Riveli Beach Club & Restaurant

by Iyath Adam

If you haven’t checked out Riveli Beach Club & Restaurant at Hulhumale’, then we highly suggest that you do so pronto!

Located on the beachside with a view overlooking the ocean, Riveli has a warm, roomy interior with seating available on both the ground and first floors. The woody tones, cool sea breeze and open-air structure gives the space a nice, airy feeling. 

The Riveli menu is quite extensive, featuring a wide array of drinks – mojitos, fruit juices, iced teas, hot coffees – as well as appetisers, salads, soups, and main dishes. There seems to be something for everyone here with various seafood dishes, Asian flavours, Mexican cuisine, and even plant-based options!

We opted to go with their seared beef tataki as an appetiser and summer tea mojito as a drink. For the mains, we chose the pad Thai and their tuna & mango poke bowl from the Asian Delights section of the menu.

The servers were prompt, the service was quite fast, and we had our drink shortly. The summer tea mojito was refreshing, combining the traditional mojito flavours of mint and lime with green tea, ginger, and blueberries. It was not as sweet as some mojitos but well-balanced; the slight bitterness of the green tea and the zing from the blueberries and ginger giving it a really light, clean taste. 

Now, the seared beef tataki. Served with mushrooms and a fresh vegetable salad, the beef tataki was a delightful dish to taste. The thin slices of beef were tender and succulent and went great with the meaty mushrooms and the veggies. But the thing that really brought this dish together was the ponzu dressing – giving a much-needed tanginess to the rich flavours. Even though this was just an appetiser, the portion size was quite large, and it took us some time to finish this one up. 

Onto our mains! 

The pad Thai was a huge portion too. It tasted sweet, savoury and a bit spicy all at once, just like a good pad Thai should! The crunchy peanuts and white sugar offered with the noodles added to the different textures in the dish and it was entirely filling and satisfying. 

The tuna & mango poke bowl was one hearty dish: lightly seared tuna cubes on a bed of sushi rice, along with fresh mango, fried tofu, veggies, and a hard-boiled egg, served with some of that delicious ponzu sauce. The sushi rice was sticky with just a hint of sweetness, perfectly complementing the buttery texture of the tuna, the freshness of the mango and veggies and the umami flavour of the ponzu sauce. A wonderful mixture of flavours and textures, no two bites tasted the same with this well-balanced, tasty poke bowl. 

In short, Riveli Beach Club & Restaurant provides a delightful dining experience that is sure to satisfy your taste buds. We know we’ll definitely be coming back to try more of their offerings!