Ithaa Undersea Restaurant - Rangali Island, Maldives
Located at the Conrad Maldives, Rangali
Island Resort is a gorgeous and intimate underwater restaurant (seating
capacity is 14 people) that is more than sixteen feet below sea level.
Opened in 2005, the all-glass restaurant has a menu consisting of fresh
seafood, beef rib eye, veal, and other gourmet dishes. Encased in a
transparent acrylic roof, the restaurant offers its diners a 270-degree
panoramic view of sea creatures swimming in the Maldives’ crystal clear
waters. While a zinc paint coating protects Ithaa’s steel structure from
corrosion, the saltwater and marine growths adhering to the paint will
eventually break it down. Make a reservation while you still can.
Ninja New York - New York City, USA
In a review in the New York Times,
Frank Bruni describes Ninja New York as “a kooky, dreary subterranean
labyrinth... You are greeted there by servers in black costumes who
ceaselessly bow, regularly yelp and ever so occasionally tumble.”
Designed to look like a 15th-century Japanese feudal village full of
dark nooks and snaking passageways, you’ll dine amongst stealthy
warriors—the waiters—who roam, romp, and perform tricks, all the while
serving sushi and sake. Just call it Japanese fare mixed with martial
arts flair at its best.
Dinner in the Sky - Montreal, Canada
Got an appetite for high altitude?
Originating in Belgium, the concept involves a crane hoisting guests,
who are securely strapped into “dining chairs” 160 feet up in the air,
along with a table, wait staff, and everything that’s required to enjoy a
meal floating above the ground. The novelty-based mobile restaurant has
gained popularity worldwide and is now offered for limited run periods
in cities around the globe, including Montreal.
Redwoods Treehouse - Warkworth, New Zealand
Built in 2008, the pod-shaped structure
is situated over 32 feet above the ground in a Redwood tree in the town
of Warkworth, north of Auckland. Diners access the venue via an elevated
treetop walkway built of redwood milled on site. The striking venue is
used exclusively for private functions and events, with a capacity of 30
guests.
Cat Café Nekorobi - Tokyo, Japan
Now this is an unusual, or shall we say
different, way to have a coffee break. Nekorobi is a hip cat café
located in the entertainment district of Ikebukuro where you can spend
time with friends of the feline kind. Patrons enter through modern glass
doors into a dimly lit joint where cats prowl and sprawl out, and where
a drinks dispenser vending machine offers a variety of hot and cold
beverages including coffee, royal milk tea, green tea, and instant miso
soup. Visit in the evening and you’ll have a chance to witness the
dinnertime ritual where the kitties feast on cat food in glass food
bowls arranged in a circle around a floor lamp.
Safe House - Milwaukee, USA
This Midwestern U.S. restaurant has a
rather nondescript exterior, but that seems to be the precisely the
point. Everything related to the spy-themed restaurant is based on the
CIA definition of a safe house, which is meant to be a seemingly
innocent premise where an intelligence organization would conduct its
covert operations in relative security.
Modern Toilet - Taipei City, Taiwan Province, People's Republic of China
The idea for this odd restaurant was
conceived by one of the owners while he was reading while sitting—where
else?—on a toilet. Initially it only sold chocolate ice cream in
containers shaped like a squat toilet, but once the humorous spin became
a great success, a full-fledged, bathroom-themed eatery emerged.
De Kas - Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Less weird than amazing: Imagine a
restaurant where the menu selections are prepared using the freshest
possible ingredients, and by freshest, we mean harvested in the field at
sunrise of the same day you are dining there. Welcome to De Kas, an old
greenhouse in Amsterdam that was due to be demolished in 2001, but was
saved by an ambitious Michelin star chef, Gert Jan Hageman, who
converted the unique twenty six foot high glass building into a
restaurant and nursery. Mediterranean vegetables, herbs and edible
flowers are grown and harvested at the greenhouse and garden near the
restaurant, and Hageman can be found in De Kas’ nursery daily, working
the soil, planting, weeding and harvesting herbs and vegetables.
The Bubble Room - Captiva Island, Florida
Opened in 1979, this eclectic restaurant
decorated with classic toys from the 1930s and 1940s started as a small
one-room eatery, and today has grown into a multi-themed restaurant
occupying all three stories of the house it originated in. Staff are
known as "bubble scouts," each wearing a different crazy hat. Moving
trains are on all three floors and photographs of old-time movie scenes
and stars adorn every available wall space.
Music from the 1920s to 1940s serves as the restaurant’s soundtrack, and
the bright and cheerful pastel colors of the venue make it a
near-hallucinatory experience. Favorites on the current menu are
original items offered since the restaurant’s early days such as Socra
cheese (a cheese served flamed tableside), Bubble Bread, and many of the
colossal-sized desserts.
O.NOIR - Toronto, Canada
Dining in the dark has been around for
quite some time abroad, but the concept was only first introduced in
Canada in 2006, with the opening of O.NOIR in Montreal and then a second
location in Toronto in 2009. O.NOIR's philosophy is that a diner’s
enjoyment is amplified when his sight is eliminated as the other senses
become heightened. Flashlights, cellphones, and luminous watches are
prohibited from the dark dining establishment. The evening starts in a
lit bar where guests place their orders; then they are led by a server
into an unlit dining room, where a two-hour seated dinner service begins
with servers explaining where everything is placed on the table.
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