Asia has all sorts of weird s***, and I say this quite literally. In Taiwan, where my extended family lives, there’s a restaurant called the Modern Toilet Restaurant. You plop down on toilets and dine on dishes that arrive in toilet bowls. Needless to say, nature has never called me to go there.
Even when you think an idea is so outrageous it has to be contained in Asia, you’re wrong. The owner of Modern Toilet Restaurant decided to open one in Los Angeles this week, because of the concept’s popularity in Taiwan.
The menu is all Taiwanese food, but it’s all sounding very unappetizing. From LA’s Eaterwire:
If diarrhea-looking food swimming in a toilet bowl still doesn’t offend, understand the dish is named signature “golden poop” rice. Order correctly (chicken wings, Taiwanese sausage, fried tofu), and the food arrives in a miniature floor commode which was the stuff of nightmares for Western backpackers in Asia in the past.
Sadly, not all chairs are toilet seats, and none of the toilets have water tanks attached. Thankfully, seat covers are employed, and no one’s actually forced to cop a squat while downing dishes so lovingly named: “black poop” (chocolate sundae), “smells-like-poop” (braised pork over rice), “constipation” (zha jiang mian), “bloody number two” (vanilla-strawberry sundae). For an Alinea-esque multi-sensory dining experience, it’s best to order the stinky tofu for the pleasant malodor.
My only question is if there’s an actual bathroom inside this bathroom restaurant. Do you do your business and eat at the same time? How does this work?
