Editor’s note: This article was first published in October 2012. The restaurants described were open at that time, and several have since closed or changed: Mars 2112 in New York closed in 2012, and Casa Bonita closed in 2020 and reopened in 2023 under new owners.
Most of us probably think that what really counts for a restaurant to succeed is the quality of its menu. Even so, if you manage to grab attention with originality and innovation, both in the design and in the way people eat, chances are nobody will stop to wonder whether the menu was better or worse than at other restaurants they have been to.
A while ago we shared some ideas for adding value to a bar, restaurant or nightclub. Today we bring you 9 of the most innovative and original (and also slightly strange) restaurants, which you may not find in your city and which might have demand there.
1. An aerial restaurant: dinner in the clouds
Having lunch or dinner 50 to 100 metres up in the air is in fashion. I believe the idea started in China. It was later exported to the United States, and more and more entrepreneurs in different countries are taking it up. An excellent way to enjoy your food with your adrenaline running high.
Each seat has safety features just in case, and every customer is strapped in with harnesses. It is important to go to the toilet before going up, because once you are up there… it will be difficult. People say the waiting list for this aerial restaurant in the United States is quite long, even though they can charge up to 14,000 dollars to rent it for a dinner.
2. Opaque: dinner in complete darkness
In this restaurant the decor hardly matters, because lunch or dinner is served in total darkness. Its inventor was a cook who reasoned that people who lack one sense sharpen the others, so if you are deprived of sight during dinner, your sense of taste becomes sharper and you notice the flavour of the food much more. And if a fly lands in your plate, at least there will be no complaints 🙂
3. Casa Bonita: carefully crafted decor
Right in Denver, Colorado, you can have dinner while feeling as if you were in exotic Acapulco: they have thought of every last detail to make you believe you are dining there. Palm trees, a lake, a waterfall. A place recommended for dinner with your partner and/or family. It also has a party hall. The food is exclusively Mexican.
4. A Mars restaurant: dinner on another planet
Decor that recreates the red planet in the middle of New York City. Waiters dressed up as aliens, toilets shaped like spaceships, and so on. The idea was good, but for some reason, whether lack of demand or poor management by the owner, nobody knows, the restaurant is now closed after lasting only about 2 years. Maybe the children got scared when they saw the aliens.
5. BED: dinner in bed
This restaurant is in Miami, Florida. Customers have dinner comfortably lying in bed. The restaurant is obviously aimed at couples, so the whole atmosphere invites romance (music, lighting…). That said, “getting too intimate” and sleeping are both forbidden.
6. A ninja restaurant
The look will probably remind you of any ninja film you have seen. The interior is an exact imitation of some Hollywood “ninja” sets.
The waiters come dressed as ninjas and the food is exclusively Japanese. This restaurant is in New York City. They promise that, even with katanas everywhere, the bill won’t cut you to pieces.
7. Heart Attack Grill: for “real men”
This idea was born in Las Vegas and, as its name suggests, it lives up to it. With hospital decor and waitresses dressed as nurses, this is probably the least healthy of all fast-food places.
The basic burger has three patties, plenty of mayonnaise and is cooked in lard. If you go with your son and want him to be as “macho” as you are, you can instil these healthy habits thanks to the house speciality for children: milkshakes made with excess butter.
8. A high-tech restaurant with no waiters
In this restaurant there are no waiters. Customers sit down, look at the menu on a touch screen, place their order, pay by credit card and, very shortly afterwards, the food arrives down those spiral-shaped tracks. A good way to save on hiring waiters, although for now you still need cooks.
9. Vampire-themed restaurants
Vampires never go out of fashion, and right now, thanks to the Twilight saga, interest in all things vampire has grown considerably. Many venues use the theme to attract customers, who are quick to arrive. Red backdrops, coffins, candelabras, skulls and so on.
In China, Europe and the United States there are restaurants and pubs with this theme where, in some cases, drinks are even served in skull-shaped glasses and the waiters and waitresses dress and make themselves up as vampires. And the food? To die for.
There are probably many more restaurants worth knowing about.
Featured image: Nebo.Oly, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
