Dining above ground? Yawn.
Underwater restaurants aren’t a new concept (the first one opened back in 2005 in the Maldives), and underwater hotels are a thing now, too. Thus far, underwater establishments have reeled clients in with their awe-inspiring views. Because eating a plate of coq au vin next to a hammerhead shark is a once in a lifetime experience, right?
But if the trend verged on gimmicky, its trajectory recently changed with Europe’s first underwater restaurant, the Under. The Norway-based restaurant features an 18-course tasting menu that mostly includes rare, underappreciated seafood sustainably sourced from the surrounding North Sea. Part of the restaurant’s mission is to study and preserve marine biodiversity. To that end, the 111-foot-long minimalist structure actually doubles as an artificial reef. And the restaurant will partner with research teams to study sea life via tools installed on the restaurant’s exterior. Can we call this “dining for a good cause?”
From afar, Under looks a little bit like a sunken ship. The entrance pokes out above the water, while the dining room rests on the seabed, 16 feet below. Guests proceed through a luxurious oak wood entrance before descending into the dining room, which is paneled in massive acrylic windows.
