Mouth-watering or stomach-churning – that can only be decided once you step into this establishment and actually sit down to taste the food, but taking that leap is not for the faint-hearted. Cafe Jamban, located in the centre of Indonesia’s capital city, is certainly one of the world’s weirdest eateries.
‘Jamban’, in Malay, literally means toilet, and that’s the theme of this restaurant, which has an objective behind its introduction – ‘encouraging a sanitary lifestyle’ in a country where majority of the people do not realize the link between toilet hygiene and healthy living.
Budi Laksono, a 53-year-old reproductive health specialist, is the man whose brainchild this ‘innovative’ loo-themed dining experience is, and he says that through it, he wants to teach his countrymen to give proper importance to toilet sanitation in their homes and in public places.
Cafe Jamban opened its doors to the public three months ago, and though the idea was initially greeted with disgust, novelty and curiosity is now drawing in more and more customers.
The restaurant furniture is designed to look like toilet seats, and the serving dishes are also patterned on the shape of squatting toilets so you’re literally scooping your food out of a ‘potty‘. Everything on the menu is absolutely clean and prepared according to the health standards of any good restaurant, but you’ll certainly have to break that mental block to be able to sample the food.