Wild Themed Restaurants From the '90s That Still We Miss

There were no rules in the '90s. It’s a period of time like the Wild West, where just about anything went, from insane color schemes and geometric patterns to restaurants that were themed like things that had nothing to do with food.

From Hulk Hogan’s pasta joint to multiple outer space-based restaurants, here are 11 wacky themed restaurants from the '90s that we dearly miss.

You probably don’t have to use too much imagination to figure out what was going on inside Space Aliens, which existed around North Dakota and Minnesota, though there are still three locations left. The space-themed restaurant lost its footing in the early 2010s due to its extremely niche market. 

You’ll be stunned to hear that Hulk Hogan’s pasta restaurant went out of business in less than a year. Turns out, Hulk Hogan is not an expert in running an Italian restaurant. I’m very sad I never got to taste Hulk’s Power Pasta. You’ll get ’em next time, Hulk.

New York City’s Harley Davidson Cafe celebrated the iconic motorcycle brand with memorabilia, themed decor, and American cuisine that everybody seemed to hate. They closed in 2007 after even bikers didn’t enjoy hanging out there.

Thanks to high licensing fees and semi-expensive food, the Universal Citywalk restaurant ultimately died in 1999. I grew up about 10 minutes away and it was my favorite restaurant. Miss you every day, Fantastic Four Cheese Pizza.

Planet Hollywood has managed to keep a few locations open as hotel resorts, but the rest of the restaurants have died. At its peak in the mid-'90s, it was a hotspot for tourists and movie fans, but financial mismanagement and over-expansion eventually pulled it to its grave.

The Times Square restaurant was a sort of nightclub and restaurant combo, injected with a healthy dose of wrestling and wrestling appearances. WWE smartly realized it should focus its money on broadcasting and events, so this place closed in 2003. 

This is actually pretty conducive to a theme, since sports bars are already a tried-and-true combo. ESPN Zone was bigger and more over-the-top, with gigantic screens that blasted the eardrums of anybody who came to watch a ball game. Good times.

Fashion Cafe, backed by models like Claudia Schiffer and Naomi Campbell had the goal of combining fashion shows with food. This feels like a juxtaposition since the modeling industry is famous for food-based issues, and it unsurprisingly closed in the late '90s.

Another alien restaurant? Yes, sir. Mars 2112 was less outer space and more specifically Martian-themed. In 2012, difficult rent and maintenance costs finally pulled the ship out of the sky.

Dive! was a submarine-themed restaurant at Universal Studios created by Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg. Though it was immediately beloved as most things from Spielberg’s mind are, it eventually dwindled to nothing more than a gimmick and closed in 1999.

Here’s another restaurant that actually makes sense. Live Motown music and themed decor made this New York City spot an incredibly delightful time, and really lit people’s nostalgia up. Like most of the restaurant fads of the '90s, Motown Cafe didn’t make it to the year 2000.

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