With all the appetizing, delicious food in Taipei, restaurateurs must get creative to attract business. Has Modern Toilet restaurant gotten a little too creative? You be the judge.

After seeing an ad in a Taiwanese magazine, I tracked down Modern Toilet with great reluctance. Novelty is one thing, but this concept is over the top: a restaurant where patrons sit on toilets and eat out of porcelain dishes shaped like little toilets and urinals. Although I had to psych myself up, I knew I had to go. Some things simply must be seen to be believed.

To my surprise, the experience wasn’t nearly as gross as I expected. Unbelievably, the décor comes across as cute and kitschy rather than disgusting. Toilet seats are brightly coloured with fun patterns (and yes, they do open) and the tables made out of sinks are really quite clever. (According to their Web site, the owners got the idea for the place while reading a comic book on the john.)

Kimchi hot pot at Modern Toilet Restaurant, Taipei. Carolyn Ali photo.

I ordered a kimchi hot pot, which arrived bubbling--- bubbling!—in a lime-green toilet. The presentation was totally gross, but in a delightful way, like being grossed out by your friends on Halloween.

Eating from a toilet didn’t activate my gag reflex once. (However, I was trying really hard not to let my mind conjure up images of real-life toilet bowls while I ate.)

Next to me, a teenaged girl sipped on a straw stuck into a urinal-shaped mug. Another customer leaned low over his toilet bowl to eat his Japanese curry, which was way too realistic looking for me to stomach.

Curry at Modern Toilet Restaurant, Taipei. Carolyn Ali photo.

And to top it all off, there was an oozy, turd-shaped swirl of ice cream in a squat toilet for dessert. The whole meal cost about $8.50, including a glass of really good jasmine tea.

Ice cream in a squat toilet at Modern Toilet in Taipei. Carolyn Ali photo.

It's fascinating that people enjoy toilet humour enough to support 13 locations of Modern Toilet around Taiwan and Hong Kong.