Dinner in a Hospital

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.

Dinner in the Sky

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.

Ninja New York

Some of New York’s most creative fusion food is served in a rather unusual restaurant, one in which no expense was spared to create an atmosphere that one reviewer described as “Ninja Disneyland”. Guests are led to the subterranean eatery through a “secret path” where “ninjas” lurk in the shadows, and brought to a table housed within a dungeon-like chamber.  The ninja waiters perform magic tricks that extend into the meal, like sauces that catch on fire.

Devil Island Prison Restaurant

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’.

Alice in Wonderland

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.

Calico Cat Café

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”.

Christon Café – Tokyo, Japan

Catholics might get a bit squeamish about the décor at the Christon chain of cafes in Tokyo, which is a bit on the gothic side. At the entrance you’ll find a glass display of the Virgin Mary, and inside is an elaborate and slightly macabre display of gargoyles, statues of saints, stained glass windows and even an authentic altar. For those interested in checking it out in person, the food is said to be fabulous and quite reasonable.

Mao-Era Red Guards Restaurant – Nanning, China

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.

Robot-Staffed Restaurant – Nuremburg, Germany

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.

Hobbit House – Manila, Phillipines

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.

Vampire Café – Tokyo, Japan

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.

The Hellfire Club – Manchester, UK

 

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’.

Death Themed Restaurant – Truskavets, Ukraine

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”.

Graveyard Restaurant – Ahmadabad, India

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.

Pitch-Black Restaurant – Beijing, China

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.

Maid Cafes – Tokyo, Japan

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.

Hitler’s Cross – Mumbai, India

Hitlers 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.

Modern Toilet – Taipei, Taiwan

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.

Cabbages and Condoms – Bangkok, Thailand

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

Cannabalistic Sushi – Tokyo, Japan

‘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’.