Other themed restaurants, bars?

We all know the wonder of a properly-themed tropical restaurant.

What OTHER theme restaurants still exist out there?

I remember a mexican restaurant that was famous for caves, waterfalls and cliff-divers. The name escapes me at the moment, but I think one still exists from that chain.

And just a few years ago there was a mining-company restaurant in LA with the bar that was deep within a mine shaft.

What other gems are still out there?

Tokyo is full of great themed restaurants - The 'Christon', which is like a church, Ninja, which is my favurite, all the servers are dressed like ninjas and you eat in a cave and tunnel filled place, there's a Titanic themed restaurant, an Alcatraz restaurant, a Vampire themed restaurant, and so on!

Closer to home though, I can't think of too many good ones.

Went to Ninja in Tokyo a few weeks back and was told that they are going to open a Ninja in NYC.

Is the S&M themed restaurant still in NYC? i went to that in late '97/early '98.

[ Edited by: Gigantalope on 2004-08-16 13:09 ]

I think the mine theme restaurants were a chain down there. I remember going to a prom at one in the Santa Ana hills called the OC Mining Co.

There was a strange theme Micro brewery along I-5 about 10 years ago. It was called "The Okie Girl" and the theme was just that. About the time of the Cristo umbrella thing down there one spring, just as the poppies made thier explosion, this place burst on the sceen too.

It was moronic. I drove several hours out of my way to see it. The beer was all contaminated with a bacteria.

There is a great German place in Huntington Beach called the Ratskeller which is underground in a strange theme village. Every so often they have weenie dog races.

In San Francisco there's a very odd place called the noc noc or the boom boom or some such. It's in the Haight next door to "the Tornado" which is 'probly the best beer bar in the Western US, I digress. Anyway this place, the...what-ever it was called is like being in a cartoon submarine. It's like a Peter Max dream...kinda like the Keith Hering room in Musee Le Pompedu. (only with colors)

In Reno there is a Mexican Restaurant named Miguel's that is UFO themed. It's really worth checking out, but not the best feed one can get.

I once owned a Safari themed pub/restaurant in Santa Clara. (game and unusual food was the feature)

I should have opened a Jiffy Lube or something.

BarkerBird, that Mexican food restaurant, Casa Bonita, was my favorite restaurant in Denver when I was a kid. I don't know if it is still there -- I hope so. The restaurant was so big and tall that they had cliff divers who jumped into the lake at the Denver location. The San Antonio location had boat rides as well, I hear. Casa Bonita had a cave room, a mine shaft room, magician room, a puppet theater room, all kinds of stuff -- and all done very realistically from what I remember.
Another amazing themed Denver restaurant is "The Fort" which was a copy of a real fur trapper's fort that existed and was called Bent's Fort in southern Colorado.

I also forgot to mention one restaurant here in LA. The UFO themed "Encounter" -- in the X-shaped theme building at LAX airport. I understand it was designed by Disney imagineers. The UFO-music-accompanied elevator ride up to the restaurant is cool enough on its own.

I don't know if you'd call it themed,but there is a restaurant/pub in London in Grovenors Square called the Marborough Head.The best way to describe it is think of The Leaky Cauldron in the Harry Potter movies.Kind of spooky,stained glass,bathrooms in the basement that you have to stand on a secret spot to enter.There's a screaming effect when you go into it.Also,wonderful tomato soup,and a great chicken tikka masala.Wish we had something like that here!

There is a little restaurant in Wales at a shut down mine. It's in the old Canteen the workers ate at each day, and after a tour of the mines (interesting really) it's a strange place to sit and thing about how nice it is to not be a coal miner.

It's called (cleverly) Big Pit.
The lamb Sausages are nice.

It's not really a theme place tho, but kind of the antithisis of the places in Vegas and Anahiem.

http://metropolis.japantoday.com/tokyofooddrinks/388/tokyofooddrinksinc.htm

Here's a link to some Tokyo themed restaurants. Too bad they didn't mention the Tiki TIki!

On 2004-08-16 00:05, Gigantalope wrote:
In San Francisco there's a very odd place called the noc noc or the boom boom or some such. It's in the Haight next door to "the Tornado" which is 'probly the best beer bar in the Western US, I digress. Anyway this place, the...what-ever it was called is like being in a cartoon submarine. It's like a Peter Max dream...kinda like the Keith Hering room in Musee Le Pompedu. (only with colors)

NocNoc is the unification between Flintstones primitivism and Kraftwerk/Chris&Cosey electronic modernism.

The use of television screens on static, the amoeba shaped furniture, the dramatic red coloring, all tied together by a prehistoric theme made for many incredible druken evenings.

The beer was good, although I preferred the Sake.

The steely blue vibe of the Toronado Room was also incredible.

Forget Haight & Ashbury, Lower Haight was the place!

[ Edited by: christiki295 on 2004-08-16 19:16 ]