Maafushi Island is one of the larger local islands in the Maldives and has many restaurants and dining options to choose from.
Do you want to try local Maldivian food? Prefer to stick with Western food? Or, do you want to eat a fish of the day?
After spending 3 days on Maafushi Island, we visited a few restaurants for lunch and dinner. We tried top-rated restaurants after a quick search on Google Maps.
So, here is our guide to the places we ate at on Maafushi Island. The list is not in any particular order. It’s also not a complete list as our hotel stay included breakfast and our snorkeling excursions catered two lunches.
Are these the best restaurants to eat in Maafushi? It’s a mixed bag. Each restaurant has good aspects and opportunities for improvement.
But we wanted to share our honest experience of each place. We paid for these meals so there aren’t any sponsored meals in this post.
Note: Many restaurants accept both Maldivian Rufiyaa and U.S. dollars for payment.
Map
Click on the image to see a larger view of the map. Credit: Map data: Google
Semili’s Restaurant Maafushi
After arriving at Maafushi from Male, we were starving and found Seimini’s Restaurant near our hotel.
Once we entered the restaurant, the cold air from the air conditioning was a nice reprieve from the heat and humidity.
The extensive menu has a variety of foods such as local Maldivian food, Indian food, pizza, burgers, pasta, seafood, dumplings, and more. Since I don’t eat meat, I was excited to see a variety of seafood and vegetarian options.
We ordered three dishes to share – tuna stir-fried noodles, fish of the day with salad and rice, and fish dumplings. (We saw on Google Reviews how many people ordered the dumplings so we had to try one of the flavors!)
Lunch at Semili’s Restaurant
Before we dived into our food, we noticed the large portions. So, sharing the food is recommended for a larger group.
The tuna stir-fried noodles had springy noodles, diced pieces of tuna, and topped with a fried egg and papadum (Indian chips). The side of chili crunch (chili oil) gave the noodles an extra kick.
We originally thought the fried noodles would be made with instant noodles since we’re used to that when eating mì xào in Vietnam. But we were surprised to see lo mein type of noodles, which made the dish yummy.
The fish of the day was a local reef fish with a hearty texture of tuna. It came with a small salad and a mountain of turmeric rice. The fish was dry, but it had a layer of spicy sauce to help with the dryness. There was also extra chili sauce (that is actually spicy!) on the side.
Lastly, the fish dumplings were delectable to eat! The filling was juicy and flavorful. The dumpling skins had a nice chew and were wrapped beautifully in a leaf shape. I thought these tasted better than the fish dumplings from Din Tai Fung.
Overall, it was a good value and reasonably priced. We spent $17.20 for the meal.
Address: At the intersection of Valu Magu and Husnuheena Magu Road
Payment: Cash & credit cards accepted
Cost: Chicken pizza (90 MVR/$5.80), Prawn dumplings (80 MVR/$5.20), Grilled lobster with dumplings (330 MVR/$21.40)
Fine Bake by Suzy
Since we had a late lunch and weren’t hungry for dinner, we opted to eat baked goods from Fine Bake by Suzy.
We stopped by after 7:00pm, and there weren’t many options – a few baked goods and cookies. So, we would recommend that you stop by earlier in the day if you want to try the sandwiches and savory items.
We bought a carrot cake and a hummingbird cake.
Note: There may be flies inside the sneeze guard and swarming over the baked goods. It’s up to your comfort level on whether you want to buy the baked goods or not. We’re used to flies after living in Vietnam for many years, so we bought them. (We did not get sick the day after!)
We ate them in our hotel and both were delicious. They were very fluffy and not too sweet.
It was my first time eating a hummingbird cake, so I didn’t know what to expect. This version tasted like a brown sugar cake with walnuts.
The only complaint that we had was that each piece was very oily. The paper bags holding each piece of cake soaked up a lot of oil.
Address: Across from the sports field in the center of the island
Payment: Cash
Cost: Carrot cake (30 MVR/$2.00)
Sapphire Cafe
Looking for a local place to eat? Sapphire Cafe is your answer!
Located on the eastern side of the island and next to the beach, this low-key place has outdoor seating with overhead fans blowing. We went here for lunch and it’s where many locals go to eat and hang out.
The menu has Indian dishes, rice, noodles, roshi, pasta, burgers, pizzas, and more. There are vegetarian options available.
We ordered a tuna burger with fries and a tuna kottu roshi.
Lunch at Sapphire Cafe
The tuna burger had a deep-fried breaded patty, a slice of cheese, and lettuce. Honestly, I didn’t taste much tuna in the patty, but it was yummy. The side of fries was extra crispy – the way I like them!
The tuna kottu roshi is a Maldivian dish with small pieces of roshi (flatbread), mixed with tuna, and topped with a fried egg. There was a bowl of papadum to complement the dish.
The first few bites were very yummy. Then diminishing marginal returns happened and eating it became carbohydrate heavy for me.
While the food was good, there were flies everywhere. They instantly smelled our food, became hungry, and swarmed our table. We held our food in one hand and then the other hand was used for swatting.
Once we finished our meal, we received a slice of watermelon for free. It was a nice gesture. The watermelon was sweeter than the watermelon served at breakfast so we devoured it.
We paid $10 for our meal which is a good value.
Address: Corner of Mirihi Magu and Roashanee Hingun Road
Payment: Cash (We didn’t ask if they accepted credit cards)
Cost: Margherita pizza (110 MVR/$7.15). Chicken burger (70 MVR/$4.55), Tuna fried noodles (60 MVR/$3.90)
Mr. Octopus
Established in 2019, Mr. Octopus is an open-aired restaurant located on Bikini Beach and is known for their seafood.
The main dining area is covered and on the sand for the beach vibe. For extra air flow, there are ceiling fans.
The menu focuses on seafood, such as grilled lobster, calamari, tuna steaks, and grilled reef fish. Additional options include meat, chicken tandoori, fried rice, pizza, burgers, and sandwiches. There are a few vegetarian options, but not many.
We ordered a seafood platter and had a choice of mashed potato, warm garlic bread, or fries. Since we had fries for lunch at Sapphire Cafe, we opted for mashed potato.
A seafood platter at Mr. Octopus
The seafood platter was enough food for the two of us. It came with mussels, reef fish, tuna, calamari rings, one crab, four tiger prawns, octopus, and corn.
Compared to the other restaurants that we tried the seafood platter was very flavorful – a bit too salty and buttery for our palettes.
Otherwise, the seafood was pretty average and had a mushy texture. It was a disappointment, but maybe an off-day for the seafood freshness.
One of the memorable parts of the dinner was the raging thunderstorm! We received our food just before the thunderstorm hit.
The restaurant had three blackouts so each table received a LED table lamp until the power returned. The heavy rain seeped into our sandy area and became flooded.
Considering the circumstances, the waiters did a good job delivering food to the tables.
We paid $40 for the seafood platter and two hot teas. It’s on the pricier side, but the beach vibe was nice. Hope the seafood quality improves for us to return.
Address: Aabaadhee Hingun Road and Valu Magu Road
Payment: Cash & credit cards accepted
Cost: Grilled lobster per 100g (160 MVR/$10.40 per 100g), Seafood platter (510 MVR/$33.15), Meat platter for sharing (600 MVR/$39.00), Chicken pizza (150 MVR/$9.75)
Melon Restaurant by Maladiwa
Melon Restaurant is located in the Maladiwa Hotel. It’s one of the higher-reviewed restaurants on Google Maps so it piqued our interest.
We checked out the menu located outside of the restaurant, and the waiters eagerly invited us to eat here. Before entering the restaurant, everyone needs to take off shoes and sandals.
The extensive menu has local Maldivian cuisine, meat, seafood, pasta, rice, and dessert. There are vegetarian items such as mozzarella balls and dal tarka.
Since we went on a whale shark snorkeling excursion earlier in the day and burned calories, we were hungry.
We ordered three items – grilled wahu fish steak, Maladiwa fish curry with rice, and poutine fries.
Dinner at Melon Restaurant
The poutine fries came out first and it was a good way to start the dinner. We haven’t had authentic poutine so we don’t know the exact flavor. But this version had fries with gravy sauce and melted mozzarella cheese on top.
The grilled wahu fish steak had a huge piece of fish with a side of fries and roasted vegetables. The wahu fish had a denser texture similar to tuna.
Unfortunately, it was a bit dry for us. But the fries and the roasted veggies of green beans and broccoli were cooked well. The roasted potatoes were still hard so they needed a few more minutes of cooking.
We overheard a waitress recommending the Malawdiwa fish curry to another guest as “really delicious” so I was excited to try it. Unfortunately, the hype was a bit of a letdown. The fish curry was smaller than I expected and the flavor was bland. So, I wouldn’t recommend this dish.
We didn’t have a chance to try the desserts, but we saw a few tables ordering them.
Our meal and hot tea cost $30. The pricing is moderate as it’s one of the nicer places to eat.
Address: Corner of Miskiy Magu Road and Husnuheena Magu Road
Payment: Cash & credit cards accepted
Cost: Fillet mignon steak (220 MVR ), Grilled wahu fish steak (145 MVR), Chicken biryani (130 MVR)
Final Thoughts
With our limited 3 days on Maafushi Island, we tried a few restaurants the island offers. On a return trip, we would return to a few of them and would try other cafes and restaurants for the local flavors.
For those who like seafood and fish, they are a hit or miss as it may not be as fresh as expected. Seafood is transported from Male City to Maafushi as there is a Fish Market.
If you’ve visited Maafushi before, which restaurants would you recommend? Let us know in the comments below.
Check out our other Maafushi posts:
Like this post? Save it to your Maldives board on Pinterest.
