Bangkok’s most bizarre eating experiences
Bangkok is well known for its oddities, so it should come as no surprise that it has its fair share of peculiar restaurants.
Here are nine of the most bizarre eating spots you’re ever likely to come across in Bangkok.
Hajime Robot Restaurant
At this futuristic Japanese restaurant, the beady-eyed robots not only bring your food and take away empty dishes, they also do clunky dance routines at regular intervals, much to the delight of the customers.
The food itself plays second fiddle to the attention-seeking mechanoids, who are sadly unable to communicate with the patrons, although deep down you get the feeling the bots know what’s going on and are just rolling with it.
The setup is hotpot or barbecue, which means you have to cook your own food, but with robots for company, you’ll want to stay all night.
Hajime Robot Restaurant, 59/27 3/F, Monopoly Park Rama 3, Bangkok. +66 (0) 2 683 1670
Por Kung Pao Seafood
Sticking with the theme of “restaurants that make you work for your dinner,” at Por Kung Pao Seafood punters armed with little rods and nets get to fish their dinners out of a shrimp pond.
After choosing your victims, you then get to fry and eat them.
While it might not be a lot of fun for the shrimp, nothing beats rocking up to Por Kung Pao Seafood after a night out on the town and drunkenly trying to catch your meal before leading it to its death.
91/2 Ratchadapisk Road, Bangkok. +66 (0) 2 642 2305
Ninja House Hero
Another Japanese restaurant, but this time masked ninjas provide the entertainment while you eat. The dark walkways leading to the dining area will put you straight into stealth mode before you get to sample the fine dishes on the menu.
It feels like you’re in some kind of ninja movie and the restaurant has been expertly decked out with the latest in trendy ninja furnishings.
But the ninja experience doesn’t come cheap so be prepared or else you’ll have a clan of angry ninjas to answer to.
Ninja House Hero, 74 Sukhumvit 26, Sukhumvit Road, Bangkok Tel: +66 (0) 2 661 2277
Royal Dragon Restaurant
This is a ginormous seafood restaurant — once the world’s largest, in fact –- that features such spectacles as waiters running across water and whizzing down ziplines.
The restaurant is so big that most of the staff have to wear roller skates to get around.
The restaurant is spread over more than three hectares and is served by more than 1,000 staff. It’s epic in every sense, but thankfully the food is also well worth making the trip for.
Expect to be entertained by traditional dancing as well.
Royal Dragon Restaurant, 35/222 M.4 Bangna-Trad Rd, Bangna, Bangkok. +66 (0) 2 398 0037
The bug cart
It’s not a fancy name for a restaurant –- it’s literally a cart full of bugs. Every evening at about 7 p.m. or so, the bug cart is rolled out onto Khao San Road much to the delight of drunk travelers daring each other to indulge in the delights of eating creepy crawlies.
Everything is on offer, from grasshoppers and crickets to silkworms and scorpions. Some of these light bites are rather tasty while others will leave you feeling as if you’re about to puke your guts up.
Believe it or not, the bug cart doesn’t only cater to curious tourists as many locals actually enjoy snacking on those little critters.
Ka-Tron Restaurant
It’s billed as the “original flying chicken restaurant.” The world’s one and only, in fact.
What that means is that the chickens get cooked before being set on fire and catapulted across a stage towards a chap on a unicycle who catches the chickens on spikes held in his hands and mouth.
The folks at Ka-Tron also put a lot of effort into their marinade, giving their chickens an extra-special flavour, but all people really care about is the flaming carcasses that end up being launched into the sky, proving once and for all that chickens really are birds of flight.
Ka-Tron Restaurant, Bangna-Trad Road Km1 (opposite Bitec), Bangkok. +66 (0) 2 399 5202
The Third Floor
Meals based around your blood type: a curious idea for a restaurant that sounds more gruesome than it actually is.
The idea comes from the Japanese theory that your blood type defines what kind of person you are and that certain types of food complement your personality better than others.
Persons with blood-type A are supposedly introverted while those with type B are independent, but neither gets to eat tom yum kung as that’s reserved for extroverted O types, of course.
Whether or not the theory holds any weight is anybody’s guess, but suffice to say that whatever kind of blood your have pumping through your veins, there’s a scrumptious Thai dish on the menu for you.
The Third Floor, Verasu Building, 83/7 Wireless Road, Bangkok. +66 (0)2 254 8100
Cabbages & Condoms
It sounds weird just saying it. It actually sounds a little bit gross. But fear not, for this is a restaurant that offers great grub while promoting family planning and raising cash to support the work of Thailand’s Population and Community Development Association.
The menu is chock full of traditional Thai dishes, so if nothing else you can rest assured that you will end up well fed and not pregnant. There’s also a handicraft shop showcasing the works of villagers from some of Thailand’s poorest regions.
Cabbages & Condoms, Sukhumvit Soi 12, Bangkok. +66 (0) 2 229 4610
Pyongyang Restaurant
How could anyone pass up an opportunity to dine out on Korean food safe in the knowledge that the profits from the restaurant are going straight back into the pockets of one of the world’s most repressive governments?
That’s right, the Pyongyang Restaurant chain is owned and run by the delightful North Korean government, which has been enjoying the extra pocket money their restaurants bring in since economic sanctions were imposed on the country by the international community.
But enough with the fine print. What’s most important here is that the food is decent and the waiting staff do lots of dancing to traditional Korean music. It’s almost enough to overlook the small matter of the totalitarian Stalinist dictatorship.
Phatthanakan 20 Yaek 6, Bangkok. +66 (0) 02 717 5700