Maldives, as a destination, is all about superlatives. It pushes creativity and imagination to the maximum in a bid to find new ways to engage the rich and (possibly) blasé. Everywhere you turn, the hotels are magnificent, the suites are opulent, wines are rare and the food is exquisite. In a heightened world of luxury as this, what does one do to stand out? Well, during our stay at the super oomph-inducing Ozen Life Maadhoo, we were privy to a very (very!) special dining experience. Now, for some (humble, yet humbling) background, we have dined at some of the finest tables in the world with star-studded chefs and drank the most precious wines while there. So, it would take more than just a fancy meal to make it memorable, and M6M (Minus Six Metres) at the resort didn’t disappoint.
From the surface, when you arrive, all you see is a hostess desk besides a small lift tower, and she welcomes you with a sincere smile and a glass of Prosecco, (or something non-alcoholic for the boring types). And then she prompts you to step into the lift. When you alight, the lift opens out into a small anteroom where another server is already waiting to receive you. And she guided us into the main hall, and that is when our collective jaws dropped and stayed there.
We were greeted by the most magnificent visual, an array of big windows that looked out into the sea at a depth of roughly six metres. Now, I said windows because I know they were windows but if someone had told me they were, in fact, super high-definition AMOLED screens playing an elaborate aquatic-theme screensaver on loop, I would have had little reason to doubt them. The sight of all those fish—reef sharks, anemones, tangs—and the swaying corals was all too surreal as restaurant wall decorations go. The seating was extremely adaptive, designed in a manner so that all the diners were facing outwards, peering through these windows out into the great wide blue.
The meal was a five-course menu, and one could choose between seafood and meat series and, of course, there was a vegetarian option too. The menus were well planned, a lovely array of seafood, the right-sized portions cooked to perfection with thoughtfully chosen accompaniments and all of these were paired with wines and even an array of signature cocktails. The glasses in which we were served were all handmade and there was an innate beauty in their imperfection. The point being that in spite of such a spectacular display all around us, the chef and service team had still managed to conjure up an array of drinks and dishes that stood out and held on to the limelight.
Somewhere between the second and third course, as the fish flocked around the windows, going about their aquatic lives, doing their reef thing, I even found the time for a momentary, fleeting existential quandary of whether it was us, the spectators, observing all the fish, or was it, in fact, the other way round—an exhibit of humans gathered into a small area for the fish to enjoy. As a qualified rescue diver, I have learnt one thing for certain. It is that the sea world has no interest in humans, either as food or, even lesser, as a curious form of life. So, that was that.
Oh, all this was accomplished with our six-month-old in tow, which showed that the restaurant was well-equipped to handle the needs of even the youngest of guests. Thankfully, he was equally mesmerised by all the ‘fishies’— so, it was smooth sailing for us through most of the meal.
The resort allows non-residents to come and dine with them. But the easier way to do this would be to check yourself into Ozen Life Maadhoo, pick the indulgence package and ensure you are there for the minimum stipulated length of stay so that you can automatically eat there at M6M as part of your booking. Since the wine and drinks never stop flowing, I urge you to try the pairing, else, there is always a certain charm in watching fish bob about while you savour something sparkly in your glass.
The writer is a sommelier
