Taipei is the land of themed restaurants.
After visiting the Hello Kitty restaurant on my first day in Taiwan, I quickly developed an obsession with these restaurants and made it my mission to visit as many as possible during my time here. A quick search online showed me that there were hundreds of them to choose from, and I got to compiling my list of must-visit places.
Next stop: the hospital themed restaurant.
Before we left, the hostel staff seemed surprised when we told them of our plans for that evening – according to them, it was very rare to find any female customers in the restaurant.
As soon as we arrived we found out why:
The waitresses were all dressed as sexy nurses!
With their stockings and suspenders, their short uniforms and bunny ears/devil horns combination, I felt like I’d wandered onto the set of a bizarre nurse themed porno.
We were led to our table by an extremely friendly waitress/nurse who was more than happy to pose ridiculously for a thousand photos with us. The table itself turned out to be a metal hospital bed and had a pole nearby to hang IV drips of alcohol from.
Unsurprisingly, the restaurant was decorated with as many over the top themed items as possible. There were x-ray scans on the wall, as well as crutches and plaster casts. Even the toilets were brilliantly labelled as “The Emergency Room”
Drinks were brought around on hospital trolleys once you had ordered from the drinks menu of “medicines”. The drinks themselves had names such as Tetanus, Vitamin A, Tranquiliser or Contraceptive. Depending on which drink you ordered they were either served to you via test tube or syringe.
The food was surprisingly good for a themed restaurant – normally you pay for the experience as opposed to the food quality, but both were excellent here. I ordered the boneless chicken, and despite having LOTS of bones, it was really delicious.
If you ordered beer it was placed in a container above your table and the nurse would administer it to you via IV drip.
After we finished our meal, the nurses bought out an after dinner game (something that I found to be very popular in Taiwan). It consisted of 5 mystery syringes – 3 syringes containing a pleasant tasting liquid, and 2 syringes containing something horrible. The rules were that if you managed to roll an even number the nurse would squirt the nice tasting liquid in your mouth, but rolling an odd number meant that you’d have the disgusting drink forced upon you.
We all took turns rolling the two dice. Of course, I ended up rolling two odd numbers and therefore ended up with both of the scary syringes. I had absolutely no idea what they contained and so needless to say, I was terrified:
And what did they turn out to be?
One contained soy sauce, and the other contained vinegar…
Apart from my dreadful experience with the soy sauce and vinegar, visiting the hospital themed restaurant was one of my favourite nights out in Taipei, and I’d definitely go back again. Would you like to eat dinner whilst being surrounded by items you associate with illness and death?!
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The hospital restaurant is called D.S. Music Restaurant and can be found on Xin Sheng North Road. It is open from 6pm – 2:30am Monday – Friday and until 4am on Saturday. The average meal price is NT$300 – NT$500 per person.
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Soy Sauce and Vinegar?! I def. would’ve thrown up, I have SUCH a weak stomach.
They put the whole syringe worth in too!! It was TERRIBLE!
Haha, give me the soy sauce syringe – LOVE the stuff. :D
After the Hello Kitty post and this one I am rethinking my travel plans and thinking I should head to Teipei for a laugh. :)
Keep up the great posts.
You SO should! Taiwan is an amazing country. Love it.
I love both Soy sauce and Vinegar! lol
Sounds like a fun experience!
So do I, but not when it’s being thrown down my throat!
Wow haha what an experience indeed! Want to go there :))
You should! It was so much fun!
I am OBSESSED. I love this!
:D The restaurants were amazing here!
That looks like a blast…minus the soy sauce ;)
It was SO much fun!
This restaurant looks so cool. I love the beer iv drip.
That was one of my favourite parts, genius!
“Would you like to eat dinner whilst being surrounded by items you associate with illness and death?”
Haha, I trust that’s not their slogan! Assuming you didn’t get a bandaid in your boney boneless-chicken, sounds like a great joint for dinner or a bachelor party:)
Hahahaha, that would have been amazing and gross!
That is awesome!! I would totally love to go there. Next up, are you going to the toilet restaurant?? I don’t think I could!!!
I did go to the toilet restaurant! Nothing like sitting there eating turd shaped chocolate ice cream out of a toilet….
This seems like so much fun. I love that the beer is administered through an IV drip! And the fact that a game is played after dinner. Thanks for sharing!
It was such a fun way to spend an evening :)
Dinner game – weird! Never heard of that one before!
Otherwise, looks like a very ‘interesting’ experience! :)
They do it EVERYWHERE in Taiwan!
This looks like so much fun!!! Apart from the syringes full of soy sauce and vinegar – gross!
I’ve actually been told of a similarly themed bar in Melbourne so I’m definitely going to check it out now!
Great post Lauren :-)
Yeah, that’s awesome – you HAVE to go!
Oh yes! I totally had to look up what it was called – it’s The Croft Institute in Melbourne –
Haha! Can the customers dress up as nurses too? I gotta, fanta-err-dream to dress up like one, sans the sexy stockings.
LOL, I’m sure you could if you wanted to….
Hahahaha, I think most of the guys there were regulars! ;)
That’s funny. Love the idea of IV beer drip. Good thing they didn’t go overboard with the dish arrangement…I would’ve imagined blood splats on the plate or bloody utensils…but I guess that’s more for a horror themed hospital-restaurant.
It’s not just Asian guys who’d be loving it. I’m all about stockings and garter belts and such. Toni needs to take note :-p
Hahaha, I’ll let her know!
Umm… no thanks. I don’t like hospitals enough as it is.
Hahahahaha me neither, but it was a fun night out :)
Haha, this is SO weird!
I remember watching an episode of “No Reservations” where Anthony Bourdain went to a hospital-themed restaurant in Singapore. He was not impressed. Lol. But it looks like you had fun!
Hahahaha, I can imagine! I’m gonna have to go to the one in Singapore now too!
Wow – it’s like Halloween all year round in this place!
D.S.Music!!?? What does that have to do with the glorious looking experience of having an IV full of beer! Sounds like heaven to me! Ha!
Where is this restaurant located at? It seems really cool! =D
I’ll be heading to Taiwan in 2 weeks, and this looks awesome! Were the drinks and ‘drinking games’ expensive? I want to look into other themed restaurants as well…they look hilarious. Thanks for informing me! I never would have known! :)
Hey Jessica. I can’t remember the exact prices as it was a year ago that I went. I seem to remember prices being about double than what you’d usually pay in a normal restaurant. You end up paying for the experience in these places :)
Have a fabulous time in Taiwan! :D
Can I know the location of the restaurant?
Yes! Read the bottom of the post…
hi, i wanted to visit this place yesterday and learnt after arriving that it is closed since one year. Maybe you can add this info to ur article.
Ah, thanks for letting me know, Oli! I’ll update it now.
Amazing! My family is from Taiwan and I haven’t visited a theme restaurant yet. The Taiwanese are so influencers by the Japan (where I believe themed restaurants originated)
Ooh, you should definitely go check one out when you have the opportunity! They’re so much fun :-)
Last time i been here is 2010.. we really had a blast.. at first i was like… what the h…! seriously? i though we are in a porn resto.. but it was really awesome!! lol
Hahaha! It’s a fun spot :-)