Modern Toilet opened its doors in Taiwan in 2004. Since its debut the restaurant has opened up 12 different locations in Asia, including China and Japan. The meals off their extensive menu are all presented in miniature toilet bowls, and resemble steaming hot diarrhea. You can upgrade your drink to have it served out of a urinal. The very stool you sit on is a toilet. Obviously, ice cream is served as a perfectly-spiraled turd.
The U.S. tried its spin on the toilet-themed restaurant in L.A. in 2013, called Magic Restroom. The idea didn’t sit well with an American audience and Magic Restroom was not-so-magically crapped out a year later.
The Clinic Café was a hospital-themed restaurant in Singapore. It was created by Dutch architectural firm Concrete Architects as a tribute to British artist Damien Hirst. The food was served in bed pans, with syringes full of ketchup, and waitresses dressed as nurses served customers sitting in golden wheelchairs.
The restaurant is now closed, probably because people always complain about hospital food.
“Nyotaimori” is the Japanese practice of eating sushi off the naked body of a woman. Well, this restaurant takes that idea to a new level. At Tokyo’s Cannibalistic Sushi, you actually eat the woman. Well, the woman is made out of actual food, so it’s okay. The majority of edible “body parts” are located in the abdomen of the lady and will actually bleed when cut into.
Cabbages & Condoms is a concept restaurant in Bangkok, Thailand. The restaurant was created by the non-profit, Population and Community Development Association (PDA ... yes, that’s really the acronym). The restaurant promotes family planning, uses condoms as décor on the walls and instead of being offered an after-dinner mint, you’re offered an after-dinner condom.
While cat cafes exist everywhere from Asia, Europe and America, Owl cafes are a concept unique to Japan. There are about four owl cafes in the Tokyo area. You can pet the birds and take photos with them (but no flash photography). About $12 will get you an hour-long session with the birds of prey.
In 2007, a restaurant opened in Fortezza Medicea, a 500-year-old prison near Pisa, Italy. The wait staff are the inmates, with some serving life-sentences. You’d think that it would be daunting for patrons to be served by real-life murderers, however, the restaurant is extremely popular, with tables booked weeks in advance.
The concept arose as a rehabilitation program. It ended up working so well that a prison in Milan, Bollate prison, opened up its own restaurant, called InGalera.
Did you ever imagine what it would be like to dine with the dead? Well, you can do that at The New Lucky Restaurant in Ahmadabad, India. The New Lucky is actually built around a cemetery. Restaurant owner, Krishnan Kutti, didn’t want to pave over the gravestones when he bought the property and instead capitalized on them.
The graves are not meant to be disrespected, and every morning Kutti cleans them and puts flowers on them.
This controversial Nazi-themed Indonesian café, The Soldaten Kaffee, was named after a WWII Parisian coffee shop that German soldiers used to frequent. The café originally closed its doors in 2013 when owner Henry Mulyana started getting death threats. But, a year later it reopened after it promised to make itself more like a WWII café. Not much changed though. The café still prominently featured swastikas and Hitler quotes written on the wall.
It closed for good just this year.
This café will make you feel like your dinner might pop out of your chest mid-meal and scatter about the room. Museum H.R. Giger Bar has two locations in Switzerland. It is based off Giger’s work. For those unfamiliar with Giger, he is a Swiss surrealist artist who did the set designs and visual effects for the film Alien.
Zauo is a chain restaurant in Japan where you catch your own dinner. Patrons of the restaurant are given the option to fish for their own meals or have the wait staff pick a fish for you. The restaurant is very popular in Japan and has 14 different locations. They are also looking to expand to the U.S.
The Grand View Topless Coffee Shop opened up in the small town of Vassalboro, Maine in 2009. The restaurant featured topless female and male waiters. However, the café only survived for about two years. It closed in 2011, after an arson attempt and countless protests from the locals.
Paris’ The Sweatshop inspired a slew of spinoffs. The concept is similar to a cyber café, but instead of browsing the web while having a cup of coffee, you hem your pants.
It has since closed, but there is probably a sewing café somewhere close to you.
Robo Café in Osaka cuts out the need to hire a waitstaff. At this restaurant, robots take a customer’s order, whether verbally or through a touch screen, relay the order to the kitchen and bring the customers the food when the order is ready.
This could potentially be a glimpse into the dining experience of the future.