New York's Weirdest Restaurants

Who said weird was bad?

Apr 04, 2025

While some restaurants focus on trivial things like, you know, the food, these spots have decided what New Yorkers really crave is eating sushi inside what feels like a drug trip, dining in a cave or being cursed at by a chef while downing bottomless sake.

If you’re looking for a night that feels like a wild fever dream (and a fantastic story to tell your friends and family), consider this list your guide.

From Bushwick's meticulously recreated Wisconsin supper club to the East Village's permanent Halloween party, here's where to go when you need some low-stakes excitement in your life.

SUSHIDELIC (Soho)

SUSHIDELIC lives up to its name with an experience that makes you feel like you’re hallucinating. Oversized lipstick tube lights dangle from the ceiling while pink, purple, and blue neon create a disorienting glow. Sushi arrives on decorative towers and mini ferris wheels, tapping into the sensory overload. I can't vouch for the quality of the sushi, but I can guarantee that this place will deliver a dining experience so strange that your brain will file it away as "that time I ate sushi and felt like I was on drugs." Whether that's worth it or not is up to you.

Cafe Mars (Gowanus)

Everything about this restaurant feels like a fever dream. Picking out your own glassware. Grabbing your silverware from under the table. Negroni Jell-O with Castelvetrano olives suspended inside. A menu that feels like the culinary equivalent of a yard sale. Decor that’s intended to feel interstellar. Café Mars is the kind of place you’ll never forget. Take it from someone who ate here more than a year ago and still thinks about it.

BATSU! (East Village)

BATSU! is a distinctly unusual experience. Behind an understated lantern-marked doorway lies a venue that begins as a modest sushi shop before revealing its true identity — a performance space modeled after Tokyo's yokocho alleyways. BATSU! features interactive comedy challenges where performers engage directly with diners as they eat sushi. Adding to the peculiarity is the "Sake Ninja," a silent server who appears periodically to pour drinks for guests. Those opting for VIP tickets receive amenities like oshibori hand towels and hachimaki headbands.

Fushimi (Williamsburg)

I stumbled upon Fushimi when I found myself craving sushi in Williamsburg — and found myself dining inside what can only be described as a sushi nightclub without the annoying parts that make me avoid real nightclubs. The journey to the bathroom alone is a disorienting adventure that will leave you questioning reality. Despite the over-the-top kitsch factor, the sushi quality surprisingly holds its own. I’m not rushing back, but I wouldn't be mad if I found myself here again.

BangBang Bangkok (Williamsburg)

This spot offers one of New York's most unusual Thai dining experiences: a $155 tasting menu served in a room that’s designed to feel like a moving bus. Complete with actual school bus seats and wrap-around screens displaying Bangkok markets, the restaurant serves creative dishes like som tum reimagined as sorbet and tableside coconut soup service with poached lobster.

The Turk’s Inn (Bushwick)

The Turk's Inn is a Bushwick oddity that's actually a painstaking recreation of a beloved Wisconsin supper club that closed in 2014. Two superfans, Varun Kataria and Tyler Erickson, were so devastated by the original's demise that they bought the entire contents at auction and rebuilt it in Brooklyn — complete with the actual 1940s bar, red walls with psychedelic geometric designs, and kitschy decorative items. The 5,000-square-foot space has a 60-seat restaurant serving Turkish-inspired food, a rooftop patio, a doner kebab takeout counter, and an adjacent music venue.

Beetle House (East Village)

Beetle House is a year-round Halloween party that originally opened as a pop-up in 2016. The space looks like Tim Burton's fever dream collided with a '90s goth nightclub, featuring macabre décor inspired by literary and cinematic horror legends from Edgar Allan Poe to Wes Craven. The menu embraces the theme with pun-heavy offerings like Boogie's Braised Bacon, Cheshire Mac and Cheese and Edward Burger Hands. While Beetle House carefully notes it isn’t officially affiliated with any specific films or studios, the atmosphere is unmistakably Burton-esque, complete with costumed staff who stay in character.

Sushi on Me (Jackson Heights)

Sushi on Me defies traditional omakase with a basement speakeasy vibe on the Jackson Heights-Elmhurst border. The experience opens with a sign declaring "Enjoy your fucking dinner" — setting the tone for the cash-only, $89 party masquerading as a sushi counter. Thailand-born chef Atip "Palm" Tangjantuk curses enthusiastically while serving "fucking fatty tuna," as bottomless sake flows freely. The chaotic one-hour dining experience transforms the typically reverent sushi ritual into something closer to a packed sports bar.

La Caverna (Lower East Side)

This cave-themed Tex-Mex restaurant and lounge has transformed its space into a cavernous wonderland with stalagmite-inspired décor that juts from floors and ceilings. Soak in the delightfully jarring experience as servers navigate around rocky formations to deliver tacos, sizzling fajita platters and neon cocktails. This is one of those only-in-New-York dining adventures where the atmosphere completely overwhelms the food. If you've ever wondered what it might be like to eat enchiladas in a cave, La Caverna is your answer.

Coming Soon: Pinky Swear (LES)

Pinky Swear is an interactive art museum that happens to be a restaurant. This means you can expect token-operated pay phones that “talk” to customers, wearable headsets that control lights and parking meters that “pay” people for their time, according to Eater editor Nadia Chaudhury. Along with three main areas — including a bar and a gallery with permanent exhibitions and shows — the spot has an outdoor courtyard featuring a fire pit with tableside s’mores service. The neon dreamscape officially opens on April 24.

Thanks for being here. 💌 Stay weird.