DINNER & PIE IN THE SKY NOW

These restaurants take Haute Cuisine to a new kind of haute! To raise the bar in breathtaking dining experiences, you’ll be treated to your own little piece of the sky as your backdrop.

DINNER IN THE SKY

Dinner in the Sky hoists you high, using a portable crane, to offer you the ultimate view and the penultimate thrill.

There’s nothing to fear! Even though there’re no walls, or ground -- relax, you’ll be strapped to your seat as you dangle one hundred feet in the air with 21 fellow diners.

Dinner in the Sky operates in 43 different countries. Wouldn’t it be great to see the sky in each one?

Starting this Friday, 09.12.14 through 09.21.14, Dinner in the Sky is hosting an event featuring brilliant Michelin-starred British chefs in London.

SKYLINE QUEENSTOWN

The sky is so vast and beautiful that it can be hard to take in everything it has to offer at once. What better way to experience the sky than to sit back, relax and enjoy a meal in the sky?

After the gondola ride into the sky of Queenstown, New Zealand, Skyline Queenstown offers fascinating views of the city and its beautiful mountains in the background.

MT. HUASHAN TEAHOUSE, CHINA

One of the most challenging restaurant destinations, where you have to climb to get to the sky, is the Teahouse atop the South Peak of Mt. Huashan in Huayin, China.

It’s a steep vertical, rising up seven thousand feet in the air, via “stairs to heaven.”

To get there, first you take a gondola ride to the base of the southern peak. Then you walk on an ever narrowing  every more precarious path with a less-than-comforting chain railing. If someone is walking in the opposite direction, you play a little game of chicken, then one of you backs up to let the other pass.

Then you head straight up the mountain face, using chiseled toe holes.

The teahouse is built in a former Taoist temple. It sits over 7000 feet high in the sky, just east of Xi'an in the Shaanxi Province of China. There are four more teahouses, one at top of each of the other four Mt. Huashan peaks.

AT.MOSPHERE, DUBAI

To enjoy the beauties of a city from the sky, there is no better place to look than Dubai. In the heart of the city, AT.MOSPHERE restaurant in the Burj Khalifa stands as the tallest restaurant in the world.  

The restaurant’s sky experience begins the moment you enter the building with the fastest elevator in the world, lifting you to the 122 floors in less than 60 seconds. It’s a thrill!

Next, AT.MOSPHERE slows things down with a fine dining experience, offering exquisite food to match the breathtaking view.

The restaurant menu changes monthly, and it takes full advantage of seasonally available ingredients. Earthy summer truffles and diver scallops may come from far down below, but their flavors soar, elevated, as they should be 1,450 feet high up in the sky. It is the tallest restaurant in the world.

TREEPOD, THAILAND

If the city view is not your style, you can enjoy the sky in a more natural experience with Tree Pod Dining in Thailand. Located in rural Koh Kood’s ancient rainforest, the dining experience at Tree Pod lifts you off the ground and up into the tree canopy.

You will comfortably perch on a woven bamboo pod. Waiters will zipline to your table to bring your food and refill your drinks.

SIROCCO RESTAURANT & BAR

The Sky Bar and Sirocco Restaurant in Bangkok are each a rush. They are the world’s highest open air bar and restaurant, respectively, sitting 63 stories up in the sky.

When you are sitting outside, so high up in the sky, and the boundary wall around is only 4 feet tall, it makes for an even headier experience. Not for the faint of heart.

Hangover 2 was filmed here, adding to its touristy appeal.

Sunset is probably the most beautiful time, but it’s also the most crowded.

The food is French and Mediterranean. Think lobster with homemade pappardelle pasta, black truffle, and crustaceous-banyuls jus. And heavenly homemade chocolate opera pastries.

Read more about Beautiful Sky, as they relate to Arts/Design, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Place/Time, Mind/Body, and Soul/Impact including Beautiful Sky Illusions Now and Incredible Sky Phenomenon Explained Now.

Enter your own images and ideas about Beautiful Sky in this week’s creative Photo Competition. Open for entries now until 11:59 p.m. PT on 09.14.14. If you are reading this after that date, check out the current BN Creative Competition, and enter!

PHOTO CREDITS:

1. Photo: Courtesy of Dinner in the Sky. Mallorca - ART OF LIVING fair.
2. Photo: Courtesy of Tasting and Living. Dinner in the Sky Brussels.
3. Photo: Courtesy of Dinner in the Sky. Dinner in the Sky.
4. Photo: Courtesy of Skyline Queenstown. View from the Restaurant.
5. Photo: Courtesy of Skyline Queenstown. View from the Restaurant.
6. Photo: by Clint Koehler. Mt. Huashan Trail to Teahouse.
7. Photo: Courtesy of The Squeaky Robot. Mt. Huashan.
8. Photo: Courtesy of Viral Nova. Teahouse on the Mountain.
9. Photo:Courtesy of Luxury House. Armani Hotel Dubai.
10. Photo: Courtesy of AT.MOSPHERE. Restaurant View.
11. Photo: Courtesy of AT.MOSPHERE. Restaurant from the Base.
12. Photo: Courtesy of Soneva Resorts. “Treepod Being Lifted”.
13. Photo: Courtesy of Soneva Resorts. Waiter Ziplining to Treepod.
14. Photo: Courtesy of Lebua Hotel. Sirocco Restaurant.
15. Photo: by Jo. sau. Sirocco Restaurant.
16. Photo: Courtesy of The Style Junkies. Sirocco Sky Bar.