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06/06/2005: "A Dining Room With a View in the Maldives"
In seafood restaurants you expect to find the fish on your plate. Not swimming around over your head. But in this new restaurant, your dinner table sits 16ft below the waves of the Indian Ocean.
In an interesting reversal of the situation at an aquarium where you can see fish eating their food, here they may glide over to enjoy the spectacle of you enjoying your mealtime. At the Hilton Maldives Resort, the Ithaa restaurant (pronounced 'eet-ha' which means 'pearl' in Dhivehi, the language of the Maldives) is a dining room with a view.
The restaurant tables are surrounded by a coral reef and encased in clear acrylic, offering diners 270 degrees of panoramic underwater views. When the waiter arrives at your table to elaborate on the catch of the day, explanations may be unnecessary - he will merely have to point out a handy specimen swimming by.
Carsten Schieck, general manager of Hilton Maldives Resort, says that they have used aquarium technology 'to put diners face-to-face with the stunning underwater environment of the Maldives'.
He explains: 'Our guests always comment on being blown away by the colour, clarity, and beauty of the underwater world in the Maldives, so it seemed the perfect idea to build a restaurant where diners can experience fine cuisine and take time to enjoy the views - without ever getting their feet wet.'
The fact that the entire restaurant, except for the floor, is made of clear acrylic is a world-first for Hilton, says Mr Schieck. 'We are currently planting a coral garden on the reef to add to the spectacular views of the rays, sharks and many colourful fish that live around the reef near the restaurant.'
Don't expect to share the experience with dozens of friends. The 16ft by 29ft transparent arch, which spans the entire room, seats just 14 people: 'Ithaa offers one of the most intimate and exclusive dining experiences in the world. It provides a feeling of being completely at one with the underwater world while submerged beneath the surface of the ocean.'
Ithaa is reached by a wooden walkway from the nearby over-water Sunset Grill Restaurant. Diners begin their meal with drinks on a specially constructed deck and then descend to the restaurant via a spiral staircase where the a la carte menu is served.
This innovative restaurant is part of a £3million rebuild of Rangalifinolhu Island, one of the twin islands that make up Hilton Maldives Resort. This rebuild includes the construction of 79 beach villas in the country as well as the Spa Village, a self-contained, over-water 'resort-within-a-resort' with a spa, restaurant and 21 villas.
The opening of the restaurant provides a further boost to the Maldives' tourist business which reports that bookings are recovering following the Boxing Day tsunami.
Eighty-two people, including three tourists, were confirmed dead when the waves crashed into the nation of some 1,200 low-lying islands off southern India.
While the number of deaths was low compared with other countries, the Maldives nevertheless suffered substantial damage: the tsunami affected one-third of the archipelago's 290,000 people and only nine of its 199 inhabited islands were spared destruction.
The physical damage, however, was substantially less than originally feared, largely because the coral atolls that surround the islands appear to have dissipated the force of the waves.
Early inspections have shown that fortunately the fragile reefs have suffered no lasting damage.
The majority of hotels and resorts have now reopened. Out of a total of 87 resorts, 74 are back in business and six months on tourists are returning in growing numbers. Hotel occupancy now stands at 71 per cent - well below the usual 90 per cent expected for the period- but a creditable figure in the circumstances.
(this article was taken from the Mail On Sunday)
