Get ready for "extreme" restaurants
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A 240-meter-long glass bridge over the Dashbashi Canyon in the country of Georgia has a diamond-shaped café in the middle. Photo: Vano Shlamov/AFP via Getty Images
Want to have drinks on a glass bridge suspended over a fearsome gorge? A chef-driven dinner at a table suspended in the sky? In a polar pod in Antarctica? Under the sea amid a coral reef?
- A crop of bizarre — and perhaps scary — restaurants is catering to our appetites, wanderlust, and social media-driven desire for photogenic life (and food) moments.
Driving the news: "Experiential eating" was dubbed a food trend for 2023 by the New York Times, fueled in part by the end of the pandemic, which has diners craving "restaurants that offer interaction, excitement and a bit of a show."
- The 2022 movie "The Menu," a murder mystery set at an haute cuisine restaurant on a remote island, may have helped fuel interest — along with the closing of Noma, the cultish gastronomic temple in Copenhagen.
- A new series from National Geographic, "Restaurants at the End of the World," has "Top Chef" winner Kristen Kish dining at a floating restaurant in Brazil, a Norwegian spot in the Arctic circle and more.
Details: While offbeat dining experiences can be had in most big cities — such as the horror-themed Burgertory in Salt Lake City and the immersive theater served up in 10-14 course meals at Charlotte's Counter — a few global locations have gone to extremes.
- Ithaa in the Maldives is 16 feet under the ocean, with guests dining in a transparent tunnel with coral garden views and "fusion menus matched with fine wines."
- The Diamond glass bridge spans a fearsome canyon near Tbilisi in the country of Georgia; it opened last year with a café in the center that will seek Guinness designation as "the restaurant suspended at a highest point from a bridge."
- Whichaway Camp in Antarctica boasts of serving "five-star international cuisine" prepared by a "private chef" in an igloo; visits start at $62,500.
- At El Diablo in the Canary Islands, you can eat chicken, steak or chorizo that's been cooked over a dormant volcano.
- Dinner in the Sky is a feast that moves from city to city hosting lavish meals at a table on a platform suspended by a crane. (Now serving in Athens, Greece, and at the Lion's Mound landmark at the Waterloo battlefield in Belgium.)
What they're saying: "People are really craving a special experience and prioritizing the experiential," says Debby Soo, CEO of restaurant reservation platform OpenTable.
- "I do think a large part of that is because of a lot of us being pent up or cooped up during the pandemic."
Yes, but: Sometimes these places are a tad less exciting than their hype.
- A Parisian restaurant called Sur Un Arbre Perché ("perched on a tree") lets people dine on swings and get shiatsu massages, but some reviewers note that there are only a limited number of swinging chairs — best to book far in advance.
- TripAdvisor reviews of the Diamond bridge focus more on the excitement of biking across the chasm than on supping in the center of it.
- "My only regret was that the bar in the diamond was closed. I always like to have a beer in weird places like this," one visitor wrote.
The bottom line: While most of these restaurants predate the pandemic, they're getting fresh attention as people seek out exciting destinations that travel restrictions had denied them.
