For food enthusiasts looking for an epicurean adventure, there are several unique restaurants that have incorporated a medical vibe with the dining experience. Here are four of the most popular medical-themed restaurants in Asia: an herbal restaurant in Singapore; a hospital bar in Taiwan; medical prison restaurant and a ‘cannibal’ sushi bistro in Japan. Asia, apart from being a prime destination for medical tourism, also boasts of the quirky and highly-imaginative medical themed restaurants. However, some of these restaurants are eerie and not for the faint of heart. These places aren’t short of syringes, glasses, herbal meds, IV drips, tin cans containing cotton balls – stuff that one would only otherwise see in a real hospital. Singapore: Imperial Restaurant The Imperial Restaurant, formerly known as Imperial herbal Restaurant, is located at Singapore Riverview Hotel. With a tagline, Good Taste, Good Health, Through Foods and Tonics, this Singaporean restaurant serves Chinese cuisine with a twist - they add traditional Chinese herbs to improve health. Yet another twist is the presence of an in-house Chinese physician who offers to give health diagnosis. According to a review of The Guardian, the restaurant has received stellar feedback for its traditional medicine-infused menu and for the in-house Chinese physician. The restaurant itself is decorated with Asian opulence, yet those who have been there attest it is affordable for the kind of service it offers. The restaurant was conceptualized by Mrs Wang Lee Tee Eng and had it opened at her family's hotel, Metropole Hotel in 1988. The place is founded on old Chinese imperial cooking philosophy, and the food on the menu listing are typically low in sugar, salt and seasonings. Cooking foods infused with medicinal herbs is a practice that dates back to thousands of years ago in ancient China and India. Ms Wang believes that food preparation should have health in mind. A good chef will be concerned with the dish’s flavour, texture, and colour, while a good herbalist knows the effect of herbal medicine on the body. Taiwan: DS Café-Bar The Taiwanese DS Music Cafe-Bar is a hospital-inspired food establishment. Its waitresses are dressed as nurses, the café serves shots in medical syringes and tables are hospital beds with IV drips – that actually contain alcohol – that is attached on the ‘table.’ According to Quirky Guide, the hospital-themed restaurant was set up by the owner to demonstrate his gratitude to the hospital that treated him. One blogger described its decor as having a lot of over-the-top medical paraphernalia-turned-quirky display. X-ray scans were displayed on the wall, as well as crutches and plaster casts. Also, the comfort room has been cheekily labelled as the ‘Emergency Room.’ The menu names kept to its medical themes. Drinks were named ‘Vitamin A,’ ‘Contraceptive,’ ‘Tranquilizer,’ or ‘Tetanus.’ They are either served in a test tube or syringe, and served on a hospital trolley. If clamoring for a beer, the ‘nurses’ will serve them in IV drips. Japan: Alcatraz ER Japan’s Alcatraz ER was an eerie, medical prison type of restaurant located in Shibuya. The idea for the themed restaurant is that they are housing ‘insane patients.’ The interiors remain true to what an abandoned, creepy medical prison would look like: mismatched seats and tables inside jail cells. The restaurant has bland and blood-stained walls with graffiti spelling plea words. Lights are scant, the place is illuminated by bulbs. Trinkets such as an axe, bloodied mannequin heads, and jars filled with human organs all decorate the place. The waitresses, likewise dressed as nurses, will handcuff the customer upon entrance, pretend to inject them with something, and then lead them to the jails or dining room. Clients will be given a blood-stained menu to select their orders from, with food names and photos hewed to the restaurant theme. To order, the client will have to bang the rusty metal bars of the jail repeatedly until a nurse/waitress comes to attend to them. Halfway while eating, the lights on the medical prison will go down, a loud, garish siren will blast from the walls and then red warning lights will light up in tune to the sirens, signaling a show. The show stages what a prison break involving insane mental patients would look like, with ‘psychotic’ clowns and others doing the rounds of various prison cells, poking and clawing at the dining customers. However, according to a review, the place is quite pricey, and even charges an entrance fee. Japan: Cannibal Sushi Restaurant In this particular and a bit extreme medical themed restaurant, an entire naked body of woman (or man, should the clients choose) is served to the customers. The body is wheeled in by a waitress (nurse) via a gurney and served to the clients. The ‘nurse’ will use a scalpel in cutting the abdomen of the body, where red liquid will gush out and the customers are free to dine on the body. Fortunately, this restaurant is no way near serving a real body, the ‘woman’ is a life-sized mannequin made of dough, and her abdomen and guts are made of an array of sushi. The red liquid is a sauce, and the body ‘bleeds’ everywhere. According to Entertainment Designer, the restaurant has elevated the practice of ‘nyotaimori’ or the Japanese practice of serving sushi using a naked, female body. Source
