The first ever undersea restaurant in the world, at Hilton Maldives Resort & Spa.

Ithaa, which means pearl in Dhivehi, is the world's premier mostly acrylic undersea restaurant, secured five metres below sea level, at the Hilton Maldives Resort & Spa (soon to be the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island) in Rangalifinolhu, Maldives. The five-by-nine meter restaurant has a capacity of 14 people and is encased in R-Cast acrylic which is a transparent acrylic roof offering 270° panoramic view to its customers. The restaurant was designed and constructed by M.J. Murphy Ltd. - a design consultancy based in New Zealand - and was opened on April 15, 2005. Meals range in cost from US$120.00 (lunch for hotel guests on Full Board meal plan) to US$250.00 (dinner for hotel guests on Bed & Breakfast meal plan).

Ithaa's entrance is a spiral staircase in a thatched pavilion at the end of a jetty. The tsunami which followed the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake topped out at 0.3m below the staircase entrance, and caused no damage to the restaurant.

The acrylic tunnel was first designed for the Kuala Lumpur National Science Centre, which is the world"s largest aquarium tunnel. The total weight of the restaurant when it was lowered into the sea was 175 tons and 85 more tons of sand have been placed inside the belly of the structure to sink it into the sea. The total cost to build Ithaa was around $5 million. The estimated life span of the restaurant is just 20 years.

Hmmm... dinner under the deep blue sea, while shoal of fish entertain you by dancing hay via. sooo amazing... ^^