Are you one who enjoys scouring the globe for fascinating restaurants to snack at? Do you relish the idea of dining in the sky, underwater, at the top of a mountain, or at the base of a waterfall? Well, luckily for you, I’ve always had a fascination for the unusual and upon doing a bit of research, I came across an open-ended list of the most captivating restaurants located the world over. With such overwhelming options, it was actually pretty difficult to cut down. Here are some of my favourites:

The Bird’s Nest Restaurant

This unique restaurant offers the chance to dine in cosy tree pods (or birds’ nests) when visiting the Soneva Kiri Eco Resort in Thailand. Each pod is suspended about 5m off the ground, with some positioned in the sun and some in the shade. The pods are designed in a firm frame covered in weaved rattan, and can support up to four people each. Your pod will be served by a “flying” waiter who will take and deliver your orders by a zip line.  While here, you can enjoy an eagle-eyed view (excuse the pun) of the surrounding rain forest and coastline as you await your meal.

Waterfalls Restaurant

The Waterfalls Restaurant is situated at the foot of the Labasin Falls, at the Villa Escudero resort in the Philippines. Here, customers are encouraged to take off their shirts and shoes and pick a table closest to the edge of the cascading waterfall. Meals are served on bamboo dining tables set in a few inches of running water from the falls. Visitors can try a selection of local cuisine from grass-fringed buffet stations as the crystal-clear water runs over their feet. The waterfall is so “people-friendly” that visitors can lie against the rushing wall of water for a quick massage or post-lunch rinse.

El Diablo Restaurant

El Diablo Restaurant is located on the Spanish island Lanzarote, and its unique cooking method makes use of the heat produced by an active volcano. Contrary to what you may think, the volcano is not a lava-spewing mountain, but rather a hole in the ground where 400˚C volcanic heat erupts from deep within the earth. Prior to the creation of the restaurant, visitors to the area were served with a plate of sardines and wine, until 1970, when it was decided to create a formal restaurant. A giant grill was built into the ground and is now used to prepare several dishes of volcano-grilled meat and fish. While dining, visitors can enjoy wonderful views of Lanzarote’s Timanfaya National Park, a Martian landscape of red sand and volcanic rock.

Yellow Treehouse Café

The Yellow Treehouse Café is built around a redwood tree near Auckland, New Zealand. Initially designed as part of a marketing campaign for the area’s yellow pages, the café is no longer open for dinner but can be rented for private parties. The pod-shaped restaurant is linked by a treetop walkway to provide easy access and can accommodate 30 people seated or 50 people standing. The whole construction took only 66 days to complete.

Ithaa Restaurant

Ithaa (which means Mother of Pearl in Dhivehi) is the world’s first underwater restaurant. It is located 5m below sea-level at the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island in Maldives. It has a capacity of 14 people at a time, and is enclosed by a transparent acrylic roof that offers 180˚ subaquatic views to diners.  Since its opening in 2005, the restaurant has evolved and now offers contemporary European cuisine with Asian influences.

The Opaque Restaurant

This restaurant offers customers the opportunity to “dine in the dark”. Here, one can experience dining on a new level by heightening the senses of taste, touch, and smell. Customers place their orders in a lit room before being guided to a pitch dark area to have their meals. The waiters are physically handicapped, allowing customers to dine in “their world”. There are three outlets situated in San Francisco, San Diego, and Santa Monica.

Dinner in the Sky

Dinner in the Sky, in Belgium, allows diners a truly heightened experience. Customers are strapped to a chair and suspended 50m above the ground from a crane. Here, they are served meals like ham salad and sautéed prawns cooked in a small oven at the centre of the structure. Dinner in the Sky has mobile services available in 15 nations making it an easier goal to accomplish. However, if you’re scared of heights, this restaurant probably isn’t for you.

Baggers Restaurant

This restaurant is located in Nuremberg, Germany, and offers “service by roller-coaster”. At this futuristic eatery, waiters are a thing of the past. Guests place their orders via a touch-screen computer positioned at each table. The food is made of local and organic ingredients, and is cooked with minimal fat. Once it’s ready, it shoots to the table along a twisting track from the kitchen above.

What interesting restaurants have you encountered on your travels around the globe?

Main Image from the Yellow Treehouse Website