Sometimes, you need the culinary excitement only kitsch and quirky can deliver. When your palette gets bored, spice up your dining life with these quirky U.S. restaurants.
Magic Restroom Cafe, City of Industry, California
Squeamish diners, beware: This bathroom-themed eatery is not for the faint of heart. If you’ve got an iron gut and a healthy appreciation for, well, toilet humor, get yourself to the Magic Restroom Cafe in California’s City of Industry. Toilets take the place of chairs, walls are lined with bathroom tiles and Taiwanese dishes like curry chicken and fried calamari are served in toilet bowl dishes.
Heart Attack Grill, Las Vegas, Nevada
You don’t go to a place called Heart Attack Grill for vegan, heart-healthy fare – you come to get your greasy grub on. At this joint in Las Vegas, you’ll do just that thanks to the diner’s lineup of four bypass burgers, served in single, double, triple or quadruple varieties. Waitresses dressed as candy stripers and mandatory medical gowns for diners complete the Heart Attack Grill’s hospital theme, as do menu items like flatliner fries.
Opaque, locations in New York, Dallas, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego
This black-out restaurant invites diners to “close their eyes and see” with Opaque’s dining-in-the-dark concept. Smells, flavors and touch are all heightened to new levels during a meal at Opaque, where you leave your coat and bag at the door so that your dining experience is truly focused on the joy of eating.
Casa Bonita, Denver, Colorado
There’s a lot more to Denver’s Casa Bonita than a Mexican buffet – this 52,000-square-foot restaurant is known for entertaining guests with things like pirate shows and cliff divers who jump off Casa Bonita’s 30-foot waterfall into a pool. Puppet shows, mariachi bands, fire jugglers and an arcade round out the experience at one of the most entertaining restaurants in the U.S. (Main image: Heart Attack Grill)
