The World's 10 Weirdest Restaurants

1- ITHAA, MALDIVES

The fact that Ithaa in the picture postcard perfect Maldives has only 12 seats and cost $5 million lends it an air of exclusivity from the outset. However, why it makes this esteemed list is due to its setting, 16 feet below the surface of the Indian Ocean. A 180 degree acrylic see through dome is all that comes between you and a dazzling array of stingrays, butterfly fish and creatures, making it the world’s first aquarium-style underwater eaterie. Good weird, but weird nonetheless.

2- MODERN TOILET RESTAURANT, TAIWAN

Although as civilised adults we don’t like to countenance it more than once a year, there is a correlation between eating and the toilet. Yeah, that’s put you off your cheeseburger hasn’t it? In Taiwan, however, they like to make a virtue of this symbiosis. The Modern Toilet Restaurant deals in commode cuisine: food – curry, noodles etc - is served in toilet bowls and its proved so successful owner Eric Wang has opened a string of similarly themed restaurants. What’s even weirder is that in the restaurant’s toilet you do your business on a plate. Honk, honk.

3- DANS LE NOIR, UNITED KINGDOM

The dark is a wonderful invention (it’s not really an invention is it? Ah well, that’s for another time): great for a bit of slap and tickle; a must for horror films and a panacea for headaches. At the risk of sounding like a conservative bore though, is it the best setting for food? The folk at Dans Le Noir, in London’s Clerkenwell certainly think so. With up to 59 other diners, you can eat your meal – which is a surprise, although you can give them rough instructions – in a blackened room. What’s more, the waiters are blind. It’s meant to completely revolutionize your sense of taste. Hifalutin concepts aside, it doesn’t really sound right to us.

4. DINNER IN THE SKY, WORLDWIDE

Predictably, if there are those that wish to eat lobster thermidor below the ocean, there will be others that want to chow down on steak tartare up in the sky. Enter stage left (or should that be sky dive from the above plane?) Dinner In The Sky. Having originated in Belgium, the concept has been rolled out worldwide. Guests are seat belted to a table that is attached to crane before being elevated 165 feet in the sky where they hover while enjoying a luxurious meal. How odd.

5. IZAKAYA KAYABUKI, JAPAN

Monkeys are clever little critters. A lot smarter than your average human some might say. They certainly think so over in Japan. So much so that Kaoru Otsuka, owner of the Izakaya Kayabuki in Utsonomiya, hires them to work in his restaurant. Well, we say hires, they’re actually his pets. Insert pay peanuts, get monkeys jibe here.

6. ISDAAN, PHILIPPINES

According to a cursory scan of reviews on t’interweb, there are plenty of sound gastronomic reasons to visit fish restaurant Isdaan should you ever be down Philippines way. And yet, the reason for its inclusion here is that in an antechamber, diners can smash plates, mugs and even TVs before settling down to some scrumptious seafood. Violence and cracking food: a win win.

7. ROGUE 24, AMERICA

Eating out should be a pleasurable experience. A time to relax with your nearest and dearest while eating pork belly. Aaah, pork belly; gimme, gimme, gimme. What it shouldn’t remind you of is school, full of rules and regulations. Patrons of hip Washington eaterie are forced to sign a two-page contract telling them what they can (eat either a 16-course or 24-course tasting menu) and can’t (tweet, text, take pictures and anything else involving a mobile) do. Crikey, some people just like to be abused.

8. THE CLINIC, SINGAPORE

Linking food and hospitals might sound out mixed signals, but there’s no doubting The Clinic’s credentials. This isn’t some backstreet burger joint serving dodgy food that will send you to your nearest A&E. Rather; it’s a high-end concept restaurant a la Heston Blumenthal’s Fat Duck. And alongside the molecular gastronomy, the dining experience comes with a medical twist. Food is operated on under surgical lights and diners are seated in wheelchairs. Bonkers.

9. S’ BAGGERS, GERMANY


On the other hand, some people like a bit of banter with waiters. Dick’s Last Resort, a restaurant chain over the pond, intentionally hire rude and abusive staff and actively encourage them to verbally fire both barrels at customers. Thankfully, diners are in on the act and most seem to lap up the admittedly obvious, but funny, childish and smutty innuendos.

10. DICK’S LAST RESORT, AMERICA

On the other hand, some people like a bit of banter with waiters. Dick’s Last Resort, a restaurant chain over the pond, intentionally hire rude and abusive staff and actively encourage them to verbally fire both barrels at customers. Thankfully, diners are in on the act and most seem to lap up the admittedly obvious, but funny, childish and smutty innuendos.

Sky Tower (the world's craziest free-fall drop ride)

When it comes to some of the world's craziest rides, they often look scarier than they actually are. No matter how high the drop, how fast the speed, or how powerful the g-force, you can always take solace in knowing that you're strapped into a harness and there's plenty of high tech mechanisms between you and certain death. Except on Tivoli Friheden's "Sky Tower". 

When the park declares "nothing but a net!" they're being honest. Riders of the absolutely insane "Sky Tower" free-fall nearly 100 foot at somewhere around 55MPH. No rope. No harness. The only thing between you and the net is air. As you can probably imagine, the drop is nothing short of terrifying, and lucky for us, this video exists to show us what it's like without having to actually go through with it.

you've got a couple options. You could head to Denmark and take a drop on the "Sky Tower" featured in the video, or you could head to Dallas, Texas' Zero Gravity Thrill Amusement Park where their version is apty named "Nothin' But Net". For $36 you can poop your pants all the way down, so long as you don't have a heart condition.

There used to be at least one other park in the United States where you could take the free-fall challenge, but then ride operators let a 12-year-old girl take the 100 foot drop and forgot to raise the safety net. She landed on concrete, was critically injured, and the rest is history.

Hallerbos Forest (Like in Fairy tales )

Even if you don't believe in fairies and magic anymore, there's probably still a little part of you that will always wish you were living in a fairy tale (Don't even try to deny it. Think of how cool it would be to have magic powers). As far as I know, though, magic isn't actually real, so the closest I'll ever get to experiencing a real-life fairy tale is to visit the most enchanting forest in the world-- Belgium's Hallerbos Forest. 

Hallerbos was the former stomping grounds of some of the area's most well-respected saints and dukes back in the day, and was prized land because of its old-growth oak and rare beech trees. You won't see any massive trees here today, though, because the forest took a hit during World War I, when the Germans cut down most of the beeches and oaks and left the forest in ruins. Hallerbos, which was actually owned by the German Arenburg family before the war, was given to the country of Belgium as war reparations in 1929.

Between the 1930s and the 1950s, a huge effort was made to replant the trees and restore the forest to its former glory. But, the main attraction of the woodland is far and away its enchanting carpet of bluebell hyacinth flowers that covers the forest floor every spring. The best time to see the mesmerizing natural beauty of the flowers is between late April and early May-- only a few short weeks each year.

Wood sorrell and wild garlic are scattered throughout the bluebells, which actually survived the destruction of the forest during the war. Replanting and expanding the forest continues even to this day, although on a smaller scale than before. Now Hallerbos covers roughly 1,360 acres of tranquil, alluring woodland beauty. 

World's 5 Smallest Countries

1- Vatican City

0.2 square miles - The world's smallest state, the Vatican has a population of 770, none of whom are permanent residents. The tiny country which surrounds St. Peter's Basilica is the spiritual center for the world's Roman Catholics (over 1 billion strong). Also known as the Holy See, Vatican City is surrounded by Rome, Italy.

Vatican City

2- Monaco 

0.7 square miles - The tiny state of Monaco lies along the French Riviera on the French Mediterranean coast near Nice. An impressive 32,000 people live in this state known for its Monte Carlo casinos and Princess Grace. It has been independent off-and-on since the 13th century.

Monaco 

3- Nauru 

8.5 square miles - The 13,000 residents of the Pacific island Nauru rely on diminishing phosphate deposits. The state became independent in 1968 and was formerly known as Pleasant Island.

Nauru 

4- Tuvalu 

9 square miles - Tuvalu is composed of 9 coral atolls along a 360 mile chain in Polynesia. They gained independence in 1978. The former Ellice Islands are home to 12,000.

Tuvalu 

5- San Marino 

24 square miles - Located on Mt. Titano in north central Italy, San Marino has 29,000 residents. The country claims to be the oldest state in Europe, having been founded in the fourth century.

San Marino

The Longleat Maze (the longest maze in the world)

If you've been looking for the perfect place to get lost on your next vacation, look no further than the village of Horningsham, England, where the garden of the Longleat stately home is ready to let you get lost in the truest sense of the word.

The Longleat Maze, designed and created in 1975, is the longest hedge maze in the world, spanning a length of a whopping 2.72 kilometers over 1 and a half acres. Consisting of some 16,000 English yews that stand eight feet tall, it's easy to see why the incredible maze has "help boxes" scattered throughout its interior. If you lose your way in here, you could quite easily be lost for hours, especially considering that a successful navigation with no mistakes can take around an hour.

The maze is so massive that it requires a team of six gardeners wielding high powered hegde trimmers to keep in check. Their rounds last nearly a month, and they perform their exhausting duties twice a year.

Want to try your luck at the Longleat Maze? Just make your way to Horningsham, England, but bring your GPS just in case. Want some puzzles a bit closer to home? Visit Room Escape Adventures , where you and some friends will work to escape a room with a zombie slowly gaining on your team, or head to Wizard Quest, where you'll enter a fully-realized fantasy world that needs you brave magic spells, vicious goblins, and mysterious puzzles in order to escape.

Bristlecone pine Tree ( The Oldest Trees on Earth )

The Great Basin Bristlecone Pines, or Pinus longaeva, is a long-living species of tree found in the higher mountains of the southwest United States. Bristlecone pines grow in isolated groves in the arid mountain regions of six western states of America, but the oldest are found in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest in the White Mountains of California. These trees have a remarkable ability to survive in extremely harsh and challenging environment. In fact, they are believed to be the some of oldest living organisms in the world, with lifespans in excess of 5,000 years.

Bristlecone pines grow just below the tree line, between 5,000 and 10,000 feet of elevation. At these great heights, the wind blows almost constantly and the temperatures can dip to well below zero. The soil is dry receiving less than a foot of rainfall a year. Because of these extreme conditions, the trees grow very slowly, and in some years don't even add a ring of growth. Even the tree's needles, which grow in bunches of five, can remain green for forty years.

  

Le Moulin Du ROC Hotel (Like in the Fairy Tales)

There's something wonderfully charming about vacationing in France, and it doesn't get more fairy tale classic than this rustic and enchanting mill-turned-resort. Even the name has a certain ring to it: Le Moulin Du Roc. But, nothing compares to the allure of the actual setting-- an idyllic 1670's mill in the French countryside on the babbling River Dronne. Swoon.

There are 15 rooms total in the resort, spread out across three buildings and several acres of captivating, bucolic gardens. Picturesque footpaths and lovely, cozy little staircases connect the rooms and buildings, and it makes exploring the grounds like something straight out of The Secret Garden. The rooms are all done up in beautiful vintage antiques and shabby chic period decor (and fear not, just because you're staying in a 17th century mill doesn't mean you won't have modern amenities!)

They've also got an award-winning restaurant on site and also offer cooking classes. Plus, since this is France, come ready to indulge in the finest alcoholic grape juices. They've got 900+ different varities of wine from across the globe, but they specialize in Bordeaux wines from France, which are best enjoyed over an evening meal next to the river. Plus, they've got a patio for enjoying a nice cigar afterwards!

Aurora Borealis

An aurora is a natural light display in the sky (from the Latin word Aurora "sunrise" or the Roman goddess of dawn),

Auroras are natural different colored light displays, which are usually observed in the night sky, particularly in the polar zone. In northern latitudes, it is known as the aurora borealis, named after the Roman goddess of the dawn, Aurora, and the Greek name for north wind, Boreas. It often appears as a greenish glow (or sometimes a faint red), as if the sun were rising from an unusual direction. The aurora borealis is also called the ‘northern lights’, as it is only visible in the North sky from the Northern Hemisphere. The aurora borealis most often occurs from September to October and from March to April.