At any time of the day, you can head over to a restaurant or café to sate your appetite. And the variety of food – whether high-end cuisine or street food – is literally endless.

To put themselves on the map, a handful of eateries have adopted bizarre but novel identities that have left quite the impression on local foodies.

Here are just a handful of restaurants where you can dine in strange settings or on unfamiliar food. Have you visited any of these before?

1. Dining in the Dark

How many times have you seen diners absolutely glued to their phones, making no conversation whatsoever with each other while waiting for the food to arrive?

Mealtime has long ceased to be an opportunity to trade news or simply enquire how everyone’s day has been.

Dining in the Dark, however, offers a way to get people talking at the table again: all phones and watches must be placed in a box before you enter.

The Bukit Bintang restaurant also keeps diners in the dark – literally – about what they are eating! You will have to rely on your tongue and nose to figure out what you’re wolfing down.

Incidentally, many staff members here are also visually impaired so you get to experience, for a few hours at least, what they experience every single minute of every single day.

2. Jeff’s Cellar

Talk about living like cavemen! Though in this particular case, the cave in question is a cosy wine bar tucked away in a hot springs resort.

Given that the area around Ipoh is famous for its limestone formations, it was inevitable that someone would finally come up with the idea of setting up a restaurant in one.

That restaurant is none other than Jeff’s Cellar, an eatery with warm lighting and a comfortable dining environment right smack in the bowels of a natural geological beauty.

There is also no better wine cellar than a 250-million-year-old cave, so get ready for a merry and tipsy time here.

As this cellar cum restaurant is also incredibly picturesque, it’s no wonder that it’s often frequented by diners looking for a romantic getaway with a twist.

3. Heli Lounge Bar

Seeing as Kuala Lumpur is often regarded as the live wire of Malaysia, there really is no shortage of bars and lounges lining the streets of the city centre.

But high up in the air? There’s much less competition several hundred metres above the ground, so maybe that’s why the Heli Lounge Bar set-up shop there.

Located on the roof of Menara KH, the Heli Lounge Bar offers diners a bird’s eye view of the breathtaking city skyline as they clink glasses high up in the clouds.

While there is a nightclub on the highest floor, the 34th, the bar itself is on the roof of the building, where the titular helipad is also situated.

Funnily enough, the helipad is fully functional during the day, but come night, that’s when the party gets going and the drinks start flowing.

4. The Deceased

Malaysians have an inherent fondness for things that go bump in the night and love nothing better than to swap scary tales about pontianiak and pochong around a campfire.

With this propensity for the supernatural, it was only a matter of time before someone opened a supernatural-themed eatery.

The Deceased is a bar along Jalan Sultan that celebrates all things spooky. Over here, it’s Halloween every single day, except Tuesdays when the spirits take a rest.

To that end, the interiors are decorated to give diners a chill down their spines, and menu items are also appropriately themed to fit the vibe.

Unsurprisingly, whenever the Hungry Ghost Festival or Halloween comes around, this place becomes the hotspot of the town.

5. BBQ Lamb KL Kemensah

With most Malaysians living in concrete jungles, it’s understandable why many long for a little nature in their lives once in a while. Surprisingly, if you are a city dweller, you can do just that while enjoying a nice meal not far from home.

BBQ Lamb KL Kemensah is an Ampang eatery that offers quite a unique dining experience as customers are literally seated at tables placed inside an actual flowing stream.

Don’t wear your best footwear though as your feet will stay submerged in flowing water the entire time you’re eating at the table.

As for food choices, you will not go hungry as the restaurant serves up a menu of mostly smoked meats and seafood.

Bon appetit, everyone!