Patina Maldives, Fari Islands review: food finally comes first in the Maldives

Whenever someone talks about the Maldives it’s always the same summary: jaw-dropping seas, postcard beaches, the height of luxury and… mediocre food. No matter what resort, no matter what island, the cuisine is always a comparative let down. It’s become an expected, begrudgingly accepted part of visiting one of the world’s most beautiful nations – until now.

Since opening in May 2021, Patina Maldives has not only created a luxury resort of eco-friendly practices and environmentally-conscious architecture, it’s fixed the Maldives’ long-standing food dilemma, one beautiful dish at a time.

Why stay here?

After a seaplane or boat transfer to the Fari Islands, you’re greeted by a Patina “experientialist” – your personal attendant for the duration of your stay. Whether you want a lift, your flight checked in, or someone to run your outdoor bath with rose petals, they’re only a WhatsApp away. Welcoming you by name with a cool drink and towel that feels like heaven after a long-haul flight, they transport you along sand paths and palm trees to your accommodation.

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For me, that’s an overwater villa that looks like it fell straight from the pages of a magazine. The suite is nothing short of extraordinary; infinitely spacious with every possible need attended to. The bed is plush, the bathroom and waterfall shower larger than some London flats and there’s a bottle of complimentary champagne chilling in the fridge.

The star of the show, however, is just outside. Floor-to-ceiling windows face out into the sunset over a brilliant blue ombré of the Indian Ocean. Your deck is kitted out with a private pool, bath, and a ladder straight into the sea. The reef at Patina’s newly-reclaimed island is still young, but ongoing efforts at coral planting and steady growth means you can snorkel with many reef fish. As your morning coffee brews, you may spot dolphins in the waves.

Art and wellness

On land, the suites, rooms and restaurants seem to organically appear from the undergrowth. Brazilian architect Marcio Kogan designed the resort so that it blends into the palms, never peeking over the highest trees and with each room always just out of view from the sinuous sand avenues. It’s organic escapist architecture. Formed primarily from a beautiful grey wood that looks weather-washed despite its newness, you could believe Patina has always been here.

The resort also hides a wealth of activities and art. The spa is a host of immersion tanks, yoga studios, private pool rooms and massage suites, and is kitted out by organic British brand Haeckels that’s doing sensational things with seaweed and other sustainable natural resources. Arriving at the spa, we’re offered a gummy vitamin, 3-D printed and tailored to promote inner peace.

Sculptures, tapestries and photographs decorate both outdoor and indoor spaces. The crowning glory is James Turrell’s Amarta, a huge edifice artwork designed to frame the sky and manipulate its moving canvas with coloured lights.

Eating and drinking

Breakfast

Then there’s the main, palatable event. Simply put, Patina’s restaurants have raised the bar for Maldivian resort food and done away with one of the biggest problems travellers face here: the captive audience conundrum. Stuck on an island for a week with the same two restaurants soon becomes boring and bland. Not so at Patina, where the 12 restaurants sprawled across this small sand stretch cook up an extensive range of cuisines. Its diversity is so impressive that guests from the nearby hotels are popping over to take advantage.

Beachfront breakfasts reign supreme at Helios in the island’s north. An ode to Aegean food, Helios’ Turkish chef team serves up hot and cold mezze, featuring divine menemem eggs with onions, peppers and spices; baked halloumi with pomegranate molasses; and golden honeycomb draped with thick creamy kaimek, all scooped up onto freshly baked sesame simit. Breakfast is served on the shore, alongside the likes of freshly squeezed watermelon juice and green smoothies.

Lunch

The village is a concentrated area of food trucks and restaurants, a quick cycle to the south. Here you can tuck into meaty, just-seared tuna burgers from the Go Go Burger truck, try the Ritz Carlton-run Tum Tum pan-Asian trailer, taste your way through the daily free ice creams at Tuk Tuk gelato, or head out of the heat into Farine where baked goods, cheese and wine await.

A short stroll past the resort’s clothing shops, dive and marine biology centres brings you to Fari Beach Club bar and restaurant. Headed by chef Nick Bril, Fari is a haven of exposed brick, soft grey sofas, dark woods and glowing lanterns. The club is one of the best places to end your night, sipping on a cocktail with a local twist, a fine spirit, or sending puffs of shisha up into the starlit sky. At lunch and dinner, Fari devotes itself to local seafood caught just offshore: try the crispy prawn dumpling, the reef fish sashimi and the catch of the day.

Dinner

The dinner options seem to run through the resort’s fingers like its fine white sand. Koen is a Japanese-Norwegian fusion and a firm visitor favourite, while Brasa shows off the fire and smoke of South American grilled meats. I had expected Koen to easily be everyone’s favourite, but ask the ever-accommodating staff, including culinary director John Bakker, and there’s only ever one answer.

Wok Society is fun, beautiful and every single dish hits the mark. An oriental fusion, dinner is served up by firelight under a palm tree canopy, bare feet sinking in the sand. The menu reads like a wish list. First comes dim sum; bursting xiao long bao, sweet siu mai, pan fried beef dumplings and sticky, translucent har gow. Sashimi and sushi soon follows, with tuna, Atlantic salmon, yellow tail and eel taking the starring roles.

The eponymous wok takes over as mains are beckoned in by attentive servers: black pepper beef, Hong Kong-style steamed fish, slow-cooked pork belly, dan dan noodles and a seriously spicy calamari. For dessert, skip the agonising choice between yuzu and black sesame or matcha and have both.

Home-grown cuisine

In a quiet corner of the island sits one of Patina’s sustainability efforts and its other best restaurant. Roots is in the permaculture garden, where Patina is trying to farm the famously infertile Maldivian land. They are meeting with moderate success – not enough to sustain the entire resort but enough to fuel much of the restaurant.

Dinner here is exceptional: a seasonal vegetarian feast on a giant stone table dappled with candlelight and flowers growing right down the middle. There are vegetable-rich energy bowls, flower-full minestrone, watermelon tataki, tomato confit and a bread basket-truffle butter combination that you’ll keep coming back to.

When you’re not being fed, Patina offers the chance to chef for yourself. Maldivian cooking classes are a brilliant experience, exploring Malé’s wet and fruit markets to shop for ingredients, before taking guests back to the kitchen. Chef Ataag, a Maldivian native, is one of the locals showing what these ingredients can do in the right hands.

The resulting tongue-tantalising meal of a chilli-laden clear snapper soup, the national dish of curry stuffed tuna, and roasted pumpkin dip with flatbreads is the clear culinary winner of the week. Not just because I helped make it, but because it shows what the Maldives really tastes like: pungent, fresh and fiery and thanks to Patina, finally getting its moment in the sunlight.

How to get there

There are direct flights from the UK to Malé, the capital of the Maldives, but many airlines stop over in the Middle East. From Malé, guests will transfer by either boat or seaplane to the resort.

Jo Davey was a guest of Patina Maldives, Fari Islands. Pool villas start from £1,600 a night; patinahotels.com