Kandu Restaurant, Club Med Kani

Took a short break during the Vesak day holiday weekend to Maldives. The place where people call Paradise on Earth. Stayed in Club Med, being an all-inclusive resort the meals and drinks were all provided for. However they have a specialty restaurant – Kandu in the resort that serves sit down dinner and (at additional cost) lobster meal. Reservations to be made at 12 noon the day before and there are limited seats.

Tired of the buffet-styled food in the main hall, we made reservations at Kandu for 2 dinners. One lobster meal and another just the normal meal (no top-up required). We were impressed by the view at the restaurant in the day when we went to make our reservations for dinner. In the day, the restaurant is used to serve late breakfast and late lunch in the day which are just simple snacks.

The lobster meal was a 5-course dinner which comes with a glass of champagne comprising of: Pumpkin Cream Soup, Tuna Sashimi, Scallops, Lobster with hollandaise sauce and Dessert – choice of Creme Brulee/Apple Pie. At us$79 per pax, I was kinda disappointed with the quality of food thou it doesn’t come as a surprise. Almost everything in Maldives are imported hence they come at a price. The soup was lukewarm, the tuna sashimi was nice, the scallops were reasonably fresh but cooking was mediocre, lobster flesh was slightly mushy. Desserts were acceptable. I think I enjoyed the us$25 white wine I ordered more than the meal itself.

We returned the next day for another dinner meal, this time round just taking the set meal at no additional cost. After having meals at the main dining hall, we were pretty sure that the food in the specialty restaurant would be slightly better. Afterall even at the main dining hall, my favorite dish was Tuna sashimi/ Tuna sushi roll…followed by Indian curry. Limited choice despite the wide variety of food available…The Chinese food was too oily, Western pasta was too dry…grilled fish had too many bones.

Back to Kandu, the standard set meal was 4-course, had the same Pumpkin Soup and Dessert options as the lobster meal. Instead of scallops and lobster, we had Rolled Crispy Tuna Sashimi and Seafood Kebab or Grilled Beef (Main). I was again disappointed, the Seafood Kebab as the shrimp was miserably unfresh…the flesh was crumpy. The other ingredients on the kabab were acceptable but I don’t taste any “grill” smoky taste at all. The steak was reasonably done, one of the best dishes.

Overall we were disappointed with the food in Club Med Kani. Having been to Club Med Cherating, the food in Maldives is a far cry from that offered in Malaysia. Luckily we still enjoyed the endless cocktails.