#4. Serving food next to decomposing bodies – Ahmadabad, India
The Terrible Restaurant Idea
The New Lucky Restaurant in Ahmadabad in India is famous for a lot of things. There’s the fine food, the excellent service and, of course, the dead bodies. You see, the eatery was built atop a Muslim cemetery some four decades ago and along with tables, chairs and the occasional soup and a sandwich sit a number of graves dotted around the shop like so many dotted graves. Not only do customers have to dodge the coffins, the owners have never bothered to find out just who’s inside them.
Why It Works
In this case it seems we have India’s exceedingly high population to blame and their tolerance for all things dead. Cemeteries in the area are not the kind of creepy place where people are buried, pay their respects to the dead or attempt to communicate with the afterlife. They’re more lively places, sort of like a football match, where people set up stalls next to graves, sit and drink and chant obscene, if occasionally witty, slogans at their under-performing dead comrades. You’d really have to see it to believe it.
#3. Making guests eat in total darkness – Clerkenwell Green, London
The Terrible Restaurant Idea
A candle-lit meal will seem brighter than a lamp shop after you’ve tried dining at this bizarre restaurant in London. Their unusual concept consists, simply, of eating in the dark. Not low-lit, not by the aid of a torch- IN TOTAL DARKNESS. To make sure it really is pitch-black, customers are asked to surrender phones, watches, lighters or anything that can give off light. No detail is overlooked.
Once the key sense of sight is fully denied to you, guests should begin to relax and rely upon the other senses to enjoy a meal. The concept began in Paris with the aid of the Paul Guinot Foundation for Blind People, and was used to create job opportunities and awareness about disability. Blind waiters make up the staff in dark restaurants and Dans Le Noir? assures guests that blind employees are best for the job, and are well trained to serve up the French inspired food. As you’re not allowed to leave the table without guidance, you have to trust your waiters as you rely solely on him (or her, of course) during your dining experience.
Don’t worry though, they do prepare food by the gift of light.
Why It Works
Founded on the basis that customers would be able to experience what it’s like to be blind, many people come away with a new understanding of life for the visually impaired. Without vision, your sense of taste and smell should be enhanced, meaning much more attention can be paid to the flavours and textures of the meal, where you may otherwise just scoff the lot. Dans Le Noir? have had guests come to the restaurant for a blind date (literally) where they’ve chosen to get to know one another before meeting face to face. Perhaps the lack of light takes away the stress of choosing what to wear. With similar dark restaurants in China, America, Israel and Australia, they must be doing something right.
#2. Basing your business on top of a treacherous mountain – Mount Huashan, China
The Terrible Restaurant Idea
According to most sensible capitalists, businesses should have a strong brand name, ideally offer high quality customer service, and definitely be located in a place which can’t potentially kill their customers. Well, the Teahouse at the top of Mount Huashan breaks many, some and pretty much all of these rules. It’s at the top of one of the most treacherous mountains in the world. If you don’t believe us – and why would you? – take a look at this crazy mo’fo’ below.
Unsurprisingly, many people have died climbing the mountain through the years and many more have taken one look at that rickety-assed plank of wood and thought Starbucks was the much safer option.
Why It Works
There’s a very simple reason for this one proving successful: people like danger about as much as humanity loves religion. Mount Huashan combines both. It is one of five sacred Taoist mountains in China, each of which comes with its own sacred temple-shrine to the God of the mountain. Xiyue Temple is the holy place of choice for Mount Huashan, although the hiking trail features all sorts of temples along its precarious trail. So, in reality, people are risking their lives for spiritual nourishment rather than the liquid kind, although it’s surely a bonus.
Mount Huashan – a nice place for a cup of tea
#1. Serving food in a toilet bowl – Taipei, Taiwan, Mainland China
The Terrible Restaurant Idea
When dining in a fine restaurant have you ever thought to yourself that, hey, this food is great, but it would definitely taste better served in a toilet? Yes? What the hell is wrong with you?
Well, China has answered your potty based prayers by opening a restaurant called – seriously – The Shithouse, which serves their delicacies in, and this is probably the key word here, “replica” toilets. The owners decided to open the eatery after dining in such a crap-house they thought it was as bad as eating in a toilet. Most people might have taken fecal-flavored food as a sign not to eat in the establishment anymore, but Shithouse co-owner Feng Lu saw a business opportunity. It’s been so successful they’re considering opening a chain of them.
Everything tastes better from a toilet bowl. Everything
Why It Works
This particular restaurant seems ridiculous, but the thing is there’s a clear and definite market for it because the craptacularly named Shithouse is one of many, many houses of its ilk all over Asia. There’s the Modern Toilet Restaurant which started in Taipei in 2004 and now has branches all over Taiwan as well as Hong Kong and mainland China. Then there’s the Merton Restaurant, also in Taiwan, which is helpfully detailed in the video below. Taiwan’s predilection for toilet themed tasteries seems to stem for their tolerance of natural bodily functions – spitting in public is quite common and burping is apparently considered polite.
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