Taking that good Yorkshire expression - "where there's muck there's brass" - to whole new levels, the Modern Toilet restaurant in Causeway Bay is, well, an interesting experience. Every single aspect of the restaurant has been themed from the decor to the crockery to the somewhat dubious descriptions of the dishes on the menu.
Diners sit on full-sized toilets (padded to protect your derriere from what could otherwise be quite an uncomfortable experience) and at tables with ceramic sinks below the glass top; the walls are decorated with bathroom features such as tiles and shower heads. Even the crockery is themed with food served in miniature ceramic toilets or baths, and with drinks served in miniature ceramic urinals. They were probably the most disconcerting feature. For some reason, my mind started playing tricks on me and I started to smell things that simply weren't there - all of which made drinking my urinal of coke rather tricky!
If toilet humour is your thing then I suggest going with someone who is able to read Chinese. The English translations say things like "Indian curry chicken" and "chocolate ice-cream" but the Chinese versions breach the boundaries of good taste with descriptions that are distinctly stomach-turning and graphic!
I was expecting the food to be absolutely terrible and while it wasn't exactly going to win culinary awards, it wasn't totally inedible either. I opted for the Indian curry chicken while my friend C.L. chose the curry chicken gratin, both of which came with soup to start. The soup was pretty rubbish but the mains were standard, if somewhat stodgy, cheap'n'cheerful fare - and frankly, haute cuisine served in mini-toilets would have been a bit wrong. The clear star of the show was the "constipation ice-cream" which was absolutely ginormous - and which gave us a seriously extreme sugar rush because of all the jellies, sweets, sauces, red beans and biscuits, not to mention the poo-shaped ice-cream swirls ... extremely dangerous given C.L. and I were heading to Times Square for a spot of retail therapy afterwards.
Not a great culinary experience but at HK$100 a head for soup, main, shared pudding and a drink, it's worth it for the sheer comedy value - and as an interesting insight into Taiwanese psyche!
Modern Toilet
Shop 4E, 4th Floor, Capitol Centre
5-19 Jardine's Bazaar
Causeway Bay
Tel: 28956288
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