Winning top marks for originality, wonderfully weird sketch has made a name for itself in London with its collection of washroom eggs, set beneath rainbow tiles. Beyond the restrooms, sketch serves modern European cuisine across its four restaurants which are all decorated differently – the Gallery is all pink walls and booths while the Glade has a magical forest theme.
What would you get if you took Mad Men's Art Deco design and rocketed it into a minty-fresh space age? The men’s room of the Capitol Grille steakhouse, based in Nashville’s Heritage Hotel. Since the 1930s, this bathroom has “taken care of business” for the city’s politicians and business elite who could make urgent phone calls, have their shoes shined and read the financial pages in between doing their “dirty work”. No wonder it’s regularly voted among the best bathrooms in America.
There’s nothing understated about this bathroom, with gold urinals, walls, floor tiles – you name it. You'll find it in Tokyo’s Robot Restaurant where neon lighting is the norm and bikini-clad warrior princesses ride robots into mock battles during dinner. It’s one of Japan’s top tourist attractions. For more things to see and do in Tokyo, check out our sister site loveEXPLORING's guide here.
Houston, we have a bathroom. In a design that’s nothing short of a trip into space, Portland-based restaurant Departure has incorporated industrial stainless-steel fixtures and eerie red lighting to create the most futuristic-looking washroom on our list. The restaurant – perched atop the landmark Meier & Frank building – is decorated with artefacts from a 1920s ocean liner and serves a modern medley of pan-Asian cuisine.
There’s nothing subtle about Sexy Fish where a mosaic crocodile looms over the dining room, fish-themed lamps dangle from the ceilings and a pair of blue Damien Hirst-designed mermaids flank the bar – which is also home to the world’s largest collection of Japanese whisky. Surprisingly, the aquatic theme doesn’t extend to the washroom but it's by no means overshadowed by the dining room. The restroom has been decked out floor-to-ceiling in chunky monochrome marble.
Proving black never goes out of style, BLVD’s bathroom is Art Deco-inspired with a Hollywood-after-hours vibe. The Chicago restaurant's washroom is wall-to-wall and ceiling-to-floor black with brassy gold accents, suitably moody lighting and a velvet banquette. The menu here is modern American while the cocktails are described as 'retro reimagined'.
The outside is brought in at West London's Restaurant Ours where you can dine on European dishes amid a contemporary jungle of fairy light-lit trees, hanging plants and Instagrammable living walls. And the outdoor aesthetic has also set root in the bathrooms, where spindly palms climb up the wallpaper and onto the ceiling above a sheet of pastel pink tiles. There are also eye-catching and matching gold mirrors and sinks.
This bathroom can be found in Mayfair’s trendy Park Chinois, a dimly-lit, red velvet-clad Chinese restaurant and jazz club evoking the dining rooms of 1930s Shanghai. The central focus in the bathroom is a trio of intricate golden swans, the taps set above marble units. On the menu you’ll find traditional Chinese classics as well some more unusual twists – the carbonara is made with udon noodles and salty sea urchins.
Proving that German cuisine runs far beyond bratwurst, fine-dining Bauhaus serves a fresh take on Deutsch classics in Gastown, Vancouver. It’s named after the famous German art school in Weimar and is almost an industrial art installation in itself, with exposed ceilings, red-brick walls and edgy, unframed artworks. The bathrooms incorporate a mishmash of graffiti, ranging from a minimalist Pac-Man design to dripping tags.
At Succotash, in the heart of Washington DC, you’ll find some of the city’s finest Southern cooking with a menu of high-end chicken and waffles, fried green tomatoes and crispy blue catfish alongside a few outlander items reflecting the chef’s Korean heritage. And its powder room is fit for a Southern belle with a pair of opulent Rococo-style gilded mirrors set against a muted palette of soft pinks and greys.
The first thing you’ll notice about the contemporary British Brasserie of Light is probably the 24-foot crystal-encrusted Pegasus swooping over the dining room – it’s London’s largest artwork by Damien Hirst. But this relative newcomer to the capital’s fine-dining scene, located in high-end department store Selfridges, is hiding a secret showstopper in the back. Its bathroom is clad floor-to-ceiling in slick pink marble and features a huge fractured mirror at one end. No rose-tinted glasses required.
Award-winning Vietnamese restaurant Anh and Chi has crafted a bathroom oasis in the Mount Pleasant area of Vancouver. Its jungle-themed, gender-neutral facilities have been wrapped in lush Martinique banana leaf wallpaper, accented with caramel-coloured doors and bright gold faucets that run along the central sink. It's a stunner that hasn’t gone unnoticed. In 2018, Anh and Chi placed among the top five competing to be the Best Restroom in Canada.
Part fine-dining restaurant, part world-renowned winery and part thrillingly original contemporary art installation, d’Arenberg opened its doors in 2017, just south of Adelaide, Australia. The extraordinary bottle-green glass building is modelled on a twisted Rubik’s Cube. Inside, its entertaining washrooms take the form of pods, each one an artistic interpretation of the names on the wines' labels – this cartoonish rendition by artist Luke Watson depicts McLaren Sand Hills.
For loos with glorious views, it doesn’t get much better than contemporary British restaurant Aqua Shard, perched up on the 31st floor of The Shard skyscraper near London Bridge. The washroom vistas are said to be best from the monochrome men’s room, where the urinals have been strategically placed in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows for a real top-of-the-world, admittedly slightly exhibitionist, feel.
It’s cherry blossom season all year round in New York’s modern Japanese restaurant Morimoto. On the back wall of the bathroom cubicle, architect Tandao Ando has used mirrors to reflect a confetti of blooms in a futuristic vision of spring. If you can tear yourself away, you’ll find the same contemporary twists in the dining room, among them the intriguingly named Duck Duck Duck, a dish of roasted duck breast, duck confit fried rice, duck egg and mandarin oolong reduction.
Five-star hotel and restaurant Claridge’s epitomises British elegance with crystal chandeliers, panelled walls and crackling Victorian fireplaces, set in the heart of London’s well-to-do Mayfair. And a trip to the restaurant washroom may well feel like you’ve stumbled back in time. Here, blue and gold macaws peek at you from the wallpaper adorned with palm trees, which tower over glamorous Art Deco furniture polished to a high sheen and a floor reminiscent of peacock tails.
The washroom at Toronto-based Cluny Bistro is the stuff of glossy magazines, awash with warm woods, delicate gold fixtures and frosted glass. The pretty tiled floor is decorated in shades of yellow, orange and duck-egg blue. In the restaurant, indulgent French dishes are served in similarly pretty surrounds – don’t miss the onion soup, served with a thick cheese crust.
Ireland’s first outpost of posh restaurant The Ivy, in Dublin, may only have been open since 2018, but it’s already making waves thanks to its beautiful bathrooms. Onyx vanity units and deep purple pouffes line the washrooms and bespoke flowery gold wallpaper adorns the walls. The restaurant itself mirrors the Art Deco style of the original Ivy in London and serves a mix of its classic dishes plus a few locally-inspired ones – think Dublin Bay prawns and fresh Dungraven oysters.
Undoubtedly among the crème de la crème of London’s restaurants, Le Gavroche won the UK’s first Michelin star in 1974 for its unapologetically extravagant French cuisine – think roast Goosnargh duck and lobster mousse with Aquitaine caviar. In the restroom, the theme remains très chic, all white marble with showpiece gilt mirrors, elaborate vintage sconces, herringbone floor tiles and a collection of antique hand mirrors spread across one wall.
High up on the 71st floor of the InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown hotel, French-inspired steakhouse La Boucherie is (unsurprisingly) best known for its sweeping views – if you look carefully, you’ll be able to make out the Hollywood sign. But wander to the bathrooms and you’ll find the focal point abruptly shifts from the vista. In the men’s room, you’ll immediately lock eyes with a floor-to-ceiling depiction of galloping cowboys, while women will be met with a light and airy space decked out with porcelain sinks, huge mirrors and comfy upholstered chairs. Discover more US restaurants with incredible views here.
This maximalist bathroom can be found in The Ivy’s Manchester outpost, in the Spinningfields financial district. Cubicles are curled around an atrium which has been papered in gold with rosy blooms and tropical birds of paradise. But the focus isn’t the cockatoo or even the dome stuffed to bursting with pink flowers, but the sculpture of a nude female posing on a plinth in the centre.
Pretty in pink is an understatement when it comes to the washroom at Annabel’s, set in the heart of London’s upmarket Mayfair. Pink washbasins are carved in the shape of oyster shells, bouquets of pale silk roses adorn every surface while blooming fuchsia flowers curl along the wallpaper. This is one of London’s most exclusive members’ clubs, home to high-end restaurants catering squarely to the capital’s elite and (at times) royalty. We’re sorry to say it’s by invitation only.
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Set within the hulking frame of a former bank in the heart of London’s financial district, The Ned hotel is brimming with Art Deco elegance: think soaring emerald columns, polished walnut counters and monochrome checkerboard floors. There are nine restaurants underneath its roof, the majority of which are located in the cavernous lobby, where the women’s bathroom is a vintage masterpiece centred around a burnt-orange velvet kissing seat.
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Equal parts alluring and disorientating, the washrooms at Ottolenghi’s Middle Eastern London restaurant NOPI are like a high-end hall of mirrors, accented with gold and white marble, and arranged in a honeycomb design to guarantee the best reflections. It’s so effective that it can be tricky at times to find your way back to your table – just keep an eye out for the small gold doorknob and arrow indicating the route back to reality.
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