Recently, a restaurant in Taiwan has been making headlines because of its interesting marketing gimmick; at the eatery known as the Modern Toilet Diner, its customers sit on toilet chairs, eat from toilet-shaped dishes, and use toilet paper in place of napkins. While its theme may be extreme, it’s not the only restaurant or bar out there with an interesting gimmick.
Moscow
- Gogol: Located in an underground bunker, this restaurant uses an air raid siren to alert customers when their orders are ready to be picked up.
- Petrovich: Decked out in Soviet memorabilia, this restaurant pays ironic homage to Stalinist Russia.
- The Real McCoy: This club models itself after a prohibition-era speakeasy, complete with a hard-to-find entrance and 1930s design elements.
- Shinok (Moscow): Shinok evokes rural Ukraine, circa 1600, with traditional food, music, costumes, and even real barnyard animals on display.
Taiwan
- D.S. Music Restaurant: A restaurant with a hospital theme, visitors sit around “beds” while their drinks drip from IV tubes into their glasses.
- The Jail: Keeping with the jail theme, diners here are served by waiters in black-and-white-striped prisoner garb.
- Modern Toilet Diner: As strange as it may seem, customers are flocking to the Modern Toilet Diner and its toilet-based decor.
Tokyo
- Alcatraz: Diners are led to their table in handcuffs and their food is delivered through a slot in the barred “cell” wall.
- Alice in Wonderland: Customers go down the rabbit hole to this “Gothic and Lolita” style tribute to Lewis Carroll’s heroine.
- Christon Cafe: There’s nothing sacrilegious about a Christian-themed restaurant decorated with crucifixes and featuring menu items such as the “Small Devil” cocktail, right?
USA
- Cereality: A restaurant devoted to cereal seems like a strange idea, but with its large menu of cereals, toppings, and cereal-related items like bars and smoothies, this chain of restaurants is taking off in the U.S.
- Heart Attack Grill: This Phoenix, Arizona restaurant has its own resident “doctor,” whose prescription calls for the house special, the “Double Bypass Burger.”
- Quark’s Bar and Restaurant: Part of the Las Vegas Hilton’s Star Trek Experience, Quark’s Bar serves drinks and food with names that would sound right at home on the Enterprise.
