Top 2 Unusual CA Dining Experiences: Dine In The Eye Of A Hurricane, Or On A Train

CALIFORNIA — Dinner and a show? How about dinner and a sideshow? You’ll find not-to-be-missed restaurants in both northern and southern California, according to a ranking of the country’s most unusual restaurant experiences.

The food and travel website Lovefood ranked restaurant experiences in all 50 states from the weirdest to the least weird, but they’re all places where the setting may be as memorable as the food.

In California, restaurants in San Francisco and Los Angeles both fill this bill, according to the rankings, with the Tonga Room coming in at #1, and Carney's Train coming in at #8.

The Tonga Room And Hurricane Bar Inside The Fairmont Hotel: San Francisco

The Tonga Room and Hurricane Bar, located at 950 Mason Street in San Francisco, is a tiki-themed restaurant with a huge central lagoon and a floating stage where simulated tropical storms roll through between courses. You heard us right. You can enjoy tiki and dinner, with a side of rain. Reservations are recommended and can be made online.

“With tropical plants and a huge central lagoon, you'll feel as if you've just traveled to Polynesia at the Tonga Room & Hurricane Bar,” LoveFood claims. This tiki-themed lounge and restaurant is located in the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco and first opened in 1945.

There's a floating boat stage for live music, and tropical storms blow through from time to time – but this only adds to the atmosphere. The menu is great, too; highlights include coconut-fried calamari, spicy basil chicken, and curry seafood.

Carney's Express Limited: West Hollywood, CA

Further south, in Los Angeles, Carney’s On Sunset in West Hollywood and also in Studio City are fantastic for lovers of all-American comfort food.

The iconic location, inside a converted Union Pacific Railroad Car, opened in 1975. Since then, chefs have perfected their menu over five decades to what reviewers say are “the best hamburgers and hot dogs in the world.”

Order ahead, or come to dine on the train. The booths, the windows, the feel, there is nothing in Los Angeles quite like it, according to the website.

Carney's, with two locations in LA, is a fantastic place to go if you're in the mood for some all-American comfort food. Fun spots for kids of all ages, each charming restaurant is housed inside a bright yellow remodeled Pacific Railroad passenger train, complete with overhead luggage racks. Carney's is famous for its burgers and hot dogs, but it's the chili fries that customers really rave about.”

Others in the top five most unusual restaurant experiences are:

2. The Yurt at Solitude Mountain Resort in Utah, where guests have to snowshoe through a moonlight forest to the yurt, where a chef will prepare a meal at their table(this spot is open only seasonally, from December through April).

3. The Airplane Restaurant in Colorado Springs, which is housed in a Boeing KC-97 tanker built in 1953. The plane flew all over the world before being decommissioned in 2002.

4. Catacombs at Bube’s Brewery in Mount Joy, Pennsylvania, where guests descend 43 feet for a candlelight dinner in the brewery’s old stone aging cellars.

5. Enoteca Maria, a Staten Island eatery that doesn’t have a regular chef but hires “Nonnas of the World” — grandmothers from around the globe — to cook their best dishes for a menu that changes daily. The cuisine is so good it has earned a Michelin Bib Gourmand label.

We know there are more weirdly wonderful places to eat in the Golden State, and we'd love to hear your suggestions!

Let us know what weirdly wonderful restaurants you enjoy and your suggestion just might make it in our next Patch roundup!