- Poop Café specializes in treats you'd find at a Korean dessert bar, with a poop-themed twist.
- The Toronto eatery is a bathroom humorist's paradise, with feces depicted at every turn.
- Though I enjoyed the food and tea I tried, I don't think I need to go back.
Advertisement
Advertisement
No one will ever accuse me of being too mature for toilet humor.
One of my best friends cross-stitched me a poop emoji for Christmas a few years ago, and I've also been known to carry a purse that's decorated with a large turd surrounded by flies.
Last month, I toted it with me to Toronto's Koreatown, home of Poop Café.
The dessert bar isn't the first of its kind. You'll find similar concepts in Asia, such as the Taiwanese restaurant chain Modern Toilet and South Korea's dessert bar Ddo-ong Café.
Advertisement
Advertisement
The US even got in on the fun with Los Angeles-area café Magic Restroom, which closed in 2014 after only eight months in business. By those standards, Poop Café is a longtime staple.
It opened in 2016, and when I visited on a Tuesday around 1 p.m., I had to fight for a seat on the porcelain throne (yes, guests sit around tables on closed toilets).
Most of my fellow customers were small children, gathered for the restaurant's fecally themed desserts.
At first glance, I thought Poop Café could use some maintenance
Most of the surfaces at Poop Café were painted black, which could either convey a speakeasy vibe or look dingy. Thanks to toilets missing their flushers and chips gone from poop sculptures, I thought it was more of the latter.
Advertisement
Advertisement
When reached for comment about the damages, a representative from Poop Café said they were likely caused by "younger patrons" and they "are working diligently to rectify this situation as quickly as possible" to repair the sculpture.
Standing out against the black walls, however, were the red toilets, which served as seats for the guests.
Even so, the slightly somber appearance in some areas didn't take away from the feeling I'd entered a solid-waste wonderland
The cafe seemed to have a bright and loose underwater theme — its walls were adorned with colorful mermaids, walruses, crabs, and octopi designed to look like smiling defecations.
Since boba is featured in many of Poop Café's menu items, the bunny-dropping-shaped tapioca balls were also highlighted in the murals.
Advertisement
Advertisement
At the back of the café, a giant, smiling poop emoji with cute eyelashes invites Instagrammers to take a selfie, as does another mound of muck at the front.
My favorite art piece, however, was a mural depicting wall-sized butt cheeks with the star of the show plopping out, destined for the toilet below. I couldn't help but notice that the pants underneath the butt were dangerously high.
The food was great, but many menu options strayed from the theme
Admittedly, some of the items on the menu were pretty awesome. Unfortunately, much of it was missing a fecal touch.
The menu included adorable poke bowls with Shiba Inu-shaped rice, over-the-top milkshakes in both Western and Asian flavors, bánh mì sandwiches, fruit teas, and a purple confection called mermaid soda which featured a white-chocolate tail rising from a mound of whipped cream.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Overall, the picture menu read like a catalog of everything a kid (or particularly whimsical adult) would love to drink and snack on.
The on-theme menu items were a lot of fun
I ordered a $2.85 cup of Orange Pekoe tea that featured a swirl of poop for a strainer. The strainer dangled off of small butt cheeks that rested on the lip of the toilet-shaped cup. Brilliant design — and the tea tasted great.
In pictures I'd seen, the bingpoo — Poop Café's take on the Korean shaved ice known as bingsu — was decorated with a smiling chocolate poop emoji.
For $12, I ordered the version topped with Nutella ice cream, hoping to capitalize on its color to amplify the impression of poop. Served in a small toilet with an oval-shaped seat, my choice was right on, but the poop emoji was noticeably missing.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Instead, I was presented with a creamy bingsu topped with chewy brownie bites, strawberry slices, and cornflakes, crowned with a sizable scoop of Nutella ice cream.
As a bingsu, it was excellent. As a poop-themed dessert, I was slightly disappointed.
I also tried a bubble waffle with brown-sugar boba
The $9.75 bubble waffle arrived hot from the iron, quickly melting its accompanying whipped cream. I thought the only thing about the dish that resembled poop was the boba, but that may have been stretching it.
It succeeded as a warm, Asian-inflected dessert, but mostly failed as a scat joke. Like the bingpoo, this menu item was missing its signature chocolate poop emoji, which would've helped to tie together the theme.
Advertisement
Advertisement
When reached for comment about the missing poop emoji pieces from two of my dishes, a representative from Poop Café said the chocolates were out of stock during my visit but they've since "taken steps to address this issue and ensure a consistent supply of our signature items."
Although I don't have plans to return, I'd recommend a one-time trip to Poop Café
I knew a visit to Poop Café wouldn't be complete without checking out the eatery's bathroom so I headed downstairs before I left. I'm not sure what I was expecting — maybe that it'd be more of a place of honor in the themed cafe — but it was a typical restroom painted white with black-outlined tiles.
Did I poop at Poop Café? I'll never tell. But it's unlikely that I'll return to do so if the need arises. Though I enjoyed the food itself, the sticky surroundings didn't exactly compel me to book a return visit.
However, I'd absolutely recommend a one-time visit to Poop Café for an experience that will leave you feeling flush with humor usually reserved for the bathroom, and rarely served in the dining room.
"cafe" - Google News
September 02, 2023 at 10:10PM
https://ift.tt/OwyMI35
Visited poop-themed cafe with toilets as seats, wouldn't return - Insider
"cafe" - Google News
https://ift.tt/iFLsP19
https://ift.tt/mjYLFVp
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25244079/4.png)
No comments:
Post a Comment