It all starts in the garden.
At Six Senses Laamu, a wide variety of herbs and mushrooms grow on the island, many in our dedicated hut, all tended daily and harvested with the menus in mind. One of our resort chefs takes you on a tour, plucking a sprig for tonight’s herbal tea, pointing out the microgreens for the tasting menu, explaining why the rosemary and Italian basil are treated with the same care as any other ingredient. This is no decorative garden, it is essential for inspiring and feeding our restaurants.
Local fishers from across Laamu Atoll supply fish through the Fish for Tomorrow Program, a sustainability initiative developed in partnership with the Blue Marine Foundation. The emphasis is on sustainable fishing practices, with all fish served at the resort sourced this way.
If there is one restaurant that encapsulates everything Six Senses Laamu stands for, it is Leaf. Cross the quirky drawbridge to reach it, although there is a knack to getting across. Walk with intention, one at a time. The restaurant is set high among the treetops above the organic garden. Leaf is an adults-only restaurant where the menu changes every day, guided by what is growing, what is caught, and what has captured the chef’s imagination.
The cuisine has Mediterranean roots with a creative approach informed by our Eat With Six Senses philosophy. A Blue Zone Menu offers an exciting exploration of plant-forward dining, with so much flair that you never imagine anything is missing. The excellent wine pairing certainly helps, and is delivered with undisputed expertise.
Six Senses Laamu is genuinely one of the Maldives’ best resorts for vegetarians and plant-based eaters. The kitchen approaches plant-forward cooking with the same ambition and craft it brings to every other style of cuisine. Vegetarian dining at this level is still surprisingly rare in the Maldives.
Each night, Zen offers something altogether different. Set on the first floor of The Overwater, with the lagoon below and the island behind you, it serves contemporary Japanese cuisine that invites you to surrender entirely to the chef. No decision-making required, which, frankly, is a relief. The sushi and sashimi are excellent, while the teppanyaki experience is a proper event: a display of genuine kitchen craft in a spectacular setting. If you’re looking for a Japanese dining experience in the Maldives that goes beyond the obvious, head next door to Kaji, where you’ll find all that and more.
Longitude, our signature overwater restaurant, begins each day with the kind of breakfast that makes you rethink your morning plans. Spread over two stories of open-air dining above the Indian Ocean, it is divided into distinct sections, giving everyone space to settle in and soak up the first rays of sunshine while the occasional dolphin pod passes by on its own breakfast run. Come evening, it takes on a different character, with themed nights celebrating South Asian flavors, live cooking stations, and international menus that give you every reason to stay late.
Sip Sip is where the garden meets the pool. Its sunken bar serves a menu built collaboratively between the kitchen team and the resort’s gardeners. The locally inspired Olhuveli salad with tuna cutlets, island greens and ever-so-tempting Rihakuru is a recurring favorite, and the wood-fired pizzas do not last long. The cocktails, like so much else here, begin with something growing in the ground.
If “farm to fork” ever meant anything, our chefs and gardeners are doing their best to give it real meaning. At Six Senses Laamu, it means the chef probably walked past what you’re about to eat that very morning. It means the fisherman who caught your dinner knows the resort’s sustainability standards and what they stand for. It means the vegan guest at Leaf is eating food that was designed for them in mind, with as much care and attention as anything else on the menu.