* As Featured in 2023 Bucket List Edition: Dining Destinations

ULTRAVIOLET | Shanghai, China
This is one place where first impressions don’t mean anything. Upon arrival, this 10-seat restaurant with no windows might seem like a bore, but multisensory technology with LED lights, table and wall projections, infrared cameras, scent diffusers, and surround sound turns every 20-course meal into an immersive sensory experience like no other.

GROTTA PALAZZESE | Polignano a Mare, Italy
Eat handmade Italian pasta and fresh-caught seafood to the sound of aquamarine waters lapping up against surrounding cavernous walls. That’s right: At this dining gem, you’ll enjoy an elegant dinner in a giant cave-turned-restaurant that juts out onto the Adriatic Sea. (Look around, and you might see a famous face—Italian nobility has been dining there since the 1700s.

ALCHEMIST | Copenhagen, Denmark
To get to the dining room—which has a giant planetarium-style dome overhead—you first have to open a two-ton bronze door, wander through a room covered in graffiti and walk over a 43-foot wine

PIZ GLORIA | Schilthorn, Switzerland
This heavenly restaurant is perched on a summit in the Bernese Alps and is known for its tasty steak and goulash. You can only get there by riding the longest aerial cable car in the Alps, and once you do, the restaurant turns (slowly) to give you 360-degree views of Switzerland’s idyllic landscapes below. (You might recognize it from the 1969 James Bond film, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.)

GIRAFFE MANOR | Nairobi, Kenya
Dine at this turn-of-the-century stone mansion with some surprise guests: giraffes! Don’t be surprised to see them stick their heads through the restaurant’s open windows or join you in the garden during afternoon tea. They’re practically locals.

LE JULES VERNE | Paris, France
Located on the second floor of the Eiffel Tower, this gem of a restaurant invites guests to eat authentic Parisian cuisine prepared by three Michelin-star Chef Frédéric Anton—all while enjoying the view from 400 feet over the city.

SONEVA KIRI | Koh Kood, Thailand
If you don’t like heights, this must-do isn’t for you! At this fine dining delight, guests are hoisted 16 feet into the air via “treepod” to dine in the trees overlooking the Koh Kood rainforest. If you think that’s impressive, get this—your waiter will zip-line to you with your gourmet meal.