TAIWAN: Taipei diner attracts clients with toilet humour

Record ID: 343452

  • Title: TAIWAN: Taipei diner attracts clients with toilet humour
  • Date: 19th November 2007
  • Summary: CUSTOMER LIN JI-ZHANG DRINKING FROM A CUP WHICH LOOKS LIKE A CHAMBER POT (2 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 4th December 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVAMZ62ZQNTXDMGWHL4GPH87EMH
  • Story Text: Young diners frequent a restaurant in Taipei where the owners consider it a compliment to be labelled an outhouse.
    A Taipei restaurant might consider it a compliment to be called an outhouse as the Modern Toilet diner is one of a chain of theme eateries appealing to largely young clientele with a toilet humor.
    All 100 seats in the crowded diner are made from toilet bowls, not chairs. Sink faucets and gender-coded "WC" signs appear throughout the three-storey facility, one of 12 in an island-wide chain of eateries with a toilet theme.
    Customers eat from mini plastic toilet bowls. They wipe their hands and mouths using toilet rolls hung above their tables, which may be glass-topped jumbo bathtubs.
    "It was an ice shop decorated with toilets before. Most of the customers like the decorations so we tried to expand it into a restaurant," explained Wei Duo-Yi , a duty manager at the restaurant in north Taipei.
    Owner Wang Tzi-wei opened his first Modern Toilet in 2004 after being inspired by a Japanese cartoon featuring restroom images and the toilet themes run through the food and drinks menus.
    Modern Toilet draws on people ages 15 to 35, especially students from the three universities near Yang's facilities because they're "easily excited," Yang said. He said older people just wouldn't get it.
    But one older customer Lin Ji-Zhang says he too enjoys the concept.
    "It's newfangled and funny. We have never eaten on toilets before, even at home. It's really a special restaurant," Lin said.
    Though some find the idea hard to swallow, others think it's the ideal family restaurant.
    "I like the toilet. It's a fresh idea to put foods in these toilet-like containers. It's hard to find anything similar. I found this place on the Internet, so my family and I came here together," said Lin Lee-Ru, a customer who brought her whole family to Modern Toilet after seeing an advertisement on the internet.
    Managers say the restaurant's popularity shows that Taipei customers, who have a choice of theme-eateries that resemble jailhouses and hospitals, appreciate creative dining.
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