18 Experience-Based Restaurants You Should Visit At Least Once

Admit it. You're tired of pretending to be excited about yet another picnic and movie night. Oh look, a chandelier...zzz. And, floating on a pond while trying to eat by the light of the moon? Why? Also, basic theme restaurants, jam-packed with alien knick knack knockoffs from eBay? E.T. phone us home.

We don't want the same old sleepy story. We want our pulse to quicken, our imagination to explode into a million colors, and the world to light up like we've never witnessed it before. It's that bucket list, second-to-none, one-in-a-million, unbelievable, chance-of-a-lifetime stuff that we crave. These are the culinary encounters of your dreams. But, you're gonna have to get off your sofa for these thrills.

We're going global with the most brilliantly engineered — and freakin' delicious — restaurant experiences, ever. Make a toast in an ancient cave, shock your "psycho taste" to life, grab apps in the stratosphere, and dine with the dead. Fasten your seatbelts, because we'll try anything once!

If you're easily bored by barely using your senses while eating a meal, you're about to smell what Ultraviolet by Paul Pairet, is cooking. The menu at this secret location in Shanghai, China, features 20 courses, invented for a lucky handful of guests, with each of your senses fully accounted for, and delighted to the max. They call it your "psycho taste." 

Each dish, even if it's merely a sip of tea, is paired with lights, sounds, and visuals meant to move you, open your mind, and even offer a thrill. At the delight of the chef's inspiration, you might be served a cheese salad, while listening to a harpsichord, and watching wheat fields blowing in the wind on what once was a blank wall. Or perhaps you'll be launched into space with rocket-like visuals, and serenaded by Frank Sinatra singing "Fly Me To The Moon."

As much as this might appear to be all smoke and mirrors — literally — Chef Pairet's French-inspired menu has earned him 3 Michelin Stars. Not too shabby for a place with no address. (Hint: start at Pairet's other place, Mr. & Mrs. Bund, and enjoy the ride from there.)

Strap in! It's official; Dinner on the ground is over. We want our apps served with a dash of fear-of-heights. Dinner in the Sky takes world-class service and launches it into the stratosphere (with you very much along for the ride), dishing up high-flying memories from 150 feet in the air.

After you arrive at your restaurant in the sky — suspended via crane — you'll soon settle in for an unforgettable multi-course meal. If you're someone who constantly drops your fork on the floor at restaurants, stay strong. And, of course, hang onto your phone for those selfies. As far as the bathroom situation? If you really gotta go, the whole platform will be lowered, and the rest of your seating will take place on terra firma. And, no whizzing off the platform, people, we're tryin' to keep it classy.

Menus are just as exciting as the view, and change frequently, depending on the location, the event, and who's coming for dinner. Past experiences have featured cured salmon gravlax, Black Angus beef tartare, a signature craft cocktail, catch of the day with citrus and fennel, Angus beef cheeks cooked for 24 hours, butternut squash Wellington, dark chocolate cremeux, Limoncello sorbet, and coffee. Let's just say you won't come back to Earth hungry.

Remember that treehouse you had as a kid, with the splinters, and the bees hanging around it? The one where you got high on Doritos and Mountain Dew, and then called someone on the "phone" that was just two soup cans connected by string? ...Yeah, this isn't that.

The Soneva Kiri Eco-Resort, on the relatively non-touristy island of Koh Kood in Thailand, offers a decidedly elevated dining experience. Take a seat in your private bamboo pod — which is then hoisted just above the rainforest canopy — and take in the view of the Gulf of Thailand as you wait for your server. By the way, he'll be right with you, zip-lining in with your amuse-bouche. The curious monkeys you see observing you do not work there — no matter what they would have you believe.

The golden hour, just before sunset, will be a sure bet for reservations with the best photo ops. But, you'll also want to focus on the dinner spread because it's a truly beautiful offering of fresh and local Thai favorites, from the resort's garden, to the sea. Whatever meal you enjoy atop the trees, you'll probably taste a local favorite superfruit called kashikeyo, which is a beloved O.G. from the Maldives.

You're gonna want to bring extra Chapstick for this. Bundle your buns, Finland really went for it with the Ice Restaurant inside the Arctic Snow Hotel. Located just outside of the town of Rovaniemi — and open only from mid-December through April 1 — the entire hotel is broken down and reconstructed every year. Because, you know ... summer.

This isn't your grandma's igloo. Deep inside the sturdy snow walls, you'll find intricately crafted art made of actual snow and Arctic ice, as well as hidden ambient lighting so you'll never lose your way. Do bring your mittens and earmuffs, though. Wonderful for ice, but a little harsh on your fingers, the temperature inside the restaurant might hover around 23°F. It is, in fact, the Arctic Circle, people. Anything above zero degrees qualifies as warm and toasty.

But honestly, you'll be way too distracted by this bucket list adventure to even think about running over to the hot saunas outside. Grab a cocktail (in a glass made of ice), and settle in for a dinner that's cooked to perfection. Past offerings have included forest mushroom soup, roasted elk, seasonal vegetables, braised Arctic salmon, and creamy lingonberry-caramel bavarois. Yes, they're the same berries you find at IKEA, but this time, in their natural habitat.

At Harvey Washbangers, the thrill is in doing your laundry. Yep, laundry. Pop in a load or two while you chow down on a burger and a pint, smack dab in the middle of College Station, Texas. Since its opening in 1998, many a trendy laundry pub have followed, which only proves that drinking while laundering in public has been a long time coming.

But it's still laundry though ... Relax. You can eat here even if you don't want to show up with your stinky clothes hamper. Although that wash cycle is all part of the fun. Harvey's even claims they'll "turn your chores into cheers!" You're either in for the weirdest burger of your life, or the most fun with Tide Pods you've ever had. (Hint: It's the second thing.)

A lightboard lets you know when your wash is ready. And in the meantime, you can enjoy a solid menu of pub-style favorites. We might start by sharing the Queso del Jefe or Porkaholic cheese fries, and then hit up a Banger Burger with cheddar on sourdough. Also not to be missed are the flat-top hot dogs, classic milkshakes, and floats. Whatever you choose, it all washes up nicely with one of their many craft beers.

Black cats get a bad rap. They appear as autumnal home decor, they've been marked as a harbinger of bad luck, and they're the number one sorority girl costume for Halloween. No offense to Madison's omg super cute "sexy cat" look, but the black cat rep is overdue for a makeover.

However, in Japan, black cats are thought to bring good luck. And they're often associated with wealth and good fortune. (All the U.S. black cats are booking plane tickets to Hong Kong right now.) The maneki-neko, the lucky cat with its little paw moving up and down, is saying, "Meow, hello, c'mere, there's money over here." In summary, cats are hella revered in Japan. And, you can get all the luck you can handle at the Nekobiyaka cafe.

Japan has unapologetically embraced cat cafes, but none of the others are black cat exclusive, like Nekobiyaka is. The space is decorated like an average living room, and the cats are more than ready to rumble with guests. You can order alcohol, sodas, coffee, but the main attractions are your new, very interested, furry friends. House rules: Play to your heart's content, but just don't pick them up, squeeze them, hug them, or bother them while they're taking an adorable cat nap.

Remember a minute ago when we were all, "the Dinner in the Sky thing on the platform is so scary" at 150 feet in the air? Well, you're gonna need extra pants as you step into the basket of this hot air balloon restaurant. Don't look down. Wait — never mind, definitely look down. You don't want to miss a thing.

Floating along on the breeze at an altitude of anywhere from 500 to even 6,500 (gulp) feet, Dutch chef and founder Angélique Schmeinck brilliantly prepares your meal inside the actual balloon, using pulleys to cook it high above the fire, with the balloon becoming an enormous convection oven. It's crazy, but it was all her idea, and it's been a smash hit since the brand first launched in 2003. Fear not, though, a professional is actually flying the balloon.

So, what's for dinner a mile high in the sky? Let's just say this menu is pretty heavenly. Along with plenty of wine and champagne, you might be treated to a koolrabi with oyster emulsion, lobster, wild sea bass with clams, country guinea-fowl with mushrooms, and a white chocolate and passion fruit mousse drizzled with basil syrup. We promise you'll never forget that time you survived the gastronomy of the clouds.

Also referred to as "dark" or "blind" dining, the Dans le Noir concept is all about enjoying a meal — potentially with perfect strangers — in total blackout. But, while you can no longer eat with your eyes, the event offers a wild ride for the rest of your senses.

It's actually reminiscent of a therapy that has been utilized for families of blind patients, to familiarize the seeing loved ones with the reality of the blind person's perspective. But here, you will be pushed to the very limits of what you can handle, as your imagination comes to life, before a stunning demonstration of sensory gastronomy. For the entirety of your culinary journey, you will be guided by expert servers who are blind in real life. And for the record, the bathrooms are well-lit.

Of course, it would completely ruin the fun to see the menu before you get there. But past meals have included tasty dishes like aromatic salmon filet, slow-cooked lamb, roasted seabass and risotto, cheese plates, and dark chocolate fondant. Lights out and bon appétit.

At the Lucky Restaurant in Ahmedabad, India, we're making lemonade out of some, um, very dead lemons. When restaurateur, Krishnan Kutti, was tasked with developing a property that used to be an old grave site, he obviously sourced the Hollywood Rolodex of "what happens when you unearth ancient graves in movies," and left the coffins of the deceased intact. And then, he built his restaurant around them. For real. And some of the 26 graves appear in the dining area.

Take a seat next to an above-ground sarcophagus, which has been festooned with flowers that morning. A tiny guard rail keeps you from accidentally walking on top of someone's beloved. As Kutti explains, it's actually lucky (and not morbid, grotesque, or disrespectful) to eat with the dead. Well, it's at least lucky for his booming hospitality business.

While it feels a little odd to talk about food in front of the dearly departed, we pour one out for the Lucky menu. The no-less-than multiple varieties of bun maska, a buttery sweet bread, are as popular as the chai tea. And, with lots of vegetarian meal options, there are loads of Indian delicacies on hand to distract you from the mausoleum in which you're just casually chowing down on Palak Paneer. Rest in peace. Oh, also, can we get a mango juice to go?