Storys Most Prefered Hidden Now Unfolds
Through Dining Experiences It is Now Told
A Lil' Something Extra to Entice Your Minds
And Maybe Even Your Taste Buds
Controversial, Bizzare, Gory & Extreme ?
Believe It Or Not,
Here and Now, We Serve Them To Be Seen
From the comical to the sincerely disturbing, strangely themed restaurants have popped up all over the globe, but are most commonly found in Tokyo, Japan. Here are 21 of the weirdest and wackiest themed restaurants in the world, highlighting such gastronomic delights as edible ‘dead bodies’, ‘Spicy Condom Salad’ and feces-shaped ice cream served in miniature toilet bowls.
Cannabalistic Sushi – Tokyo, Japan
Image via Weird Asia News
‘Nyotaimori’ in Japanese literally means ‘female body plate’, and this restaurant named after the tradition of eating sushi and sashimi off a nude woman’s body takes the concept to a whole new level. An edible body, with dough ‘skin’ and sauce ‘blood’ is wheeled into the room on a hospital gurney and placed upon a table. The hostess begins the meal by cutting into the body with a scalpel and then patrons dig in, operating on the body to reveal edible ‘organs’.
Cabbages and Condoms – Bangkok, Thailand
Image via PDA
The only restaurant in the world dedicated to birth control, Cabbages & Condoms in Bangkok, Thailand offers not mints on your way out the door, but condoms. Their slogan, emblazoned on t-shirts in the gift shop, is “Our food is guaranteed not to cause pregnancy”. Menu items include the ‘Spicy Condom Salad’, fried Shanghai noodles spiced with herbs. The restaurant benefits the Population and Community Development Association (PDA).
Modern Toilet – Taipei, Taiwan
Image via Fun Fever
Perhaps the best-known strangely themed restaurant is Modern Toilet in Taipei, Taiwan, where hungry customers take a seat on Western-style commodes and enjoy feces-shaped chocolate soft serve in miniature toilet bowls. Toilet rolls are hung over the tables for use as napkins, and drinks come in miniature urinals. The toilet theme continues throughout the restaurant, with ‘WC’ signs hung as décor.
Hitler’s Cross – Mumbai, India
Image via Flickr user Patrix Blogs
‘Hitler’s Cross’, in Mumbai, India, understandably provoked a lot of anger from the community when it debuted in August of 2006. On display was a giant poster of Hitler, and the ‘o’ in ‘cross’ on the restaurant’s large illuminated sign contained a swastika. Just one week later, the restaurant was forced to change its name to the ambiguous ‘The Cross’ and remove all Hitler and nazi memorabilia.
Maid Cafes – Tokyo, Japan
Image via The National Post
Those with maid fetishes and fans of Japanese ‘otaku’ (geek) culture can enjoy a meal like no other at one of the many maid-themed cafes in the Tokyo area, including this one called ‘@home’. Giggling women in cartoonish maid costumes call patrons ‘master’ and pat them on the heads like babies. It’s not about the food here – which is usually overpriced and less than appetizing, like spaghetti topped with ketchup. It’s about the service, which often includes playing games like Barrel of Monkeys (for a fee, of course) and, uh, ear cleaning.
Pitch-Black Restaurant – Beijing, China
Image via Gizmodo
It’s often said that if you take away one or more of your senses, the remaining ones get stronger. That’s the idea behind Pitch Black, a Beijing restaurant where patrons eat in complete darkness. Illuminating devices like cell phones and watches are strictly forbidden, and it’s so dark you can’t see your hand in front of your face. Don’t think you can get away with any funny business, however – the waiters wear night-vision goggles.
Graveyard Restaurant – Ahmadabad, India
Image via The Seattle Times
Being surrounded by coffins while you eat is one thing, but it’s an entirely different matter when they’re occupied. The New Lucky Restaurant in Ahmadabad, India began as a tea stall outside a centuries-old Muslim cemetery, and grew to encompass it over the years. The graves, situated between tables and often topped with candles, and resemble green-painted concrete coffins. One is said to contain a 16th century Sufi saint. Business is brisk, and the owners say that the graves bring them good luck.
Death Themed Restaurant – Truskavets, Ukraine
Image via ContractJou
Image via ContractJournal.com
When a group of undertakers set out to start a restaurant, you know it’s going to be weird. And indeed, ‘Eternity’ restaurant in Truskavets, Ukraine is a windowless building shaped like a giant coffin. Inside you’ll find funeral wreaths, black shrouded walls and human-sized coffins. Menu items include dishes with names like “Let’s meet in paradise”.
The Hellfire Club – Manchester, UK
Image via Top Table
The Hellfire Club, with its gothic décor and creepy theme, might not seem like a likely place to enjoy a world-class meal, but the food here is said to be divine. It’s located in a reportedly haunted 19th century building and resembles a dungeon, with skeletons, coffins and red lights strewn throughout. Menu items include steaks named ‘Kiss of the Vampire’ and ‘Cannibal Holocaust’.
Vampire Café – Tokyo, Japan
Image via Marianne Mancusi
Continuing the creepy, otherwordly themes is the Vampire Café in the Ginza section of Tokyo, where the interior is almost entirely blood red. Guests are ushered down a long hallway with red blood cells superimposed on the floor. Inside, the décor includes heavy velvet drapes, black coffins dripping with red candle wax, skulls and crosses. Many of the meals are vampire-themed, and diners drink red cocktails from martini glasses.
Hobbit House – Manila, Phillipines
Image via HobbitHouseManila.com
Long before the Lord of the Rings trilogy debuted on theatre screens, the Hobbit House was founded in Manila by former Peace Corps volunteer and Tolkein fan Jim Turner. Don’t expect to find the sort of lush Middle Earth scenery that filled the movies, however – what you’ll encounter instead if you stop to dine at the Hobbit House is a staff of ‘the smallest waiters in the world’. That’s right, check your political correctness at the door – this is one group of little people who are okay with being referred to as hobbits.
Robot-Staffed Restaurant – Nuremburg, Germany
Image via Gizmodo
One restaurant in Nuremburg, Germany cut out waitstaff altogether, relying on robots instead. Alas, they weren’t walking, talking robots wearing aprons or anything really fun like that. Rather, it was centered around automation – customers ordered via touch screens, and moments later the food traveled to their tables on a spiral slide. It might have saved diners money on tips, but apparently the concept didn’t go over too well, as the restaurant was not open long.
Mao-Era Red Guards Restaurant – Nanning, China
Image via Trifter.com
You wouldn’t think the Chinese people would be eager to relive the Mao era while casually dining, but patrons at Shaoshan Chong line up to consume local delicacies served by waiters in the Red Guard uniform. The Red Guard was the army unit formed by Mao Tse Tung during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), which aimed to wipe the country free of revisionist and Western influence.
Christon Café – Tokyo, Japan
there are at least a dozen more bizarrely themed restaurants around the world to gawk at. Whether you’d like your server to dress up like your boss so you can beat him up, enjoy being ambushed by ninjas in a dark alley or just want to be treated like a pretty, pretty princess, these restaurants deliver some of the weirdest atmospheres in the world.
Calico Cat Café
(images via: Global Post)
The first menu you’ll see at Calico Cat Café in Tokyo has nothing to do with food: it’s the cat selection. But you won’t be dining on any of these adorable felines – they’re just there to provide some companionship while you sip a cup of tea. The watchful staff ensure that guests treat the cats respectfully, and provide complimentary bags of dried cat food that can be used to attract your desired playmate. For many Tokyo residents, owning a cat isn’t realistic, so the city’s 30-odd cat cafés give them a chance to enjoy some “commitment-free cat stroking”.
Alice in Wonderland
(image via: La Carmina)
Fall down the rabbit hole into an Alice in Wonderland-themed restaurant based on the story by Lewis Carroll, with wait staff decked out in light blue and white checkered pinafores and walls painted with strange, vaguely Alice-inspired imagery. The coasters are playing cards, little bowls of snacks are decorated with signs that say ‘Eat Me’ and you summon your server with a little brass bell. The menu features a Japanese spin on French and Italian cuisine and a large variety of bite-size appetizers.
Devil Island Prison Restaurant
(images via: China Sales Training Network)
The owner of the Devil Island restaurants in China reportedly wanted to scare people away from a life of crime by showing them just how rough prison life can be – through a jail-themed restaurant where you’re led to your table in handcuffs and served fried coffin-shaped bread. Each table is surrounded by rusting prison bars, and you’re served by waiters in black-and-white striped uniforms. A similar restaurant in Beijing is misleadingly named ‘Zen Cool’.
Dinner in the Sky
(images via: The Daily Mail)
Not everyone can stomach eating a meal while dangling 150 feet above the ground from a crane, even if you’re not usually afraid of heights. At Dinner in the Sky in Belgium, diners are strapped into chairs, raised to half the height of Big Ben and served meals like ham salad and sauteed prawns that are cooked in a small oven in the center of the structure.
Dinner in a Hospital
(images via: Spot Cool Stuff)
Taipei is known for its variety of strangely themed dining establishments, but this one might just take the cake. Your surreal experience starts with the name, D.S. Music Restaurant, which in no way hints at what’s actually inside. Wait staff dressed in nurse uniforms push you to your table in wheelchairs, where your drinks are served from an IV-like contraption hanging from the ceiling. The ‘nurses’ ask trivia questions, and if you get them right, you’re rewarded with shots of a tasty drink squirted into your mouth with a syringe. It only gets stranger from there. Once you’re done eating, a female staff member in a deranged ballerina costume dances on your table.
Rising Sun Anger Release Bar
(image via: Sydney Morning Herald)
It’s a tough, stressful world out there, and there’s only so much you can take before you just have to let out some anger and frustration. If using restaurant staff as punching bags sounds like a good anger management tactic to you, check out the Rising Sun Anger Release Bar in Nanjing City, China where customers pay a fee to beat up staff, scream and break glasses. The staff, which dons protective gear, will dress up to resemble the person you’d really like to physically assault. The bar is said to be especially popular with Chinese women who work in the service industry.
Dick’s Last Resort Restaurant
(image via: Dick’s Last Resort)
If you’re more of a masochist than a sadist, Dick’s Last Resort Restaurant may be just up your alley. With locations all over America including Chicago, Boston and Dallas, Dick’s will satisfy your impulses to be treated rudely, called names and ridiculed by restaurant staff. If that sounds like everyday dining to you, rest assured that Dick’s will kindly write out these insults and put them on dunce caps which you’re obligated to wear while eating.
Yellow Treehouse Café
(images via: Yellow Treehouse)
Built around a redwood tree near Auckland, New Zealand, the Yellow Treehouse Café will fulfill all of your fantasies about treehouse life, and then some. Designed by Pacific Environment Architects as part of a marketing campaign for the area’s yellow pages, the café is no longer open for dinner but can be rented for private parties.
Princess Heart
(images via: News on Japan)
Some girls never outgrow their princess fantasies, and if you live in Japan, you can luxuriate in all the frilly pink princess regalia you can stomach whenever you want at the Princess Heart restaurant. Customers are led to a full-length mirror where they’re apparently supposed to ask who’s the fairest one of all, before taking a seat in a throne and being crowned. Women can drag their male partners along, but single men aren’t allowed.
