Themed-restaurants are nothing new. Most of them might come across as kitsch, but they do have a way to appealing to customers. On the similar line, there’s a chain of toilet-themed restaurants in Taipei, Taiwan called ‘Modern Toilet.’
The restaurant serves its dishes and drinks in miniature toilet bowls, urinals, she-pees and bidets. Unlike in the rest of the world, po is actually regarded at lucky in Chinese culture. Superstitious Chinese folks believe that stepping in poo is good omen.
Modern Toilet manager Chen Min-Kuang was reported as saying that the main idea of the toilet-themed restaurant was to shock and confuse the senses. He further stated that his inspiration for the bathroom-themed restaurant came from a robot character from the Japanese cartoon, ‘Dr. Slump’ who loved to play with ‘poop’ and swirl it on a stick. From this inspiration, he first started an ice-cream shop selling swirled chocolate sundaes on top of paper squat toilets, which ended up being successful.
The eating joint is lined with bathroom-style, checkered tiled walls and shower heads, with plungers and faeces-shaped lights hanging from the ceiling. The seating arrangement includes the use of toilet seats. Popular dishes at Modern Toilet are the hot pot and a chocolate sundae that look somewhat like the ‘poo’ emoji from our smartphones.
The chain of ‘Modern Toilets’ first began in Kaohsuing (Taiwan) then began to branch out to Hong Kong, Macau and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.