The Menu Was Inspired By a Real Restaurant, Minus the Trauma
Of all the choices on Disney+, we just had to click on The Menu. Equal parts sinister, wicked, and satirical, The Menu will leave you with a bad taste in your mouth that even cheeseburgers (wink, wink) can’t cure. Don’t get us wrong; The Menu is brilliant. It’s also so creepy that you’ll need a strong palate cleanser when the credits roll.
But once we got over that slightly traumatic experience, we did some digging and discovered that Hawthorn, the site of all of The Menu’s trauma, is actually based on a real restaurant. Before your stomach drops, just know that only the setup inspired The Menu. At Cornelius Sjømatrestaurant, you’ll get a similar dining experience as Anya Taylor-Joy in The Menu, minus all the trauma.
ALSO READ: The Menu Puts a Gory Spin On Fine Dining
Located in a remote island in Bergen, Norway, Cornelius Sjømatrestaurant (or Cornelius Seafood Restaurant) is one of the most exclusive and coveted dining destinations in Scandinavia. Like Hawthorn in The Menu, Cornelius Sjømatrestaurant requires guests to take a half-hour boat to the middle of nowhere, which is exactly where the restaurant is located—on a private island occupied solely by a restaurant. Guests then spend five hours dining the countless courses on the menu, all while enjoying Nordic food and Nordic views.
One of the writers of The Menu visited the restaurant on his honeymoon, and suffice to say, it was an experience to remember.
“I’m a sort of world-class claustrophobe. As I sat down at the table, I saw the boat pull away that dropped us off. I immediately started to kind of panic a bit. I felt like, what if something goes wrong? We were kind of putting our lives in their hands, right? I mean, what if someone has a heart condition? We're miles from the mainland,” said Will Tracy, the Emmy award-winning co-writer of The Menu, on Late Night With Seth Meyers.
After his panic subsided, another thought crossed Tracy’s mind: “That could be a good story.”
The Menu was then born from that experience as Tracy and his co-writer Mark Mylod used courses to set up the plot structure of their horrific dark satire. The film, which honors and dishonors contemporary foodie culture, stars Ralph Fiennes as the mad chef Slowik and Anya Taylor-Joy and Nicholas Hoult as his unwitting guests.
Unlike those fictional characters though, Tracy had a normal culinary experience at Cornelius Sjømatrestaurant where he enjoyed the best seafood that Norway had to offer.
The best part? There was no crazy, homicidal, or suicidal executive chef. We think.
Catch The Menu on Disney+. Or, if by chance you’re in the area, visit Cornelius Sjømatrestaurant in Norway.
