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 Other than sunbathing, diving and practicing the art of doing nothing, one of the greatest pleasures in the Maldives is eating. There are four kinds of cuisine available in the resorts. European, International, Asian and Maldivian.
In most resorts European and International cuisine are available in almost all the food outlets while you may have to wait for a certain special buffet night to taste the Maldivian delights. Mainly this is because international chefs work in the resorts and local goods are hard to get as the resorts are far away from the nearest market. Most of the resorts do hold a Maldivian buffet once a week giving a chance for every guest to taste the local delights at least once. The best way to sample Maldivian cuisine is to drop by into one of the many cafe's in Male'.
Cafes
The cafes that are locally known by the name of 'hotaa'. In most of the 'hotaa' type cafes, as you enter you will see an array of short eats (little snacks), locally known as 'hedhikaa' set out on glass shelves for self-service. And the expertise chefs make variety of foods on requests.
Short eats
Most of the short eats you find will have one common ingredient: fish. Most are the fried pastry type in various shapes. Although fish is the common ingredient, vegetable is also used as fillings.
Along with hot and spicy such items, the selves will be filled with sweet items such as coconut based delicacies and soft goo-like cubes locally known as 'foni boakibaa'.
In these cafe's, heavier meals are also available, including rice and different spicy Maldivian style curries. Roshi, which can be eaten with any curry and which is a common favorite with 'mashuni' is available in all 'hotaas'. Mashuni can be translated into 'mixture'. Mashuni is a mixture prepared with hands mixing tuna fish, whether smoked or canned with scraped coconut, onion, raw chilli, salt and lemon juice to taste. In most of the cafe type 'hotaas', tables are shared and everyone takes what they want from the array of 'hedhikaas' on that particular selves. For fast service, they use this system, as these places can be quite busy. And all the 'hotaas' are self-serviced to avoid inconvenience of the customers. Tea and all soft drinks are available.
Tipping again is not something that is expected.
Though none of the food outlets stay open all night, these types of cafe's are open late depending on the busy atmosphere of the night.
Tea at Hotaa
It is a sort of a Maldivian custom, especially for the men to have a tea in the 'hotaa' at the end of the day. Especially, for those who works in different kinds of businesses. Office workers are also seen in the 'hotaas' dropping for a quick cup of tea at brunch time. The 'hotaas' are filled around 11.30 during the night, when most of the men close their shops and drop in for a tea before heading home. These cafe types 'hotaas' are a good place to meet and talk with all kinds of people, apart from sampling the food.
These type of cafe's are not to be confused with restaurants and snack bars that are around Male'. Maldivian women are not seen in 'hotaas' as these places are patronized by men alone. Men are on the move, in different kinds of work, from the fisherman to the shop owner. Mostly these men drops for a quick tea at these cafes and most places are noisy. Women are mostly seen in snack bars, ice-cream parlors and restaurants.
Different types of small teashops are found on the Western Harbor side, where the atmosphere at night is one of fun and relaxation. Different types of fast food are served here. You will see the old and young here, trying to have some fun and time together before retiring for the night.
Restaurants
Most women and the younger set are seen in snack bars and restaurants.
There are quite a few good places where the younger generation can make it their favorite haunts. While prices seem reasonable, the food fast and snackish at the snack bar types, the prices at restaurants are high.
There are quite a couple of delivery services including pizza delivery and different kinds of meals.
Around Male', you will come across one or two Indian restaurants along with a Thai restaurant on the waterfront. Although a variety of food is available in these restaurants, it cannot be called fine dining or nouvelle cuisine. This is mostly because most of the restaurants try to serve all categories of people and classes of people. This leads them trying to be affordable for all clientele.
For gourmet-style dining at better value, you can eat in one of the nearby resort islands. But, that is after hiring a boat. There are super restaurants offering fine dining at the resorts within 20 minutes distance to Male', including Kurumba Village, Bandos Island Resort and Full Moon Beach Resort. You will have to make a prior reservation, as their first priority will always be the guests staying on that island.
 Most resorts have a buffet at breakfast time. Most of the time, these buffets seem like a feast, as this is one meal that all the resorts give utmost importance to. You will see a great variety of buns, fruits, cereals and even Maldivian food on these buffets. Maldivian curry is not as fierce as Indian or Sri
Lankan.
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