i remember when in the late 00s, a restaurant near STELCO called cafe mignon popped onto the scene serving sushi in male, likely for the first time. they only made sushi on order and you’d have to wait about 45 minutes for the rolls. they were big fat maki, with centres of either vegetable, teriyaki chicken, beef, or canned tuna. OK, not the best, yes, but finally, there was sushi in male. and like those of us with some experience of the culinary realms abroad, especially in east and south east asia, i welcomed this development wholeheartedly. things could only get better, right?

but the place closed down and male was sushi-less again. a giant step back during a time of progress – the first multi-party elections, the first democratically elected president, free health care, etc. things were silent on the sushi front until a young man and his russian partner (i think) opened a restaurant on rah dhebai magu. the sushi there was more than edible and i was starting to become hopeful again. but this place too had to shut its doors because, the guy told me, there just wasn’t enough demand. people were still too conservative when it came to food.

so i waited. i was waiting on the naruto generation to mature and start earning, hoping that would end it once and for all.

the wait lasted a few years. and then sampaafulhu showed me something on instagram. it was maybe 2014 and a little place in hulhumale was doing sushi. we went almost immediately. it was in a guesthouse, on the ground floor. and the sushi was good. but i had been let down too many times so i didn’t let myself get carried away. and just as well because that place went down.

but then in 2018, when greater male was getting funky with its cuisines (gg’s kitchen, blood orange, the goat fish cafe) a japanese place opened up again. oishii by young chef fatheen and his then-girlfriend, the culinary artist shifu, started stirring things up almost from the get go. in an interview with lonumedhu (written by yours truly), fatheen – who was brutally trained under a japanese chef licensed to prepare fugu – said their restaurant was getting mostly maldivian customers.

yes. the tides had finally turned. and the food was GOOD.

a few years later, something happened. things started going downhill in the period right before their move to male. it was a slow descent and easy to chalk up to a string of off days. but by the time they moved to the portside in maafannu, it was starting to show. even then, there were plenty of customers. but i heard fatheen and shifu had gone their separate ways.

then a week back, i saw oishii in henveiru, near the post office. i was surprised by this move, but it seemed logical. there’s a lot more going on here than over in dingy north maafannu. i wondered about the quality of food. there was only one way to find out.

so, i went with moosaalhu and took our seats upstairs. it was pleasant, with a good view of the docks from the floor-to-ceiling windows. however, when it was time to order, i found out that half the things i wanted weren’t available. including miso soup! that should have been a red flag. but i asked for salmon maki and a stir-fried beef don and moosaalhu a katsu kare.

the food didn’t take long to arrive. moosaalhu emptied a forkful into his mouth, chewed and grimaced.
‘the chicken is dry af and bland as cardboard,’ he said.

the maki was encrusted with sesame seeds and the rice was tasteless so i tried the beef. dear god. it was like biting into little bullets.

it was too much. i asked for a discount. they gave me 20% plus an apology. but it’s like they aren’t even trying to keep up a pretense anymore. it’s clear. oishii is no longer in the game. it’s just sushi zu now, and a sad state of affairs for those who love japanese cuisine in the city.