Unique Indonesian restaurant offers fish pedicures while you eat, with tables and chairs sitting in ankle-deep water
- At Soto Cokro Kembang in Indonesia’s cultural capital Yogyakarta, diners sit with their feet in water containing some 7,000 Red Nile Tilapia fish
- The fish nibble dead skin off the feet of diners as they eat their dishes
As he eats a traditional Indonesian meal, Adi Karyanov gets himself the two-in-one special at a new restaurant offering pedicures by fish.
The tables and chairs at Soto Cokro Kembang in Indonesia’s cultural capital Yogyakarta sit in ankle-deep water, home to thousands of little fish that nibble dead skin off the feet of diners.
“I felt the fish biting my feet – it was ticklish but nice,” says Karyanov.
“They make it fun to eat here. It’s kind of unique.”
Many spas across Southeast Asia have for years touted a fishy pedicure as an unproven but novel way of treating various skin conditions. But restaurant owner Imam Nur, who opened the establishment in June, has gone a step further by offering it alongside his traditional Javanese “sole food”.
Nur credits his father for coming up with the idea for the open-air restaurant, which has some 7,000 Red Nile Tilapia swimming around its patrons.