From Modern Toilet in Taipei and garlic with everything at Broderna Olsson in Sweden to the underwater restaurant on Rangali Island, there are some pretty strange places you can eat in…
Bored with pub food, interchangeable chain restaurants and pleasant-but-bland upmarket eateries? Well perhaps it’s time to inject a bit of novelty into your dining out experience. Luckily, there are plenty of wacky restaurants across the world where eating is a truly bizarre experience. And we’ve picked out six of the best…
Broderna Olsson
Where: Stockholm, Sweden
Vampires would be well advised to steer clear of this rather pungent place – absolutely everything on the menu (including desserts) includes garlic. The owners proudly boast that any requests to take garlic out will be refused, although patrons can happily ask for more to be added.
The menu is extensive, including tapas dishes, fish mains and old Swedish favourites such as meatballs. Some of the dishes are really rather good – as long as you’re prepared for people to wince as you breathe on them afterwards.
But the garlic beer goes a bit far. There are bits of garlic floating in the amber nectar, and it takes a strong constitution indeed to stomach a whole half litre of the stuff. If you really must go for the garlic drink option, the shots are a better bet.
Modern Toilet
Where: Restaurant chain all over Taiwan
Perhaps the most unlikely chain restaurant success of all time, the theme of Taiwan’s Modern Toilets is exactly as the name would suggest.
All customers get to sit on brightly coloured toilet bowls to eat their meals, which are also served in miniature toilet-shaped dishes. This is especially pleasant when they contain a nice sloppy curry.
The piece de resistance comes with Modern Toilet’s signature dish – the chain started off by serving chocolate ice cream, lovingly shaped as a large, coiled turd.
As for the drinks – well the menu LOOKS normal…
A Modern Toilet has also opened in the Mong Kok area of Hong Kong.
Cabbages and Condoms
Where: Restaurant chain in Thailand
Bearing the most excellent slogan “Our food is guaranteed not to cause pregnancy”, the Cabbages and Condoms chain has tried to incorporate safe sex messages into the dining experience.
The walls are decorated with hundreds of multi-coloured condoms from around the world, and the carpets bear a delightful rubber Johnny theme.
Just in case the point has not quite been hammered in once dessert has been polished off, prophylactics are offered instead of mints at the end of the meal.
All told, an excellent place to take someone on a first date.
Dinner In The Sky
Where: Brussels, Belgium
Forget restaurants at the top of towers and skyscrapers – Dinner In The Sky goes one step further. It’s a moveable restaurant that dangles 50m above the earth from a crane, with room for 22 diners plus chef and wait staff.
The 9m by 5m platform is suspended in mid-air, and the seats can rotate through 180 degrees so that patrons can take in the views. Diners are strapped in so that there are no nasty accidents.
The restaurant can be set up anywhere that has the requisite space, and although it all kicked off in Brussels, the idea has since been franchised out to fifteen countries, including Australia.
The only snag is needing the toilet – anyone with a weak bladder has to endure the humiliation of the whole table being lowered to the ground so that they can take a leak.
Blindekuh
Where: Zurich, Switzerland
The concept has since taken off all over the world, but Blindekuh is the world’s first ever dine-in-the-dark restaurant. There are two major ideas behind eating while you can’t see a thing. The first is that the pitch black conditions enhance the senses of smell and taste by depriving the sense of sight.
The second point is that the best waiters to operate in such conditions are blind and partially-sighted – who are accustomed to manoeuvring around without being able to see. The restaurant provides a good meaningful employment opportunity.
The gimmick has caught on – there are also similar restaurants in London, Paris, Berlin, Frankfurt and Moscow.
Ithaa
Where: Rangali Island, The Maldives
Billing itself as the world’s first undersea restaurant, Ithaa boasts 180 degree views of marine life and reef activity. The restaurant is essentially placed inside a large see-through tunnel under the Indian Ocean. This means that diners can eat seafood whilst simultaneously watching it swim by.
Unsurprisingly, this is a rather exclusive experience. The restaurant is one of seven at the ultra-pricey Conrad Maldives Rangali Island Resort, the dress code is formal and it seats a maximum of 12 at any time.
Advance reservations are strongly recommended (even for resort guests) – the chance to eat out with sharks banging on the window is predictably popular.
This article was originally written for Ninemsn.
Copyright David Whitley
