The Most Beautiful Restaurants in the World With Dark and Haunted Pasts

Some restaurant reservations come with a view. Others come with a warning. A glass-roofed courtyard in Zwolle that once belonged to a women’s prison, a palm-filled London atrium where defendants once arrived for court and a French Quarter dining room that still sets a table for a guest who’s been dead for generations: these are 14 of the world’s most beautiful restaurants with a dark past, from De Librije and Boston’s CLINK. to New Orleans’ famously haunted Muriel’s, Arnaud’s and Brennan’s.

Bon appétit. If you dare.

For anyone whose idea of Halloween involves a proper dinner and an excellent bottle of wine (mine, naturally), there’s plenty to work with. Some of these addresses have documented institutional pasts; others trade in local legends and ghost stories passed between generations of staff. All of them give you far more to talk about than what to order.

The Witchery

Edinburgh, Scotland | 16th-century merchant’s house

If you were designing a restaurant for a particularly glamorous ghost, you’d start here. The Witchery’s Original Dining Room layers oak paneling, tapestries, painted ceilings and antique candlesticks inside a 16th-century merchant’s house near Edinburgh Castle. The menu has an appropriately indulgent streak, with Scottish seafood and classics like lobster Thermidor. The name carries a serious local history, referencing the women and men executed during the witch persecutions associated with nearby Castlehill (in the surrounding area, not the dining room itself).

Haute Living take: The most romantic room in Edinburgh. Candlelight required.

The Chapel at Bodmin Jail Hotel

Cornwall, England | Former prison chapel

The soaring ceilings are your first clue this was never an ordinary dining room. Set within Bodmin Jail’s former chapel, The Chapel pairs restored architectural details with intimate booths and contemporary interiors, serving seasonal Cornish cooking in a space built for a very different congregation. The prison’s history is sobering: 55 executions took place over its lifetime, the last in 1909. That gives the building its weight; the transformation gives you a reason to experience it today, with Cornwall’s farms and fisheries supplying a much happier topic of conversation.

Haute Living take: The most dramatic ceiling in Cornwall. Book a booth.

De Librije

Zwolle, Netherlands | Former women’s prison

A former women’s prison is an unlikely place for a destination restaurant. At De Librije, it makes for an extraordinary dining room. The restaurant occupies the glass-covered courtyard of the Spinhuis, the historic prison that also houses Librije’s Hotel; Jonnie and Thérèse Boer opened the hotel here before moving De Librije into the building. Overhead glass floods light into a place once defined by confinement, and on the plate, elaborate preparations and unexpected combinations reward close attention.

Haute Living take: Worth the flight to Zwolle. Seriously.

Twenty8 NoMad at NoMad London

Covent Garden, London | Former Bow Street courthouse

With palms beneath a soaring glass ceiling, Twenty8 NoMad looks like the kind of place where an afternoon very pleasantly becomes an evening. Its previous purpose was considerably less leisurely: the atrium occupies the former vehicle yard of Bow Street’s courthouse and police station, where defendants arrived before being taken to cells or court. Today, it hosts seasonal cooking with a New York accent and a cocktail program that gives the martini its due. Consider the history, then give the drinks list your full attention.

Haute Living take: London’s most glamorous former crime scene. Order the martini.

Avlu at Four Seasons Hotel Istanbul at Sultanahmet

Istanbul, Türkiye | Former prison, built 1918–1919

The garden courtyard at Avlu is so serene that the building’s former life takes a moment to register. Four Seasons Hotel Istanbul at Sultanahmet occupies a prison built in 1918–1919, later used again as a military jail after the 1980 coup. Today, greenery and historic architecture surround guests, while Avlu’s kitchen explores contemporary Anatolian cuisine through regional, seasonal ingredients. The beauty of the setting is part of what makes its history so affecting.

Haute Living take: The most peaceful former prison on Earth. Dine in the courtyard.

Damianz at Het Arresthuis

Roermond, Netherlands | Prison until 2007

Dinner at Damianz begins with bread and water. Given that the restaurant occupies Roermond’s former prison, the reference is very deliberate, though the meal quickly becomes far more elaborate. Inside Het Arresthuis, historic details meet contemporary design, and chef Jeroen van Gansewinkel builds refined dishes around seasonal ingredients and international influences. The building was a prison until 2007, so this is a fairly recent reinvention; on a fine evening, take your aperitif in the former exercise courtyard.

Haute Living take: Bread and water, upgraded. The courtyard aperitif is a must.

Malmaison Oxford Brasserie

Oxford, England | Former prison basement

Oxford’s beauty usually conjures colleges and libraries. Malmaison offers another perspective, having turned a former prison into a hotel with a stylish brasserie in its basement. The setting is intimate, the approach through the hotel is part of the experience and the wider conversion preserves the building’s prison character. Come for dinner and take in the architecture. Voluntarily booking a table here would once have been a rather strange proposition.

Haute Living take: Oxford’s least academic address. The walk in is half the fun.

The Crypt by Bleeding Heart

Ely Place, London | Medieval crypt, private events

For a dinner party with a little ecclesiastical drama, there’s The Crypt beneath St Etheldreda’s in Ely Place. The medieval space hosts private events, with food, wine and service by Bleeding Heart, and dining beneath an ancient London church gives any gathering a sense of occasion no conventional private room can match. Note: it’s a venue to hire for a celebration, not a table for two. And while a crypt supplies ample Halloween atmosphere, its centuries-old surroundings are memorable enough without a sinister backstory.

Haute Living take: The ultimate Halloween dinner party. Book the whole room.

Kakolanruusu

Turku, Finland | Former Kakola prison

Inside the walls of Finland’s former Kakola prison, Kakolanruusu has found a particularly effective way to warm things up: fire. The kitchen cooks seasonal ingredients over an open flame, serving sharing plates and leisurely feasts in the prison’s Yöselli, or “night cell,” building. The name translates as “the rose of Kakola,” fitting for one of the businesses that helped bring this once-notorious complex back to life. Cocktails, wine pairings and a special cellar collection encourage you to stay, an appealing twist for a place people once had very little choice about leaving.

Haute Living take: Fire, feasts and a former night cell. Stay for the cellar.

CLINK. at The Liberty Hotel

Boston, Massachusetts | Former Charles Street Jail, 1851

At CLINK., the prison references go well beyond the name (period included). The restaurant incorporates preserved cells within Boston’s former Charles Street Jail, completed in 1851 and now home to The Liberty Hotel. Original ironwork and the surrounding catwalks keep the building’s identity unmistakable, while modern American cooking gives you a much more appealing reason to spend the evening. For dinner with a dark past, this one has the evidence built right into the room.

Haute Living take: Dinner in an actual cell. Boston’s most unforgettable table.

Bistro La Prison

Béziers, France | Jail until 2009, reopened 2023

The view is the great surprise here. Within Béziers’ former jail, the restaurant looks out over the Orb Valley, giving this historic address a sweeping sense of space. The prison held inmates until 2009 before reopening as a hotel and restaurant in 2023. Chef Mathieu Bessiere’s seasonal cooking draws on regional produce, with a wine list that includes natural and biodynamic bottles, and the refined-but-relaxed mood suits a long lunch as much as dinner. Take the photograph. Then put the phone down.

Haute Living take: The best view from any prison in France. Go for lunch.

Muriel’s Jackson Square

French Quarter, New Orleans | Resident ghost, table reserved

Most restaurants are happy to accommodate a regular. Muriel’s keeps a table for one who, by its own telling, has been dead for generations. The French Quarter restaurant reserves a place with bread and wine for Pierre Antoine Lepardi Jourdan, its purported resident ghost, and named its upstairs Séance Lounges for the space where he’s believed to spend most of his time. It’s firmly the realm of local lore, and Muriel’s embraces it wholeheartedly, with contemporary Creole cooking that gives the living plenty to enjoy, too.

Haute Living take: The only reservation in New Orleans held for a ghost. Have a drink in the Séance Lounge.

Arnaud’s

French Quarter, New Orleans | Founded 1918

At Arnaud’s, the dress code apparently carries into the afterlife. The restaurant’s own ghost stories include tuxedo-clad gentlemen in the Richelieu Bar and a figure in formal evening attire watching over the main dining room (perhaps, the story goes, founder Arnaud Cazenave himself), plus an elegantly dressed woman who disappears through a wall. Founded in 1918, this grand Creole institution has had more than a century to collect stories. Book for the food and keep your supernatural expectations flexible. An apparition with excellent manners would simply be a bonus.

Haute Living take: The best-dressed ghosts in town. Dress up to match.

Brennan’s

Royal Street, New Orleans | 1795 building

Brennan’s has a particularly appropriate pair of purported ghosts for a restaurant: a chef and a sommelier. According to staff stories reported by Food & Wine, the late Paul Blangé is said to make noise in the kitchen, while former sommelier Herman Funk supposedly clinks bottles in the wine cellar, two professionals still keeping an eye on their departments. The cellar itself occupies the former stable of Brennan’s historic 1795 building, with an adjacent private dining room among the wines.

Haute Living take: A haunted wine cellar. Ask to dine in it.

How to Plan a Halloween Dinner With a Dark Past

For a Michelin-level pilgrimage: De Librije. For glamour: Twenty8 NoMad. For serenity: Avlu. For actual cells: CLINK. For a dinner party: The Crypt. For ghosts: New Orleans, where Muriel’s, Arnaud’s and Brennan’s are all within a short walk of each other in the French Quarter. Book early for Halloween weekend, and if a bottle clinks in the cellar, don’t ask.

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