Cheese fondue in the Maldives? The warm, island destination off the coast of India? Yes, you read that correctly. The Conrad Rangali Island offers a cheese themed fondue dinner twice a week in its Wine & Cheese Bar. This dinner is incredibly fun and very tasty. We highly recommend it at the Conrad Rangali.
Conrad Rangali Island.
THE WINE & CHEESE BAR
The Wine & Cheese Bar is one of the Conrad Rangali Island’s numerous restaurants. The Wine & Cheese Bar offers two dining options: a tasting menu and a cheese fondue set menu. The cheese fondue dinner is usually held twice a week and only seats 10 people. The cost as of November 2024 is $160 USD per person. We love this dinner and do it every year. We also agree that this is one of the best, and certainly the most reasonably priced, “experience dinner.” In contrast, the Wine Cellar dinner is $385 per person.
Conrad Rangali’s Wine & Cheese Bar.
The Wine & Cheese Bar is really beautiful.
In terms of the actual “restaurant,” this is actually a wine storage room behind Rangali Bar. The single room restaurant is lined floor to ceiling with wine bottles and the floor is exclusively black sand imported from New Zealand. As the restaurant is practically a wine cellar, it is quite cold. A blanket/scarf is provided for use during dinner, but I also suggest wearing pants and bringing a scarf or cardigan. For the cheese fondue dinner, the menu is the same at every dinner: 3 courses, all involving cheese!
The Cheese Fondue Dinner menu.
THE STARTER
Each fondue dinner at the Wine & Cheese Bar begins with a hot soup made from German blue cheese. While this may seem odd to eat on a beach vacation, this soup is very, very good. A years-long employee once told us it is the best thing to eat on the entire resort. He may not be wrong. The soup is a small portion, about the size of a proper cappuccino cup, but a fun way to start the meal. The Wine & Cheese Bar is also usually chilly, so it is certainly not too warm to enjoy hot soup. The blue cheese soup is always paired with a few strawberry slices.
The incredibly tasty blue cheese soup.
THE FONDUE
The main course is, obviously, fondue, and there is only one fondue on offer – fondue made from a blend of Emmental, Vacherin and Beaufort cheeses, champagne, nutmeg, garlic and black pepper. And, it is terribly, ridiculously delicious. Served in a fondue pot for two, the fondue is served with crusty bread, beef pastrami and a plate of potatoes and pickled vegetables. The pickles and bread are unlimited. I prefer the bread for the fondue. Pro tip – eat fast because the cheese starts sticking to the bottom as the meal goes on.
The fondue has arrived!
The fondue for your reference (not the best picture, I know).
Fondue dinner in action.
The bread.
Pickled vegetables for pairing.
The beef pastrami.
I would point out that the only meat served with this dinner is the beef pastrami, which some people will not like. We have always been full after the Cheese Fondue Dinner and have never finished everything on the table.
THE DESSERT
The dessert served after the cheese fondue is a beautiful creation of Mascarpone cheese in a dark chocolate cup paired with berries and a sorbet. I looooove this dessert; it is the same every year, and it is always fantastic. I also love how they even incorporate cheese into the dessert.
A truly decadent dessert!
The meal ended with a complimentary chocolate. This was the only bite without cheese!
The final bite – an adorable chocolate.
THE WINE
Despite being in The Wine and Cheese Bar, the cheese fondue dinner does not include any wine. You can, of course, order from the menu, which has a limited selection of wines sold by the bottle. Rather than ordered from the limited selection on the menu, we prefer to visit the resort’s main wine cellar earlier in the day and select a wine to pair with dinner. Anyone can do this and have the selected wine sent to any restaurant at the Conrad. This enables you to select the wine you want, view all price points of wine and not be pigeon-holed into the wine that happens to be on the restaurant menu.
Our wine selection.
In sum, the Cheese Fondue Dinner is a unique dining experience at the Conrad Rangali Island at a relatively reasonable price (relative to Maldives pricing, not normal pricing). The dinner is social in our experience, and you will almost certainly chat with your fellow diners.
STEAL OUR DINNER
The Wine & Cheese Bar: 7:00 PM. Reservations necessary due to limited space. Make an advance reservation before arriving at the Conrad. The Conrad emails all guests about 2 – 3 weeks in advance of your visit to ask about any dinner reservations. I suggest making the reservation at that time to ensure a spot. Otherwise, ask your Island Host ASAP if there is any room or cancellations (they do happen!). We have seen the dinner totally full, but this most recent time there was only one other couple dining with us (Hi, Angelos & Whitney!!).