Male’s High-Rated Local Restaurant

Staying one night in Male before exploring the Maldives? Skip the overhyped spots—here’s a local gem 🏝️. Scouring Xiaohongshu for food guides, I found lots of recommendations for a Thai restaurant with 200-300 RMB per person, but just as many reviews calling it "terrible and overpriced" 🤔. So I started fresh with my own research. On Foursquare (think of it as Male’s local version of Dianping), I stumbled on Lemongrass. There are two locations on Male (see Figure 3): The "Restaurant" on the west side of Male with a 6.1 rating; The "Seaview" on the northeast corner with a 7.5 rating )—which is pretty high here 🌟. I suspect the menus are the same; the difference is that Seaview sits right by the sea, with stunning views. Sadly, we arrived after sunset, so we only got to enjoy the night scenery 🌃. This place is great value with huge portions 🍽️. The two of us ordered everything in Figure 1: a salad 🥗, a burger set 🍔, chicken masala, plus two mojitos 🍹. We stuffed ourselves and still couldn’t finish. The food was delicious, and the restaurant was clean. Note: Maldivian restaurants automatically add 6% tax and 10% service charge, so no need for extra tips 💴. Our total was 480 MVR (exchange rate ~2:1 to RMB, so around per person—fantastic value in my book ✅. (This post is located at the "Restaurant" branch; search "Lemongrass Seaview" on Google Maps for the waterfront spot.) #Maldives #MaleFood #lemongrass