Quite literally hidden behind a secret door in a taco joint, Hiden serves up a high-end omakase menu, meaning that diners get whatever the chef is cooking. With space for just eight, the intimate restaurant flies in fresh fish from Japan twice a week and diners can watch as their meal is prepared right in front of their eyes.
As its name (just for two) suggests, this restaurant really does just serve one table for two. It's housed in a 19th-century building, and the guests arrive via a candle-lit driveway before sipping an aperitif in the garden. The dinner takes place in an uber-romantic dining room right by a fireplace and the cuisine is, of course, Italian and season dependent. Such an exclusive affair isn't easy on the wallet, though – the price for dinner is £221 (€250) per person, but guests are able to customise their experience, from the menu to the music and even the flowers.
There are only 10 seats at this sought-after restaurant in Tokyo and bagging a table here is a serious feat. The fine-dining place serves complex Japanese-French fusion dishes with the ambience of a Japanese tea ceremony and there's a 10-course or a six-course menu to choose from.
A tiny and exclusive restaurant within a restaurant, é by José Andrés is like a real-life restaurant version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, because you'll only be admitted if you're in possession of a golden ticket. The nine-seat chef's table, serving avant-garde Spanish cuisine, is located behind a secret door and two nightly sittings are available – that is, if you can get a booking in the first place.
Take a look at brilliant restaurants where you can't get a table
There’s only one table at Mesa 1 in Mexico and one sitting per evening. The restaurant is located within the exclusive W Punta de Mita resort, and guests can book the table for up to 12 people to enjoy a customisable seven-course tasting menu. Those lucky enough to bag the table for the night, will enjoy a magical dinner under the stars. Situated at the centre of a lake, the table can only be accessed via steppingstones that disappear in the water, leaving an impression that the platform is floating.
Another restaurant claiming to be the smallest in the world, this one is located in a reconstructed water gauge house right above the river Elbe in Hamburg. Offering a private dinner setting for two to four people, the Pegelhäuschen serves a four-course set menu with wonderful views out onto the river. Temporarily closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the restaurant is part of a historic hotel.
New York is not a city known for ample space and its restaurants are often cosy to say the least. And in Belle Harlem diners are typically quite literally brushing shoulders with strangers when sat at their 12-seater communal table. The compact restaurant might only be a mere 25 square metres (275 sq ft), but the equally petite menu speaks volumes – five small plates, four large plates and a handful of desserts all perfectly formed and incredibly tasty. In summer, there's also a rooftop terrace and an outdoor area. The restaurant is temporarily closed and set to reopen later in 2021.
Part restaurant, part visual experience, this restaurant entertains only a dozen guests per night. Part of Ibiza's Hard Rock Hotel, Sublimotion combines trippy projections with an exquisite 20-course dinner. Guests are transported to underwater worlds, deep space or even the circus while enjoying chef Paco Roncero's dishes like deconstructed shrimp scampi and a vegetable garden with edible soil. The three-hour dinner experience normally gets booked out several months in advance.
Halfway across the world you'll find another restaurant with a similar concept serving just 10 guests a night. Ultraviolet in Shanghai also combines its 20-course tasting menu with an impressive light show and projections, transporting diners between worlds. The immersive and multi-sensory meal by chef Paul Pairet has been awarded three Michelin stars.
Set up in an old chicken shack, Mr. Pollo is a restaurant like no other. With space for only about 12 diners, the restaurant is run by two chefs, serving a four-course tasting menu for £25 ($35). And while the space might be small, with the kitchen and dining room crammed together, the food is outstanding, especially the chicken arepa. It's a regular fixture on the menu, which also includes dishes like peach salad, seared tuna or scallops, and big scoops of ice cream for dessert.
One of the biggest on our list, El Papagayo can host as many as 32 diners (now 12 due to social distancing rules in Argentina). However, literally wedged into an alley between two buildings, it's still just two-and-a-half-metres (8ft) wide and 32-metres (105ft) long, with a concrete wall on one side and exposed brick on the other. The restaurant focuses on Mediterranean fare with Argentinian flare and the compact kitchen is able to send out some pretty spectacular dishes, all cooked on a charcoal grill and in wood-fired ovens. It's consistently rated among Córdoba's best restaurants.
A Roanoke landmark since the 1930s, this compact 10-seater diner attracts plenty of people with its burgers, hot dogs and egg sandwiches, despite the queues that often form due to its modest size. The diner even pokes fun at itself with the help of a sign that says it seats "1,000 people... 10 at a time." It's currently only offering takeout.
Just eight seats fill this little restaurant in Sydney's Surry Hills. As is often the case with pint-size restaurants, there is no menu here, just the chef's omakase degustation menu featuring 10 courses. There are also no tables or chairs, as all the diners sit on bar stools along a countertop, perfect for observing the master at work.
Just a 10-seat counter awaits diners at the sleek Le Comptoir in Los Angeles. Michelin-starred chef Gary Menes prepares an exquisite eight-course vegetable-inspired tasting menu that features a lot of seasonal ingredients sourced from the kitchen garden. And while it might be a fine-dining restaurant, the chef insists on no white tablecloths or multiple sets of silverware.
You'd be forgiven for thinking Indo Java is just an Indonesian grocery store on a busy street in Queens, but come here on a Tuesday and you might be among the lucky people to bag the only table for two (note that only takeaway is currently available). The bright yellow table and black metal folding chairs are squeezed in between a freezer and a wall of instant noodles and only one dish is available on the day. The tiny pop-up restaurant has even earned high praise from The New York Times.
With just six seats in the house along a countertop facing the kitchen, Pasture is a small and independent restaurant, focusing heavily on seasonal ingredients. With three seatings per night, the team serves up a set tasting menu including lots of ingredients that have been brined or fermented by the restaurant itself. They also practice their own cheesemaking, charcuterie and baking, so diners can expect foods like aged Camembert-like butter with sourdough and fermented local raw honey.
Upstairs Pancake House takes cosy dining to the next level. The four-table restaurant is crammed into the first floor of a traditional Dutch rowhouse in Amsterdam. Head up a steep, narrow staircase and you'll find the most peculiar room decorated with a hundred hanging teapots and old paintings of Amsterdam. The food here is just as cosy as the interior – think sweet pancakes with apple, cinnamon and sugar or savoury piles with bacon and cheese. Currently, only 10 diners are allowed in at a time due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Although Japan is pretty well known for tiny little eateries and minuscule sushi bars, this ramen restaurant is on another level. Located in Tokyo's busy Shinjuku district, this ramen shop can just about feed six people at a time. It's really not much more than a hole in the wall. The bowls are prepared right in front of the diners' eyes and there are only four different ramens or two noodle dishes to choose from.
Though it's arguably more a fast-food joint than a restaurant, we simply couldn't leave this Pennsylvania icon off the list. Aptly named, The Squeeze-In serves some of the best hot dogs in the state in such a tiny place that diners literally have to squeeze in. Once you do manage to get in, there's a generous selection of dogs, from Cubano Dog and Reuben Dog to the signature Squeeze Dog with relish, onion, sweet and hot chilli, sauerkraut and baked beans. Normally, only five customers at a time are let in, but at the moment only takeout is available.
The square footage at this unusual spot – dubbed the world's smallest restaurant – might be minuscule, but those lucky to book it are treated to traditional and timeless Finnish fare, like grilled local fish or hunter's bread, a fried bread with a mushroom sauce topping. The charming lakeside restaurant is located in Iisalmi in Finland and is an extension of the neighbouring restaurant Olutmestari. Kuappi, meaning the closet, has just enough space for a table for two and one staff member. The restaurant is currently closed for the winter season.
Hidden away in a former lumberjack hut in the Nock Mountains in Austria, Holzknechthütte only has one table that can accommodate up to four diners. The hut offers panoramic views over the valley below, while the chef prepares a traditional Carinthian menu of several courses. Dishes range from pork roasted on a wood fire to fluffy Austrian pancakes for dessert.
Once a storage space, this Japanese restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City's Japantown street is notable not only for its food. The ground floor of the restaurant features a traditional izakaya counter, where guests sit to watch the chefs prepare the food. However, the first-floor dining space is no bigger than 3.7 square metres (39.8sq ft). The room features a single table facing a glass façade looking directly onto the street. There are bigger private function rooms available to book, but it's this snug dining space that makes it one of the littlest on our list.
Opening a restaurant might not sound like the smartest idea in the middle of a global pandemic, but that's exactly what Rasmus Persson and Linda Karlsson have done. Dubbed the "only true COVID-19 safe restaurant in the world", it's a solo dining experience that involves zero social interaction. A table is set up in the middle of a meadow in west-central Sweden and the meals are delivered via a rope-operated basket. The restaurant opened in May and accepted bookings throughout the summer, as well as for festive dining over Christmas. It's expected to return next summer.