OK, I know this post is a little left field and totally breaks all the rules about what a blogger is supposed to do (be known for something, stick to a theme), but hey I’ve been eclectic from day one so why stop now …
After yesterday’s funniest movies post I decided to find something else that would tickle my fancy, and this did the trick …
1. Modern Toilet
This bathroom-themed restaurant chain in Taiwan serves patrons poo-shaped chocolate soft serve in toilet bowls, among other scatalogical treats. To quote Modern Toilet’s website: “We are a group of muckrakers following our dreams. It all started when one of us was reading the manga, Dr Slump on the toilet – and the rest is history. In the beginning, we mainly sold ice cream – a big pile of chocolate ice cream sold in containers shaped like a squat toilet. This humorous spin became a great success.”
2. Disaster Cafe
Flavours are off the richter scale at this restaurant in Lloret de Mar, Spain. Yep, this restaurant specialises in fine dining and tremours – level 7.8 earthquakes to be exact.
3. The Lock-Up
This haunted prison-themed restaurant is a popular spot in Tokyo. Patrons dine on creepy dishes and sip glowing, florescent drinks in dark, damp prison cells. Ewwww.
4. Cannibal cafe
Another bizarre dining experience from the Japanese, Nyotaimori – which means “female body plate” – is named after the tradition of eating sushi and sashimi off a nude woman’s body (well, not exactly a “tradition” in my world). Except in this case, a whole edible body, with dough ‘skin’ and sauce ‘blood’ is wheeled to your table on a hospital gurney. The waitress cuts into the body with a scalpel and then patrons begin operating on the body to reveal edible ‘organs’. I’m not surprised they need the whole bottle of Johnnie Walker.
5. Pitch Black
At Pitch Black in Beijing, 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. The waiters wear night-vision goggles so they don’t stumble with their trays. The idea is that once all your other senses are taken away, the flavours of the food itself will become a sublime experience.
6. The Heart Attack Grill
This Las Vegas restaurant serves up what its founder, Jon Basso, once called “nutritional pornography, or food so bad for you it is shocking.” And two customers have recently suffered heart attacks while eating there.
Orders are taken by stethoscope-wielding nurses who dole out prescriptions for “single,” “double,” “triple” and “quadruple” bypass burgers that range up to almost 1kg in size.
The “quadruple” includes of four meat patties, eight slices of cheese and 16 slices of bacon while the bun is coated with lard. Book
7. Penis restaurant
Penises of every shape, size and variety are served up at this scary Chinese restaurant. Among the chef’s specials are a hot pot containing 10 appendages from different animals, sliced donkey penis and sheep testicals curry. Ewwwww.
8. Hospitalis
Scantily clad nurses at this Latvian restaurant serve dishes on gurneys and operating tables, and diners use “cutlery” such as syringes, tweezers and scalpels to eat their meals.
Owned by a group of local doctors, Hospitalis also has a trendy cocktail bar where bartenders in white lab coats mix drinks into beakers and test tubes.
There’s even themed entertainment – morbid tunes on violins and deranged patients being scorted through the restaurant in straightjackets and wheelchairs.
9. Prison restaurant
This restaurant inside the top security prison Fortezza Medicea in Italy is so popular its become a chain. Serenaded by Bruno, a pianist doing life for murder, the clientele eat inside a deconsecrated chapel set behind the prison walls. Under the watchful eye of armed prison warders, a 20-strong team of convict chefs, kitchen hands and waiters prepare and serve delicious southern Italian dishes.
Open to the public once a month, diners eat on plain wooden benches with security guards standing watch. Only plastic cutlery and plates are used – just to be on the safe side.
The idea behind the restaurant is to give inmates skills that will help them find work in the catering industry after release.
10. Mars 2112
This place is sadly closed, but holds a special place in my heart from our time living in New York. Diners entered the restaurant via a simulated rocket ship ride, arriving at a Martian-themed restaurant space. Waiters would dress up as aliens while serving customers and it scared the living shite out of my two-year-old, who screamed the place down when an “alien” tried to make friends. “No like da aliens! No like da aliens!” she wailed at the top of her voice. My eldest, on the other hand, thought it was ACE.
Have you ever been to a bizarrely themed restaurant?
housegoeshome 
Alana, I started following your blog expecting tales of return trips to the supermarket, return trips to the doctor, return trips to many places. Many places in which House would go to before House goes home.
Alas, it is nothing more than the ramblings of some run of the mill blogger talking about many and varied things, just like any blogger would do.
How boring it would be if you stuck to a theme.
Now about this post itself, I think I will be sticking to my favourite hole-in-the-wall Thai restaurant thank you very much.
Although I could go a lard burger now and then…
There have been a few trips to the supermarket along the way, I must admit. But I don’t think I could be someone who just talking about life as a mum all the time. For me it’s almost an electronic diary of my emotions and obsessions as much as my daily life.
Oh Alana, I love your mash up style. No to no.1 + 7 but yes to no.10!
Number 10 was hilarious. Watching the alien staff line-up and do a little dance halfway through lunch – the absurdity of it made me laugh sooooo much.