The ravages of time can transform once-thriving restaurants into spooky time capsules of their former glory, with rusty kitchens, crumbling walls and piles of rotting rubbish. From a ghostly floating restaurant in Hanoi to a lonely lakeside rest stop in Switzerland, these deserted diners, forgotten food courts and eerie eating spots certainly won’t be making the Michelin Guide.
Imagine being able to enjoy your Big Mac with the wind in your hair on the open water. Well, for visitors to Vancover’s Expo 86, this unusual fantasy became a brief reality. The McBarge – AKA the Friendship 500 – is a 187-foot (56m), two-storey boat that was used as a floating McDonald’s restaurant during the world’s fair, held on the shores of Vancouver’s False Creek in 1986. At the time it could serve 12,000 customers a day and was intended to showcase future technology and architecture.
Apart from its brief use by McDonald’s serving fast food at Expo 86, the McBarge has been drifting from owner to owner for decades. Its cavernous insides are now characterised by missing windows and rusted staircases, with not a Happy Meal or a Big Mac in sight. Unsurprisingly, the eerie interior of the vessel attracted the attention of Hollywood in 2004, when Marvel rented it as a spooky filming location for the superhero movie Blade: Trinity.
Over the years there have been many false starts in the McBarge’s restoration, including the possibility of using it as a homeless shelter and a failed crowdfunding campaign to convert it into an attraction called the Deep Ocean Discovery Centre. The latest plan by owner Howard Meakin is to transform the deserted boat into a seafood restaurant. The decommissioned floating McDonald’s is currently anchored at Maple Ridge, British Columbia, awaiting its fate.
Diners looking for a taste of ancient Egypt in Texas were treated to mystifying magic shows and flashy entertainment at Magic Island, a grand two-storey restaurant along the Southwest Freeway in Houston. From 1983 until 2008, the dining spot was known for the gold pharaoh head atop its roof and was decked out in ornate Ancient Egyptian–style furnishings. Sadly, when Hurricane Ike hit in 2008, the building caught fire and had to close. It has stood empty ever since.
Before its demise, some of the features of the building included a grand theatre, gold doors, red carpet, an enormous chandelier, murals and hieroglyphics and Egyptian-style mummy statues. Its owner, neurologist Mohammed Athari, announced plans to restore the 22,000-square-foot (2,044 sqm) property to its former glory in 2018, but there have been no recent updates.
In its heyday, The Grill Cafe Walensee in Glarnerland, Switzerland was one of the pioneers of motorway gastronomy. Opened in 1968 to cater for hungry travellers driving along the newly built A3 autobahn, it’s a stunning example of post-war Modernist architecture. The once majestic rest stop and restaurant had a picturesque terrace overlooking the Walensee lake, and was a popular meeting place for tourists and locals alike.
But an expansion of the autobahn in 1986 meant the rest area was only accessible from the east to the west, leading to the restaurant’s gradual demise. Landlord Angelo Mätzler was finally forced to close the restaurant in 2003 and it has been empty and derelict ever since.
Even celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay couldn’t save this family-run hotel and restaurant after it was given a makeover on his TV programme Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares in 2005. But just two years later, in 2007, it closed for good – and it's been abandoned ever since, with constant vandalism to the property prompting councillors to recommend it be demolished. Former owner Daniela Bayfield, who featured on the show, had been attempting to reopen it as a shelter for refugees, but she sadly passed away in 2019.
During its peak in the 1970s and 80s La Gondola had 20 bedrooms and a 70-seat restaurant, and was considered one of the city’s most fashionable eating spots. Photographed here in 2017, the kitchen is now covered in grime with rust spreading across the appliances. Most recently plans to knock the building down and transform it into homes were halted at the last minute by planning officials.
The only restaurant on our list that’s actually an approved tourist spot, this startling building sits 820 feet (249m) above the Monsanto Forest Park and is an iconic part of Lisbon’s skyline. Designed by architect Chaves Costa, the Restaurante Panorâmico de Monsanto was opened in 1968 to cater for the rising upper classes of the city and had five floors, complete with 360-degree panoramic views.
But the restaurant didn’t last and has had multiple uses over the years, including as a bingo hall and a nightclub, before finally being deserted in 2001. After decades of abandonment, during which it became a spot for urban explorers and local graffiti artists, the restaurant was finally converted into a municipal viewpoint in 2017. The well-preserved concrete shell was made safe for visitors, and what remained of the stunning floor-to-ceiling windows were removed.
Today the building still contains original artwork, including painted murals by Luís Dourdil and tile panels by Manuela Madureira, and is a trendy urban art destination. It has also become a popular events space and even a backdrop for wedding photography. The former restaurant can be accessed for free every day between the hours of 9am and 6pm.
This gloomy former police station once housed one of Edinburgh’s most unusual spots: an Armenian restaurant that was known for its eccentric owner and very unpredictable opening times. The near-mythical eatery opened in 1979, and locals recall facing a barrage of questions before being considered for a reservation – on the odd occasion the telephone was actually answered. The owner retired over a decade ago and the building has been abandoned since 2011; it's currently on the Buildings At Risk Register.
Japan is perhaps the last place you’d expect to find a Western-themed amusement park with decaying animatronic cowboys, but this incredible relic used to be a buzzing tourist attraction in the town of Nikko, 70 miles north of Tokyo. In 2006, the park announced it would be closed for a few months for maintenance, but it never opened again. Before it was bulldozed, explorers were able to capture sights like this deserted restaurant and a bar stocked with dusty bottles of American beer and Grand Marnier.
Nikko’s Western Village was built in the 1970s and, at its peak, had several restaurants, an arcade, a live Wild West show and creepy reproductions of Clint Eastwood and John Wayne. In 1995 developers added a new section with a replica of Mount Rushmore, but in these pictures from 2017 it looks more like the set for the 1973 horror film Westworld. Visitors to the deserted park found human-sized teddy bears decked out in Stars & Stripes clothing and broken animatronic models in strange poses.
As well as being a much-loved amusement park for many decades, Western Village was also used as a film set on occasion. But despite heavy investment from the owner, whose additions included a church imported from California, the park simply couldn’t compete with changing tastes, especially with fierce competition from Tokyo DisneySea and Universal Studios Japan, both of which opened in 2001.
Tucked away on the ninth floor of Montreal’s former Eaton department store lies a stunning Art Deco restaurant that once served afternoon tea to the city’s most fashionable diners. Opened in 1931, this 500-seat eatery was famous for its opulent food and ostentatious interiors, and is considered a huge part of Montreal’s cultural heritage. It has been shuttered since the Eaton store chain went bust in 1999, but developers recently announced the landmark will reopen by the end of 2023.
Designed to evoke the dining rooms of the great ocean liners of the 20th century, the restaurant’s interior – including the 9th floor corridor, pictured – is remarkably well-preserved. Current owners Ivanhoé Cambridge are currently in the process of working with heritage conservationists to bring it up to modern day standards. The venue’s glamorous customers were even the subject of a 1998 documentary, Les Dames du 9e (The Ladies of the 9th).
Once a full and thriving shopping hub with a carousel, a nautical-themed food court and more than 200 stores, Forest Fair Mall never really reached its full potential. One of the biggest shopping centres in Ohio at 1.5 million-square-feet (139,355 sqm) in size, it opened in the late 1980s but was plagued with bankruptcies and failed rebranding efforts. It underwent millions of dollars worth of renovations in the early 1990s and again in 2004, but struggled to keep its shops from shuttering.
Kiosks at the food court are closed for good, even though some are in such good condition they appear as though they've just closed for the day. In December 2022, the crumbling interior of the mall was permanently closed to the public due to a number of fire code violations. Now there are just two tenants left (Kohls and Bass Pro) who are allowed to stay open because they have separate entrances.
This abandoned aqua park swallowed by the desert makes for an eerie sight, especially against the backdrop of the golden sand dunes and turquoise waters of the South African coast. Built in 1991, the Macassar Beach Pavilion used to be a popular resort that attracted droves of families from across the region. The faded blue and green food kiosks, derelict wooden cafés and buried water slides give a hint of its former glory.
The derelict water park is perched on the edge of the Macassar Dunes Conservation Area, a stretch of coast that is particularly exposed to the elements, so it’s no surprise that upkeep of the resort proved tricky for the owners. It eventually closed due to financial difficulties and is slowly but surely succumbing to nature as the dunes move up and over the existing restaurants and buildings. Visitors can still see crumbling concession stands, swimming pools and water flumes filled with sand.
Despite the crumbling paint and rusty, run-down exterior, you can still appreciate the retro charms of Tom’s Diner in these images taken in 2014. The Silk City–style dining cart, built in the early 1940s, used to sit on Route 46 in Ledgewood and was operated by the Seretis family from 1958 until the 2004 death of owner Frank Seretis. After years of efforts by the family owners to preserve the beloved burger spot for future generations, it was demolished in 2021.
In this image the menu above the counter shows what breakfast dishes locals would have ordered along with how much they cost at the time of closing – pancakes, French toast, omelettes, bacon sandwiches and corned beef hash were on offer. The diner even achieved iconic status in 1983 when it was used as the setting for Cyndi's Lauper's Time After Time music video.
American entrepreneur Horace Bullard was famous for plunging huge amounts of money into revitalising Coney Island with various projects, including setting up Kansas Fried Chicken when he was unable to secure a Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise. He made his fortune from the chain, which had 18 locations across the country – including one on the ground floor of the Shore Theater in 1979, pictured here.
The restaurant chain closed decades ago, but passersby have managed to photograph the inside. Tables and chairs are strewn across the room and bits of the ceiling are on the floor, but the menu is still readable, with shrimp baskets and a 15-piece bucket of chicken among the items on offer. A property company bought the old theatre from Kansas Fried Chicken in 2016 with plans to turn it into a boutique hotel, but work only just started in April 2023.
Built in the late 1950s, this futuristic building resembles a giant flying saucer and once housed a family restaurant with panoramic views of the Petrópolis mountains. Known as ‘the disco’, it was developed to coincide with the opening of the busy BR-040 that cut through the mountain range. However, business faded when the highway became a one-way system, and it's been abandoned since the 1970s.
For years, the ‘ghost ships’ of Hanoi’s Tay Ho added an eerie mystery to the region. The picturesque lake was blighted by empty floating restaurants and pleasure boats, rotting in abandonment. These once-majestic vessels were banned by local authorities in 2016 in a bid to improve water quality. Due to the huge cost in dismantling them many were simply left to rust, and it wasn’t until November 2022 that the government finally intervened and demolished them.
Located in the town of Woolgoolga on the New South Wales coast, this haunting spot was once a bustling multi-purpose tourist emporium that catered to the town’s significant Sikh population. The Raj Mahal Indian Cultural Centre included an Indian restaurant, a museum, a spice shop, a scale model replica of the Taj Mahal and two striking elephant statues in the forecourt.
In 2007, vandals attacked the landmark, destroying priceless items including a 500-year-old manuscript, and repeated arson attempts over the years left the iconic elephants in a poor state. After years of neglect and various failed planning applications, the cultural centre was eventually reduced to rubble in 2013 to make way for a new supermarket.