Photo courtesy of Anantara Kihavah Villas
The Maldives is one of the world’s top diving destinations, but you don’t have to be a diver to experience the beautiful underwater world of the Maldives! We dined adventurously at Anantara Kihavah Sea Restaurant, part of the the quartet of Anantara’s signtaure Sea.Fire.Salt.Sky dining complex. Located on the ocean floor, Sea is a magical experience with 360 views of passing fish, turtles, and even sharks.
Sea viewed from Salt’s deck
Sea is open for both lunch and dinner. We were invited for lunch, which is a 3-course lobster lunch of lobster spring rolls, lobster bisque with lobster fritters on asparagus sticks, and grilled lobster. A molten chocolate brownie is a sweet finish to the incredible meal. While the food is absolutely delicious, the real magic of Sea is being beneath the sea while fish swim all around.
Anantara Kihavah Sea Restaurant feels incredibly exclusive and luxe with just eight tables. Our 1pm reservation afforded us a lot of privacy, with just one our table dining at the same time. For part of our magical underwater meal, we even had the restaurant completely to ourselves. A baby sea turtle decided to join us, munching on the coral as we sipped wine and watched in amazement just a few feet away.
Each table has a book of Maldivian reef fish and we had fun pointing out all the various fish swimming around and quickly flipping through the book to name them. “Oh look! There goes a trumpetfish,” I’d point out. “Hey, I saw that guy snorkeling yesterday. He’s called a Titan Triggerfish,” Tim countered back.
View from our table
A trumpetfish swims by
I was almost to distracted by all the colorful reef fish to eat! As we sat there enjoying a crazy-cool lunch under the sea, I started thinking that we should snorkel right around the restaurant. “I don’t think they want us swimming around the restaurant while people are trying to eat,” Tim said. Just then a couple went snorkeling by! The timing couldn’t have been more perfect to prove that snorkeling around the restaurant was a brilliant idea. (And so we did the next morning!)
Once we finally pulled ourselves away from all the magical fish, we spent a bit of time exploring the more than 250 labels in the underwater wine cellar. Classic vintages from 14 different countries fill the underwater wine cellar’s coolers and shelves. I even spotted bottles of my favorite red, Malbec.
We did peek into the restaurant at nighttime out of curiosity. Spotlights illuminate the water and some sharks were swimming by just as we had poked our heads in. But if we had to recommend lunch or dinner for the best viewing, we definitely recommend lunch.
Know Before You Go
- Reservations are required for Sea. Dinner costs US$240 per person with wine pairing, lunch is US$185 per person.
- Don’t forget your camera!
Thank you to Anantara Kihavah Villas for hosting us during our stay and inviting us to such a magical lunch. As always, all rave reviews and opinions are entirely our own.
Would you like to dine at Anantara Kihavah Sea Restaurant?
Jennifer Dombrowski
Jennifer Dombrowski is a location independent globe trotter and bases herself in Prata di Pordenone, Italy. She works as a social media and innovation strategist in higher education and is a regular contributor on johnnyjet.com. Her website, jdombstravels.com, is the 2012 Destinology Travel Bloggy Best Newcomer award winner. Google+
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We’re Jennifer and Tim and we love traveling! We are just one ordinary couple who have found that travel brought us closer together, taught us patience, the art of compromise, and how to truly appreciate the diversity of this extraordinary world. So far, we've visited 37 countries, lived in the United States and Italy, and Tim has lived in Korea. And we do it all while both holding down full time jobs. 
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memographer
February 14, 2013 at 3:11 pm (UTC 2) Link to this comment
Ahh! This is so cool! The underwater restaurant and wine cellar! Nice! I am not a diver (and will never be, too scary). So this place is, definitely, for me even with $200 per person. On my list.
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Jennifer Dombrowski Reply:
February 14th, 2013 at 6:26 pm
You would love the restaurant then! It was amazing to see all the reef fish, but we could also see the bigger fish of the deep hanging out just past the sea cliff.
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Andrew
February 14, 2013 at 9:55 pm (UTC 2) Link to this comment
Neat idea, but seems a bit expensive, though the view is pretty amazing. I agree about the lunch/dinner thing for the viewing. I would think that daytime would be a nicer time to see things.
What are the other restaurants like? Salt and Fire sounds cool too. Fire better be in a volcano though.
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Jennifer Dombrowski Reply:
February 14th, 2013 at 11:04 pm
Hi Andy! The other restaurants were also fantastic. We liked Salt best out of the others. They have a salt sommelier that recommends various salts to enhance the flavors of the food. I wrote a full review on dining options: http://jdombstravels.com/eat-anantara-kihavah-villas-maldives/
Prices really aren’t too high considering the over water villas start at around $2600 per night. And I’d say it was worth worth it for both a Michelin star meal and such a unique experience!
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Sofie
February 15, 2013 at 11:41 am (UTC 2) Link to this comment
Okay, I’m SO jealous!
I would loooooooooooooove to have lunch at Sea!!!
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Jennifer Dombrowski Reply:
February 15th, 2013 at 4:40 pm
It was an incredible experience, Sophie! I wish I could have lunch there every day!
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Ali
February 15, 2013 at 3:50 pm (UTC 2) Link to this comment
Sounds like an awesome experience! I’d probably be too distracted to eat too.
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Jennifer Dombrowski Reply:
February 15th, 2013 at 4:41 pm
We’ve eaten in restaurants with aquarium windows before, but this was just so much better! You never quite knew what was going to swim by.
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Andrea
February 15, 2013 at 9:18 pm (UTC 2) Link to this comment
This would be magic!
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Jennifer Dombrowski Reply:
February 15th, 2013 at 10:10 pm
Definitely magic, Andrea! At special requests, the resort will turn the restaurant into an underwater bedroom. Now, that would really be magical!
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Laurel
February 18, 2013 at 12:28 pm (UTC 2) Link to this comment
This looks incredible, would love to eat here!
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Jennifer Dombrowski Reply:
February 19th, 2013 at 10:40 am
It absolutely was, Laurel! I wish I could eat there every day…and then snorkel around to work off my lunch!
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As Marine
February 20, 2013 at 10:21 pm (UTC 2) Link to this comment
That is so beautiful!
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