10 Fictional Restaurants Where I’d Like to Eat

I’m a sucker for restaurants – diners, coffee houses, burger joints, fine-dining ones – you name it. I’ve got the worst craving habits too. Every time I’m watching a movie or a TV show and there’s a restaurant scene, I start craving whatever they’re having. Unfortunately, I can’t just pick up and go because most of the restaurants we see in movies and TV are fictional.

Then there are other times when the place has nothing to do with the food, and yet you still want to be there. The characters just seem to be having the greatest time chatting and sipping their drinks. If only those restaurants could exist in the real world. Here’s my list of the 10 Fictional Restaurants I Want to Eat At.

Jack Rabbit Slim’s in Pulp Fiction

I mean, wouldn’t you want to know what a $5 milkshake tastes like?

Vincent’s Restaurant in Manhattan Murder Mystery

There are so many restaurants featured in Woody Allen’s totally understated Manhattan Murder Mystery (this is one of my favorite all-time films, watch it if you haven’t). But Vincent’s in New Jersey was my top choice, if only for the environment. Don’t you see the smiles on their faces? They look like they’re having a ball.

Wowsville in Ghost World

“It’s like the Taj Mahal of fake 50’s diners.”

Joe’s Pie Diner in Waitress

There’s a scene in Waitress where Old Joe (Andy Griffith) describes Jenna’s Special Chocolate Oasis Pie as a problem-solver: “Could solve all the problems of the world, that pie.” Oh the things I’d do to have a slice of that deliciously-described pie.

Double R Diner in Twin Peaks

I would give myself the gift of a good old cup of Joe and a slice of their tasty cherry pie.

Fung Wah in Sex and the City

I’d never want to go to Fung Wah on a date. Word is, it’s where men take women they don’t want to be seen with. But their greasy Chinese food looks finger licking good.

Juliet’s in An Education

All I gotta say is, fancy never looked so good.

The Hukilau Cafe in 50 first dates

Who wouldn’t want to go to a restaurant where they whole waiting staff goes out of their way to lie to you about what day it is? They do this every day!

Sal’s Famous in Do The Right Thing

I mean, it’s Sal’s FAMOUS pizza.

The Grand Central Oyster Bar in Mad Men

To me, this is one of the most memorable dinner scenes of Mad Men. Who could forget the time Roger Sterling threw up? Roger and Don make those oysters look sinfully mouthwatering, wouldn’t you agree?

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37 Comments

  1. The restaurants of Seinfeld always fascinated me, like Mendy’s (the soup!), Poppy’s and Pomodoro’s (everybody breaks up at Pomodoro’s!)

    Or how about the regular diner from Seinfeld? Just don’t bring your own syrup.

  2. A couple of glaring omissions:

    Cafe Diem from Eureka
    Harvelle’s Roadhouse from Supernatural
    Milliway’s: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe from … really? Do I even have to type it?
    Fresh Air from Babylon 5
    Caritas from Angel

  3. Pizza Planet was the best suggestion but I thought the dinning room in Jurassic Park was always pretty cool and not the one in the beginning of the movie with the lame projectors but the one the kids were eating at when the raptors showed up.

  4. How could you leave out “The restaurant at the end of the universe” from “A hitchhikers guide to the galaxy”? Sure, it ain´t a movie(yet), but clearly fictional. Or is it? 😉

  5. You’re definitely missing the hyper-exclusive, envy-inspiring restaurant Dorsia on Manhattan from American Psycho (book and movie). The protagonist (Patrick Bateman) cannot get a reservation there, and kills a friend who claims to have eaten there.
    He also takes a girl to another restaurant, claiming it’s Dorsia to convince her to go out with him.

  6. Seriously.. I only opened this article to read your thoughts on the restraunt at the end of the universe… How was this overlooked? I need a pan-galactic-gargle-blaster…

  7. To Mikael… “Hitchhiker’s Guide” is a movie. It was released in 2005.

    To the author… Oyster Bar & Restaurant is in Grand Central, and has been since 1913. I’ve never eaten there, so I’m not sure how closely it resembles Mad Men’s version (or how closely it would have at that time). However, like much of Mad Men, the place is real.

  8. Regarding my previous comment… it looks like it was a different kind of place than depicted on Mad Men. But still, today, one can go to a fancy Oyster Bar in Grand Central and pretend. 🙂

  9. The Oyster Bar in Grand Central is totally real…though it was redone when I was a kid (mid 80’s) and probably since then too, so who knows? Maybe that’s exactly what it looked like 50 years ago 🙂

  10. @dlc @melly The Oyster Bar is a REAL place, but it’s not the same as in the show. I don’t know if the real thing existed in the 50s, and it if did, if it looked like what we say in Mad Men. So I place it under fictional. I’m sure, we couldn’t go to that place and get the Mad Men treatment. We wouldn’t be able to smoke inside, etc. So, to me, the place IS fictional, but oh, how I would like to go there.

  11. FYI: There are several $8 milkshakes at Ice Cream Bar in San Francisco.
    http://theicecreambarsf.com/

    They are darn good. I aspire to drink my way through the menu; so far my favorites are

    THE GARDENIA
    Fresh watermelon, gardenia extract, turbinado syrup, eggs*, cream, watermelon garnish

    TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE
    Juliet’s rye-based butterscotch syrup, eggs*, malted cream, blackstrap molasses

    They also have a lot of artisanal phosphates (old-style sodas) which I think cost over $5.

    Example:

    TOUCH OF GREY
    Candy cap mushroom syrup, acid phosphate, cream, soda

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