The Tree-Top Thailand Restaurant That Only Serves 4 Guests At A Time
If you were the kind of kid who was obsessed with the idea of having a treehouse, or are the kind of adult who is always looking for one-of-a-kind experiences while you travel, then you may just have to add a trip to Thailand to your bucket list. Nestled on the offshore, jungle island of Koh Kood sits the upscale resort Soneva Kiri. This luxury resort sits just 90 minutes away from Bangkok and prides itself on its environmentally sustainable design. While the Soneva Kiri offers a unique opportunity to spend a vacation surrounded by luxurious beaches and dense rainforests, you do not need to be a guest of the hotel to experience the resort's most famous feature: Treepod Dining.
As Atlas Obscura details, this unique restaurant experience is exclusive to the resort and takes guests up 36 feet into a tree to enjoy pristine views of the rainforest and ocean while they enjoy a gourmet picnic in their own private booth in the sky. As if this wasn't a good enough photo-op, the servers add an extra layer of adventure and entertainment by ziplining to and from the booth with guests' food.
Taking dining to new heights
As explained on the Soneva Kiri website, the Treepod Dining experience is designed to "take fine dining to remarkable new heights." Diners, who are served in parties of two to four (per The Culture Trip) are able to choose from the one-hour Gourmet Picnic or two-hour Luxury Picnic packages, the latter of which can be paired with a champagne tasting. The exclusive dining location is available for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or high tea (via Unmissable) but you will need to make reservations in advance since there is only one pod and availability is therefore, extremely limited. All the meals served in the Treepod restaurant include produce grown in the resort's private organic gardens and other foods which, like the bamboo the pod itself is made from, are locally sourced.
As you might have guessed, an experience this niche does come at a price. In addition to needing to secure reservations, Food & Wine reports that the cost of the experience starts at $315 for two people. If you're looking for a meal to splurge on though, one that allows you to appreciate a bird's eye view of the jungle and sea in the company of local wildlife at a table designed to look like an actual bird's nest might just be the place to do it.