Weird and wacky washrooms seem to be popping up everywhere around the world. Some bizarre bathrooms are outdoors while many are in hotels. Would you, however, feel compelled to go out to eat mostly to visit the restroom? Strangely themed restaurants have been appealing to clientele for years, but some restaurant owners are applying a new mind-blowing marketing technique to bring curious customers in their door. From plush powder rooms to voyeuristic lavatories, visitors come not to dine but to check out the restrooms. Here are 14 tasteful or tacky toilet themed restaurants.
Toilet Culture Is Changing
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Humors)
Classy restrooms have proven successful in upscale hotels, for example, where fantastic views of the city’s tourist attractions are visible through huge windows above the john. Leave it to overcrowded China to come up with the largest outdoor toilets. In Chongqing, there is a four-story, 1,000-stall facility with TVs, music piped throughout, as well as Virgin Mary- and crocodile-themed urinals in an area with no roof. If al fresco style isn’t for you, then how about their provocative sinks? In Japan, Coca-Cola’s Georgia Max Coffee has installed ski jump-themed restrooms in various ski resorts, as in put your feet in the skis, sit on the toilet and go for it. And Sofitel Hotel in Queenstown New Zealand has life-sized images of models who sightsee while holding binoculars, cameras, or tape measures above each urinal. But restaurants are getting into the act now, such as offering luxury via an “underwater” restroom. Such places are doing more than offering a decent place to visit when nature calls; in fact, they are capitalizing on the curious to come in just to visit the washroom.
Giant Aquarium Water Closet
In the city of Akashi, at the beachside Mumin Papa Café, female customers are making trips to the loo and staying to enjoy the underwater restroom. If you are male, you are out of luck at this classy restaurant as the men’s restroom is ordinary. For women, this sub-aquatic style submerged toilet is built into the side of a giant aquarium. Exotic fish and sea turtles swim by to be watched and to watch in this $270,000 water closet. The owner suggests this luxurious restroom was designed “to recreate the pleasant sensations of relieving yourself while swimming in the ocean.”
Escape
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If you are near Colchester, Essex, U.K., then you might want to go in for a drink and a bite to eat. This nightclub offers quite a strange restroom experience for male patrons. In fact, many gents visit simply to make a trip to the loo. The six stainless steel urinals each have a 42″ plasma screen behind a porthole vision panel. The giant screens activate when someone stands in front of them and a random video starts to play. In some cases, a guy might get a girl who is not impressed with what she “sees.” The screen might display a female who hands out flattery. Chances are also good that the 42” screen might display another guy criticizing or complimenting.
Take A Walk On The Wild Side At Bar 89 and R-Bar
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Bar 89 in New York City has a bathroom built for those who trust technology. This unique restroom (left) has clear glass stalls that completely frost over once a patron goes inside and shuts the door. Then the customer is concealed in privacy to take care of business. The R-Bar in Brighton, U.K., offers a latrine with loud red lips and an open mouth for urinals. The gay nightclub “blows away” its patrons.
Strange But True Toilets
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The Three Sisters Pub is located in Amsterdam, Holland, Netherlands. It’s an old building with a cobbled courtyard that leads to an area where you smoke and drink outside. After a few drinks and perhaps a snack, gentlemen visiting the little boy’s room are sure to take notice of the décor. A large mirror is over the shiny steel “monster” urinals. (left)
Some visitors come to stay at Nach Castle, while some come to the café strictly to dine. The bar on the top floor of Nach Castle, which is located in the ski resort town of Neustift im Stubaital, Austria, has another unusual bathroom. Both male and female customers tend to make a trip to the men’s restroom. It isn’t the steel toilets that are the claim to fame, but the image of a female inside the john. Once activated by a person standing in front of it, the urinal plays a short video of the nearly naked lady enticing the user. Strange but true, people come from all around to witness it. (right)
Brio’s Heaven and Hell Washrooms
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Located in Rockford, Illinois, the Brio Restaurant offers quality food and drinks in a cozy atmosphere. Although the building boasts vintage architecture, it is the themed restrooms that help bring in customers to this eccentric establishment. Heaven and Hell is awaiting Brio patrons in the washrooms. The women’s restroom (left) is supposed to represent Heaven with the cool shades of blue decor. The men’s restroom (right) is supposed to represent Hell with the red colors and wacky hellish design.
Busaba Eathai
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The Thai restaurant Busaba Eathai in London has a dark wood-lined interior while incense wafts around the room. From travel blogs to word of mouth, customers are advised to check out the restrooms. The hallway leading to the bizarre washroom has a sign to show which room is for males and which is for females. The sign itself though displays not gender but positions the sex would use to relieve themselves. Many travelers make the mistake of entering the wrong room, be it curiosity or confusion. Once a patron is inside the right privy, however, it is anything but private. There is an opening between the rooms where the sink is shared by both sexes.
Glass Lounge
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In New York City, you start to experience the Glass Lounge before you even walk in the door. Whether you are a Peeping Tom or want to try out your voyeuristic side, the experience begins with a two-way mirror overlooking Tenth Avenue. People on the outside see in, while people inside the restroom wash their hands or use the mirror to fix their hair. After several drinks, some people forget about the mirror that allows pedestrians or stalkers to watch you as you primp in the mirror.
Really Rustic At Marius
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In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Marius Restaurant starts your experience as soon as you walk in the door. The brightly colored pirate theme is not hard to miss, from buccaneers serving food to the bizarre latrina. Bright green walls and heavy castle-thick stall doors are not what shocks most customers, but the thick heaping piles of colored loose rocks on the floor. The sinks are also heaped full of stones. The urinals have packed ice on top of the rocks. If you are female, or are taking a female, this is not a good place to wear high heels. Just the same, don’t trip but have a trippy time; the restrooms should be a part of your visit.
Ninja Your Nether-parts
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The Ninja in New York is a ninja themed restaurant. Expect ninja’s jumping out of dimly lit hallways, but be certain to brave the ninjas and to try out the restrooms. Inside the washroom, you will be greeted by a cave-themed interior. The john itself is anything but rustic.In fact, this toilet features high technology. The Toto toilets offer remote-controlled “front cleaning” and “rear cleaning” action as well as blown hot-air for drying.
Go Green When You Gotta Go At Habana Outpost
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If you like to eat out as well as go green, then try the Habana Outpost in New York City. This café was the first eco-eatery of its kind and is dedicated to eco-responsibility. Not only in the kitchen, but the greenhouse-styled restroom is good for the environmentally conscious. Both the toilet and the sink use a rainwater recycling system that saves approximately 4,000 gallons of water a week. This washroom functions as a working greenhouse, so expect the unexpected besides the growing green foliage.
Peeping Tom Paradise
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Ogling must be big business because in New York City, Peep is all about extreme voyeurism. Sure people go there and have a drink or dine, but the bathroom is the huge draw. At Peep, the entire washroom walls are built with two-way mirrors. It’s not unusual for visitors to spend up to ten times a normal visit to the restroom; instead of three minutes in the lavatory, occupants stay up to thirty minutes apiece enjoying their surveillance of everyone else from the restroom. Once inside, the whole bathroom stall is glass so you can spy on everyone in the restaurant until your heart is content. Make no mistake; Peep is all about watching from their washroom.
Shoji Tabuchi Theater
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In Branson, Missouri, there is another themed restaurant that attracts customers for their country-music theater shows. However, buses come during the day before the show starts specifically for visitors to see the elaborate and ornate restrooms. Both men’s and women’s washrooms are about 1,800 square feet and are filled with the sweet scent of fresh exotic flowers. The ladies restroom has been built around the 1890’s Empire Period, featuring stained glass, chandeliers, a fancy fireplace, and more flowers. The men’s room has a $15,000 marble fireplace and marble and oak doors. Men can do more than take care of nature’s call by playing on a $35,000 billiards table or by resting in black leather chairs. This is an example of yet another restaurant that uses the power of their powder room to pull in visitors.
