From a restaurant in the sky to one beneath the ocean, or even one where guests eat in pitch darkness, there are no limits for the daring gourmand or restaurateurs catering to those hungry for a different taste.
Under The Sea: Located at the Conrad Maldives, the Ithaa restaurant (www.conradhotels.com), which is “pearl” in the local Divehi lingo, sits five metres beneath sea level at the bottom of the Indian Ocean. The 12.5 cm thick transparent housing allows diners a sense of being surrounded by the ocean giving them an uninterrupted view of the colourful coral reef and its inhabitants. The kitchen that dishes Maldivian-Western fusion is located above water, while guests access the restaurant by a spiral staircase at the end of the jetty. The dining area only seats 12 and is booked well in advance. The restaurant is open for lunch as well as dinner, but during the day both guests and staff have to wear sunglasses to protect their eyes.
The Sky’s the Limit: If you suffer from vertigo, this one is not for you. Bon vivants at Dinner In The Sky (www.dinnerinthesky.com) don’t know whether they should hold on to their forks or safety belts as they sit suspended 50 metres in the air. A specially designed table, which seats 22 people is hoisted up by a crane before on-board chefs and their assistants prepare and serve a meal. A second optional platform can be used to provide entertainment; think a jazz trio, or a classical quartet. The best part of this dining experience is that it can be organised anywhere, over an urban landscape, a pastoral vista, or even next to one of landmarks of the world. Dinner In The Sky took off two years and has since served up feast in places like London, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Lisbon, Johannesburg, Bangkok among others.
Dining In The Dark: Is the décor of a restaurant a distraction? They say that if you take away one or more of your senses, the remaining ones become stronger. And the people behind the Dans Le Noir restaurants (www.danslenoir.com) located in London and Paris certainly seem to agree. Guests at the restaurants are asked to dine in the dark and to learn to enjoy tastes, smells, flavours and textures. Take away sight and the concept of taste is reborn, the perception of flavours become subtler and more intense. Guest are allowed to make food choices beforehand while sipping cocktails in the lighted bar. But they follow their blind waiter into the pitch-black dining area, they have to leave all illuminating devices like mobile phones and watches behind. The French-based cuisine includes a surprise to heighten the sensory tasting game.
Dining On The Top Deck: Chef Alexandre Saisson’s dream restaurant came about when a friend suggested refurbishing an old double-decker bus and fitting it with tables and a kitchen. After looking high and low in his own country, he finally foun
d one in England, where the authorities had decided to retire the majority of the red Routemaster double-decker buses. While renovating his new toy he also turned added a London phone booth into a toilet for guests to use. While the ground floor of the bus includes a American-style kitchen and dining area for six people, the top deck seats 28 guests comfortably, and the mobile eatery (www.contact.allexcellent.free.fr) is a big hit for promotional stunts and parties.
Subterranean Delights: Built on a craggy promontory overlooking the Adriatic Sea, the enchanting Italian town of Polignano A Mare is home to one of the world’s most beautiful sea caves, the Grotta Palazzese (www.grottapalazzese.it). A karst formation (created by the dissolution of the limestone cliffs by sea water), the cave has been used as a banquet room since the 18th century when a duke from the region dug tunnel a through the cliff and fitted a staircase that still serves the restaurant. Five decades since it opened as a fining dining establishment, it kitchen still delights guests with a menu made from fresh catch from the sea.
For Art’s Sake: Food designer Marje Vogelzang creates up edible art at her restaurant Proef (www.proefamsterdam.nl), serving brightly coloured weapons made from sugar, minced carrot necklaces, butterfly-shaped starters and edible bread. Guests, according to her viewpoint, shouldn’t remain passive, but partake in the eating process as test subjects. At her events expect the unexpected including hanging tablecloths so that guests are unable to see each other outward appearance, food cooked in clay sculptures that are then cracked open to reveal the delicacies inside. The restaurant has two branches; the Rotterdam outlet dishes out traditional, slow food cuisine, while the one in Amsterdam is the Marje’s food design studio.
Mountain High: Perched high above Zighy Bay on Oman’s Musandam peninsula, Dining On The Edge (www.sixsenses.com), a part of Six Senses Hideaway Zighy Bay, delivers precisely what its name promises; a gourmet meal on the lip of the Hajar mountain range, a craggy-faced stone pile that cuts of the beautiful bay from the rest of the sultanate. The view notwithstanding, this edge-of-your-seat experience (it is a 1000-foot drop to the bay below) which is part of the offers modern cuisine along with an extensive wine list to complement the innovative menu that includes the Edge Experience, Tasters’ Menu and Gourmand Selection.
