Modern Toilet Restaurant is Taiwan’s infamous poo-poo and toilet-themed restaurant chain.
Daring visitors are seated on toilets while dining on foods that look like feces and drinks served in urinals.
After being in the spotlight for many years, the Modern Toilet chain is dying. At its peak, it had 19 locations across Taiwan, including branches in Hong Kong and China. Today, there are only two branches left, both in Taipei City (in Ximending and Shilin Night Market).
In this article, I’ll share my personal experiences visiting both of the remaining branches and help you decide whether this bizarre culinary attraction is for you or perhaps is too shitty to bother.
Modern Toilet Introduction
Taiwan has seen many theme restaurants come and go (remember the Barbie one?) In fact, the world’s first cat café was in Taipei, while now, capybara restaurants are all the rage.
The first Modern Toilet opened its bathroom doors in Kaohsiung city in 2004. Owner Wang Zi-wei (王子維), a former banker, got the idea from a Japanese robot cartoon in the Dr. Slump manga series who liked to play with poop.
Wang started out by selling chocolate ice cream swirls served on paper squat toilets. When these took off, he expanded the concept into a full restaurant, with toilet-themed decorations, seating, foods, and drinks.
The current Mandarin name of the restaurant, 歡樂便所主題餐廳, literally means “Happy Toilet Themed Restaurant”.
When I first moved to Taipei in 2008, Modern Toilet Ximending was extremely popular among locals and visitors alike.
As an English teacher at the time, I also noticed that my young students definitely had an obsession with shit, drawing pictures and making jokes about it all the time. Stickers, stuffies, and toys shaped like swirly mounds of dung were very popular.
The poo restaurant hype has fizzled out over the years, though, with one branch after another closing. Lack of visitors during COVID was the final blow.
Even the Ximending branch, the most famous one for a long time, closed for over 3 years due to the pandemic. The Shilin Night Market branch remained open for most of that time but it seems like most people kind of forgot about it.
Around the time the Ximending one finally reopened again in 2023, the Taichung branch (the third-last remaining one in Taiwan) closed permanently.
That means today, the Ximending and Shilin Night Market locations are the only branches of Modern Toilet left in the world.
Fun fact: After a Modern Toilet patron in one the China locations actually shat in one of the decorative toilets, they had to close down for two weeks.
Choosing Between the Two Current Locations
Unless you are a serious poop aficionado, you probably only need to visit one of the Modern Toilets. Here I will help you decide which one is best for you.
Modern Toilet Ximending
Ximending pedestrian shopping district is one of the most popular areas to stay in Taipei. It is always bustling and full of quirky things to do and interesting things to eat.
It only makes sense that Modern Toilet’s most famous location should be found in Ximending. This is the one most travelers have always visited and you are most likely to see in the press.
In my early years in Taiwan, every time I had a visitor from aboard, I pretty much had to take them here.
If you’re staying in Ximending or around Taipei Main Station nearby, it makes sense to choose this location.
I also find that this location is the slightly nicer and more recently renovated of the two (some of my pictures here are quite old, before the renos). It is borderline classy now (as far as restaurants with crap on the menu go…)
Following the renovation, Modern Toilet Ximending has gone for a simpler, more streamlined look. Its bamboo walls are accentuated with poo-poo stuffie-filled urinals, shit cartoon tile mosaics, and hanging turd lights.
As usual, guests are seated on bejeweled toilets or booths, with droppings visible in the bowls under the glass tables. When you wash your hands in the bathroom, you’ll have to do it in (you guessed it) a toilet.
In other words, there are a whole lot of fun decorations in this restaurant. You’ll find plenty of silly photo ops, and if you have kids, they’ll definitely get a kick out of this unusual experience. Visitors with kids may prefer the Shilin location, though (read why below).
As this is the more popular location of the two, I recommend making a reservation on weekends and at peak meal times. If you show up between lunch and dinner, you can probably get in without one.
You can try reserving via their Facebook page, but if they don’t reply, you’ll need to call or stop in a day or two before.
The restaurant takes cash only and there’s a minimum order of one item per person.
Getting There
Modern Toilet Ximending is here in the heart of the Ximending shopping district.
From Ximen MRT exit 6, follow the crowds down the main pedestrian road (Hanzhong Street). Turn left on Tattoo Street (Lane 50) and follow it for three blocks.
You can’t really miss Modern Toilet as you approach it, thanks to the huge porcelain throne on the side of the building at the corner (see image above).
The restaurant is on the second floor of the building – just watch for all the toilet paraphernalia and decorations in the entrance and stairwell going up.
Modern Toilet Shilin
Taipei’s second remaining and slightly lesser known location is the Modern Toilet on the edge of Shilin Night Market.
Long popular among local youths and countless foreign visitors, Shilin Night Market also makes sense as a location for Modern Toilet (see my Shilin Night Market guide with map).
The night market isn’t as popular or well-rated as it used to be, but for a long time, it was Taipei’s largest and most famous one.
It was always known as a cutting edge place where new and quirky Taiwanese snacks were introduced.
When I took my kids to Modern Toilet Shilin recently, we found it smaller and more dated than the Ximending location. While it has similar décor, clearly less care and money has been put into this one.
On the plus side, the Shilin branch is better for visitors with young kids (see my guide to other kid-friendly places in Taiwan).
The most obvious difference is that it has a small ball pit, which kids are allowed to play or pose for photos in.
Adults are allowed to go in if they want, too. When we were there, a group of local teenagers spend a solid half an hour in the ball pit doing an Instagram photo shoot.
In the dining area, there are some fake showers and other bathroom decorations. In the actual bathroom, we got to wash our hands from a peeing boy statue.
The restaurant provides some free props and accessories to hold or wear when taking your selfies. I also noticed that they sell some poo-poo and toilet-themed souvenirs, which I didn’t see at the Ximending branch.
While the Shilin Night Market location is also convenient, the problem is, if you plan to eat in the night market, you won’t have any room left in your tummy for a full meal at Modern Toilet (or vice versa).
And honestly speaking, you can find much better food in the night market!
My kids and I showed up at Modern Toilet Shilin at lunchtime on a weekday and got a table without a reservation. If you want to reserve, there’s no website or Facebook page, so you’ll need to give them a call.
Like the Ximending one, this location is cash only and has a minimum order of one item per person, including kids.
You can save a little money by getting this Modern Toilet Shilin restaurant voucher.
Getting There
Modern Toilet Shilin is not right in Shilin Night Market but on the northeastern edge of it. Here’s the pin on GoogleMaps.
Most people get off at Jiantan MRT to access Shilin Night Market from its southern end. Howerver, if you are just going to Modern Toilet, Shilin MRT station at the northern end of the night market is the closest.
Walking from exit 2 of Shilin station, follow the MRT line south and watch for the large toilet adorning the outside wall of the building. Also just like Ximending, the actual restaurant is on the second floor.
What’s on the Modern Toilet Menu?
Don’t come to Modern Toilet expecting a high quality, gourmet, or even very local meal. Instead, you’ll get basic hot pot and Taiwanese versions of Western and Japanese dishes.
The food is not bad, but I also wouldn’t say it’s really good. Come here for the novelty and fun of it, not for an exceptional meal.
The menu includes the following sections:
- Toilet Meals: Japanese curries or meats with rice. I recommend these simply because they come in a toilet. When in
RomeTaipei!
- Hot Pot: Also comes in a toilet, with pork, beef, seafood, or vegetarian options and different soup flavors available
- Bathtub Gratin: rice and seafood or meat baked with cheese, served in a bathtub
- Washbasin Spaghetti: No major surprises here. It comes in a sink.
- Steak Meals: Also comes in a sink. We didn’t try it, but I wouldn’t have high expectations.
- Shaved Ice: These ridiculous, huge desserts come overflowing from a squat toilet. You get the choice of “The Constipation Black Stoool” or “The Urine Clots Mango”. My photo below was taken a long time ago, so they may not have that exact same one anymore.
For a smaller dessert, go for the simple “Swirly Poop Ice Cream”.
- Crappy Items (appetizers): I recommend the Modern Toilet (poo-shaped) buns, but there are several other small sides.
- Pee Drinks: Most are served in urinals, with appetizing names like “Diarrhea Cocoa”, “Taiwan Urine Beer”, and “Dark Piss Americano”.
The restaurants seems to update their menu every few years, but the menu at the two branches is usually pretty much the same.
So now you know how to dine on shit-like foods in Taipei, Taiwan. Bon appétit, and feel free to share your thoughts or experience at Modern Toilet in the comments below!
