Unique Restaurants

There are so many restaurants out there vying for our custom that if you want to stand apart from the competition and stand the test of time, you really have to do something special both with the food and the dining environment. I did a bit of research into the most unique restaurants in the world and I've narrowed it down to my top five.

I've never been to any of them but they're now on my to-do-some-day list...



1. The Clinic, Singapore

As the name and the photo would suggest, the theme of this restaurant is a hospital, or more specifically an operating theater. You sit in wheelchairs to dine served by waitresses dressed in nurse uniforms who serve drinks in test tubes with names such as "Sex on a Drip" (genius). It sounds like this one is also going to fulfill lots of people's doctors and nurses fantasies. The restaurant also combines the medical world with an art theme and it has a gallery devoted to medical art by famed artist Damien Hirst...

It sounds like the constant beeping of the EKG machine might get a bit annoying after a while though.

Check out their website as it's pretty cool too: http://theclinic.sg/




2. Ithaa Restaurant, Indian Ocean

Rather than putting an aquarium in a restaurant, why not build the restaurant under the sea... five meters below sea level. This restaurant, situated offshore from Rangalifinolhu island in the Maldives, gives you a 270 degree panoramic view of the ocean life around you. The see-through acrylic underwater bubble only seats 14 diners so I imagine it's very expensive and exclusive and way out of my price range. According to the article I read, the lifespan of the restaurant is only 20 years. How did they figure that out? and why would they tell anybody that?

I wonder if I'd be put off eating tropical fish if they were swimming all around me. I think i'd feel a bit guilty.





3. Dinner in the Sky, Brussels

I think this one is my favorite even though I have a fear of heights. The restaurant is mobile and so you can choose which part of the city you want to dine in and admire from a 150-feet bird's-eye view. This would be especially cool at night when the city lights come on. The restaurant uses specifically designed cranes that hoist up the dining platform and tables with attached seating. It can accommodate up to 22 people at a time or you can choose to rent the whole thing out as a private dinner for two. Good wedding proposal idea methinks.

I wonder how the serving / preparation of food works. I guess you'd have to pre-order and everything would come pre-prepared with the wait staff which suggests the quality of the food probably isn't at its best. still, novel idea all the same.





4. Tree House Restaurant & Cafe, Monteverde


There's something enchanting about tree houses. Maybe they bring out the kid in you. Not only is this restaurant built in a tree but in a giant Higueron tree towering high above the Monteverde Cloud Forest in Costa Rica. You can dine while enjoying all the beautiful sights and sounds of nature. Cockroaches can't climb trees, right?




5. Modern Toilet, Taipei

So the appeal of this one is pretty obvious from the picture. I'm not quite sure why I would want to sit on a toilet and eat my dinner from a mini toilet bowl while using toilet paper for napkins and getting my drink from the sink... but it sounds kinda fun in a bizarre sort of way. Even the black and white tiled floors have a bathroom feel and apparently some of the restaurant's tables are glass-topped bathtubs. You'd think they could have come up with a better, more catchy name than "Modern Toilet" but maybe it just got lost in translation.


I also wanted to tell you about this restaurant in Ahmedabad, India not because I want to go there but because it's so bizarre and disturbing it warrants a mention. The New Lucky Restaurant is built around a graveyard, LITERALLY, so you find yourself dining surrounded by real tombs. Apparently, according to local customs and beliefs, it's good luck to share your meals with the dead. It started in the 1950s as a tea stand and is now a popular dining establishment. I have no idea what the appeal is unless someone in the tomb was one of your relatives. Even then it's a rather dark concept. Each to their own I suppose...I'd prefer to eat on a toilet.