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Eating at a restaurant is a simple treat that rarely comes with any big surprises. You’re not expecting to be thrilled or shocked by a restaurant besides maybe being pleasantly surprised at how good the food tastes. However, there are millions of restaurants around the globe (with over 10 million in China alone), so some of them are bound to be a little stranger than average.
Eating out at a restaurant is one of the most popular ways to spend a first date, but with so many different restaurant options out there, you’ll want to do your research. That said, booking a restaurant reservation at one of these strange dining experiences might kick off a relationship in an exciting way or make the first date also the last. From the magically romantic to the exhilarating and just plain odd, there are more weird restaurants around the world than you might expect.
Dinner in the Sky (multiple locations)
Diners with acrophobia, also known as a fear of heights, may want to steer clear of a meal with Dinner in the Sky. An adrenaline rush for thrill-seekers, this dining experience takes you around 160 feet in the air to eat. You’ll be strapped into your seat for safety as professional chefs prepare a delicacy in the center of the table. As you wait to be served your multi-course meal, your feet will dangle over the city and you’ll be privy to some of the best views possible.
The coolest part about Dinner in the Sky events is that they’re held all over the world, so the scenery with the meal is always different. Over the past 17 years, there have been more than 5,000 dining experiences across 60 different countries. Dinner in the Sky events have gone down in America, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Canada, Europe, South Africa, South America, and Asia. To experience this lofty dinner party experience, check the Dinner in the Sky calendar. The pop-up events may only last for a weekend, or you may have a few months to make reservations, depending on the location.
Dining in the Dark (multiple locations)
There is something a little unnerving about not being able to see the food you’re putting in your mouth, but that’s the whole concept behind Dining in the Dark. When attending a Dining in the Dark event, you’ll be led into the dining space and promptly have an impenetrable blindfold tied around your eyes. The entire meal will be served and eaten in the dark with the blindfold, and you won’t be able to see a thing.
The event planners insist that taking away your sense of sight enhances your taste and smell, giving you a brand-new, sensory-heightened dining experience. The dinner is arranged in a three-course spread. While the menu is also a mystery, diners can choose a vegan, seafood, or meat option to request a meal that adheres to any dietary restrictions you may have. Dining in the Dark events are held throughout the world, though more commonly held in the U.S. and Europe. Event planners typically partner with local restaurants to host their dining events. To attend, go to the Dining in the Dark website to view upcoming events in your area.
Heart Attack Grill (Las Vegas)
You would think that most people wouldn’t want to consider the possibility of dying from a heart attack over dinner, but there is a whole restaurant dedicated to the topic in Las Vegas called the Heart Attack Grill. Unlike your doctor, this restaurant actually encourages all your most indulgent, fried, heart-attacking-inducing food desires. The restaurant even features an electronic cattle scale out front, and guests weighing over 350 pounds can eat unlimited free food.
The visitors to Heart Attack Grill are all dubbed as “patients,” their orders are “prescriptions,” and the waitresses are “nurses” just to hit home what eating this restaurant’s type of food on a regular basis would eventually do to your body. Here, you can order menu items like the Triple Bypass Burger, Flatliner Fries, and Butterfat Milkshakes. The restaurant’s Quadruple ByPass Burger was even named the highest-calorie burger on the planet by Guinness World Records. You may gain 10 pounds after eating at the Heart Attack Grill, but it’ll definitely be a memorable experience.
Sounds of Silence (Australia)
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Created through a partnership between Voyages, an indigenous tourism company, and the Aboriginal-owned Ayers Rock Resort, the Sounds of Silence is a magical dining experience, where you eat atop dunes that overlook Australia’s Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park. After meeting initially at Ayers Rock Resort, which is about a 10-minute drive from the national park’s entrance, you’ll be transferred to a remote location to enjoy a luxurious meal under the clearest possible night sky.
When you arrive, you’ll be treated to hors d’oeuvres, wine, and beer while waiting for the sun to set. When the darkness descends, that’s when the real show begins, as the area is one of the best places to stargaze in Australia. Under the twinkling stars above, you’re served a multi-course meal as the evening sky becomes brighter and brighter with fully formed constellations.
On a clear night, you’ll be able to make out the Milky Way, the signs of the zodiac, and the Southern Cross. You’ll even be able to catch a glimpse of planets and galaxies that you wouldn’t be able to spot in most places on the planet. Accompanied by a didgeridoo performance and guided sky tour, the four-hour experience is capped with a return trip to Ayers Rock Resort.
DAWN Avatar Robot Café (Japan)
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The time is officially here. It’s the dawn of a new technological revolution, and robots have started serving us food in restaurants. In Tokyo, Japan, the DAWN Avatar Robot Cafe is just like any other eatery, except for the fact that you’ll be waited on by unnervingly polite robots. Once you sit down at the upscale cafe, a bot will roll over to your table and simply take your order, just like that.
There is something kind of eerie about getting served by something that isn’t a person, but it’s also a pretty cool experience. The other neat thing about the Dawn Avatar Robot Cafe is that it employs human pilots with severe disabilities or injuries to control the robots in the cafe remotely. This unique restaurant has actually opened up an entirely new job on the market for people who need the opportunity, which is always nice to see.
The Treepod Restaurant (Thailand)
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If you’ve ever wanted to feel like a creature of the jungle, book yourself a table at the Treepod Restaurant on Koh Kood island in Thailand. This isn’t just a restaurant in the middle of the forest –- diners are literally pulled up to the treetops in a bamboo pod that looks a little bit like a bird’s nest. Once you’re positioned up in the foliage of Koh Kood’s rainforest, prepare for an expertly crafted dinner. You may even be able to spot rare wildlife through the branches, like monkeys and birds.
Guests can choose between a one-hour gourmet meal or a two-hour luxury meal option. Inside the tree pod, you’ll munch on a meal largely featuring ingredients from the restaurant’s own garden. The waiters will even zipline each dish to your elevated nest for a little extra flare. It’s the ideal place to eat for fans of nature and animals.
Ithaa Undersea Restaurant (Maldives)
Ocean lovers will definitely want to throw Ithaa Undersea Restaurant in the Maldives on their bucket list immediately. This fantastical place is the world’s very first undersea restaurant, and it’s every bit as mesmerizing as it sounds. In the otherworldly establishment, you’ll go 16 feet under the surface of the ocean for an exquisite meal with panoramic views of the aquatic world all around you. There is a four-course lunch menu with casual dishes and a more complex six-course dinner option at Ithaa.
Inside the transparent chamber of Ithaa Restaurant, you’ll be able to see the colorful coral and sea creatures swimming around the turquoise blue waters. Since it’s in the ocean, you never know what type of intriguing or even scary marine life might swim by during your meal. The gorgeous restaurant can also be rented out for unforgettable private events, like weddings and birthdays.
Rollercoaster Restaurant (United Kingdom)
It’s a little more difficult to find a strange restaurant that’s also appropriate for kids, but the U.K.’s Rollercoaster Restaurant is a children’s dream come true. Located in the Staffordshire countryside, this themed restaurant is part of Alton Towers Resort, and the establishment has one of the most eye-catching features you can find in a dining establishment. An overhead roller coaster track spans the entire space in true theme park fashion.
Throughout the meal, toy roller coaster cars zoom overhead on glowing tracks doing loops and turns all around the patrons in an entertaining show. The rollercoaster car finally makes a 26-foot drop down in a spiral toward the tables as the grand finale. Then, guests discover that the cars are actually a vehicle for their order, and they can pop open the top to find their food. It’s a creative and fun design, sure to keep the whole family entertained throughout their meal at this funky restaurant.
Ali Barbour’s Cave Restaurant (Kenya)
Humans have mastered the art of dining inside any natural wonder, including caves. Ali Barbour’s Cave Restaurant in Kenya is a perfect example. The main dining room of this fine dining restaurant is situated inside a naturally formed cave at Diani Beach. While you may feel it’s a little freaky (or unhygienic) to eat dinner inside an ancient cave, the cavern has been completely transformed into an ethereal dining space aglow with candles and dimmed lights.
There is also a massive natural skylight on the “roof” of the establishment, providing a clear glimpse out into the open sky to view colorful sunsets and emerging stars. The menu features a range of international cuisine that’s prepared and plated in an elegant, unexpected way. If you want the opportunity to dine at Ali Barbour’s Cave Restaurant, you’ll need to book a reservation in advance through their website.
El Avión (Costa Rica)
The quirky location of a restaurant can make them weird. Take El Avión restaurant in Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica for example, which is housed inside the remains of an old C-123 Fairchild cargo plane with a long history. The plane was retired up on a cliffside before being converted into a two-level bar and restaurant.
Visitors can enjoy food under the wings of the plane, there is a bar in the fuselage, and they can even stop by the cockpit to look around. El Avión is especially loved for its seafood dishes, considering it’s right near the ocean and has some of the freshest fare possible. It’s also perched nearly 500 feet above the beach, so the restaurant provides prime views over the coastline. Today, due to its weirdness and quality of food, many consider El Avión as one of the best restaurants in Costa Rica.
Supper Club Tube (United Kingdom)
Most trains head to a locomotive graveyard somewhere when they go out of commission, but that wasn’t the fate of the Supper Club Tube in London. This Victoria Line train carriage from the 1960s was revived and given a new life as a Latin-inspired restaurant in 2018. All the original details of the car were maintained. It’s really like they just pulled some tables in and set up this fancy restaurant mid-commute.
At the Supper Club, a six-course meal is hand-prepared to take you on a culinary journey without ever leaving the station. Since it’s just a single car, the restaurant offers a quaint space that welcomes a maximum of 35 guests every evening. The fairly intimate restaurant is only open three days a week, usually Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. So, even though the restaurant is located inside public transportation, it feels like dining at Supper Club Tube is borderline exclusive.
Modern Toilet Restaurant (Taiwan)
The Modern Toilet Restaurant in Taipei, Taiwan straddles the line between being weird, funny, and a little gross all at the same time. As the name suggests, the entire restaurant is done up in a toilet theme, and they take that motif extremely seriously. The guests all sit atop toilet chairs, the food is served in toilet bowls, and the drinks are prepared in mini urinal cups. Even the dishes all go with the theme to an almost disturbing degree.
Everywhere you look throughout the restaurant, there is some type of toilet or bathroom reference. Even though most people would agree that toilets aren’t the most appetizing thing to think of at dinner, lots of customers swear that the food at Modern Toilet is actually really tasty and impressively prepared. This weird restaurant will probably give you a giggle fit throughout the meal, but you might want to avoid taking a first date here. They may never talk to you again.
Ichiran (multiple locations)
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Ichiran is the ultimate introvert-friendly restaurant and one of the most popular yet weird restaurants in the world. Ichiran started off in Fukuoka, Japan, and soon expanded across the country for its unique twist on dining. Ichiran is a ramen joint with a unique catch — you never have to interact with a single person throughout your entire dining experience.
Instead of dealing with the awkward restaurant small talk with hosts and waiters, you’ll order your dish of choice from a ticket machine or write it down on a questionnaire. Once you order, you’ll get a ticket and be assigned an individual ramen booth that’s kind of like a private, little cubicle. You pass your ticket through a window of the booth, then your meal will be passed back through the slot without you ever needing to talk to anyone.
The Ichiran concept was such a big hit that the restaurant started spreading all over Japan. Not just for its interesting, laidback atmosphere, but also for its delicious tonkatsu ramen recipe. Today, there are 85 Ichiran locations across Japan and three restaurants in New York City, too.
Ellen’s Stardust Diner (New York City)
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New York City is home to a plethora of wacky, odd restaurants, but few have stood the test of time as well as Ellen’s Stardust Diner. Ellen’s is a retro, ’50s-theme restaurant and an interesting place to eat if you’re seeing a Broadway show. The restaurant is located in the Theater District of Manhattan near Times Square and definitely upholds the area’s dramatic reputation.
Ellen’s Stardust Diner is famous for its waitstaff, also known as the Stardusters. These staff members dress up in flouncy attire and put on elaborate singing and dancing performances throughout the restaurant while people eat. It’s the main attraction of the establishment, and people literally come to Ellen’s just to see the performers/waiters do their thing.
In fact, many Stardusters have gone on to perform in iconic Broadway shows like “The Lion King,” “In The Heights,” “Wicked,” “Jersey Boys,” and more. You never know, you might have the chance to see a theater star sing and dance at Ellen’s before their big break.
