much less expensive than lunch. On the bright side, you don’t have to tip anywhere at Conrad. Restaurant bills and other kinds of service bills include a 10% service charge that is later distributed to all the Conrad employees. You are welcome to leave a personal tip, if specific service went above and beyond.
Lunch for two came to $566.72. Yes, it is very expensive but it leaves you a lifetime of memories! It’s not every day or even year that you can enjoy a delicious meal underwater and surrounded by all sorts of sea creatures.