InterContinental Maldives Maamunagau Resort is marking the brand's 80th birthday with something more interesting than a cake: a three-night, four-hands dinner series pairing its own kitchen with the team behind La Maison 1888, the Michelin-starred French restaurant at InterContinental Danang Sun Peninsula Resort in Vietnam.
The dinners run 18 to 20 November 2026 at The Lighthouse, the resort's overwater restaurant on Raa Atoll, and reservations are required. The visiting team from Danang will cook alongside Chef Arun Sivasankaran, Executive Chef at Maamunagau, who brings more than two decades of luxury resort experience and an ingredient-led style shaped by island kitchens. On the other side is Chef de Cuisine Jean-Louis Angulo of La Maison 1888, classically trained and the driving force behind the only one-Michelin-star restaurant in Central Vietnam.
What can diners expect? A limited-edition menu that blends La Maison 1888's contemporary French fine dining with The Lighthouse's signature seafood and Mediterranean cooking. The resort frames it as a meeting of two settings — the lagoon-fringed island of Maamunagau and the forested cliffs of Vietnam's Son Tra Peninsula — translated onto a single menu. The setting does half the work: The Lighthouse sits over the water with 360-degree views across the Indian Ocean, so the meal comes with a sunset whether you asked for one or not.
The collaboration is part of a broader push by InterContinental to connect its resort portfolio during its 80th year — in this case literally flying a kitchen team from one flagship property to another. General Manager Reinhold Johann describes it as a celebration of the brand's spirit of bringing cultures together in beautiful destinations.
For travellers, this is a rare chance to eat Michelin-starred food in a country that has plenty of luxury resorts but no Michelin presence of its own. It also signals where high-end Maldives holidays are heading: less buffets, more destination dining with named chefs. Booking details and menu specifics are yet to be announced, but inquiries go through the resort's reservations page or by email at reservations.icmaldives@ihg.com. If a fixed-date dinner feels too tight, the secondary story here is that Maamunagau sits in Raa Atoll, quieter than the Malé-heavy resort clusters, and The Lighthouse is worth booking regardless of who's cooking.
Worth noting if you're planning a Maldives trip for late 2026: November sits at the tail end of the wet season, though it often brings good value before the peak December-January rush. Combine the dinner series with a stay split across two atolls, and you've got a holiday with a genuine culinary headline act.
