Is your dinner conversation lacking? Do you dread coming up with witty banter for a first date? Or are you just sick of the view from the barstool?

Well, good news everybody, now you have another excuse to travel.

Some people dine as much for the environment as for the food itself. If this sounds like you, then you are in luck, as the following restaurants seem to have taken this to an excess. These are the 5 restaurants with the coolest themes around the world:

1. Dinner in The Sky

Does food really taste better at a higher altitude? This restaurant from Brussels seems to think so. Dinner In the Sky provides a fancy dining environment to enjoy a steak dinner – at 150 feet in the air. The table and chairs rest on a large platform that is hoisted upwards by a crane for the duration of the meal.

And just in case dinner isn’t enough for you thrill-seekers, they also offer business meetings and wedding receptions for rent in nearly 35 different countries. Click Here for more details. (You may not have to go as far as Europe to experience it anymore – A new branch is scheduled to open in Las Vegas at the end of 2010.)

As delicious as the main course may be, I’m not so sure I would be able to hold it down. Maybe stick to the wine instead?

(Image via LowerEatSide)

2. Ithaa – Rangali Island, Maldives

Now that you’ve seen food from a higher altitude, lets try a lower one.

Ithaa is located below sea level in the heart of the Indian Ocean. Surrounded on all sides by glass, this Hilton-owned restaurant is the world’s first underwater restaurant, a premise I would love to see replicated. You can wave to a flurry of passing marine life from this small aquarium style eatery.

Maybe you can spot your dinner before you eat it?

(Image via Trifter)

3. Ice Bar -Jukkasjärvi, Sweden

Expecting fancy ice sculptures and overpriced champagne? Try again.

The Ice Hotel in Sweden has been an architectural marvel since it’s original construction nearly twenty years ago. The task? A building made entirely out of ice. It must be reconstructed each year with water from the Torne River, as the building melts after winter.

The Ice Bar design has recently been bought by Absolute Vodka and recreated in a similar fashion in Stockholm and London. Everything from the walls and floors, to the tables and chairs, and even the bar glasses themselves, are carved from blocks of ice.

You’re going to need that extra shot.

(Image via Smoont)

4. Blindekuh (Blind Cow) – Zurich, Switzerland

Chances are, you have never been served by a blind waiter. Until now.  But this restaurant decided to even the odds a little – you wont see a thing either.

The Blindekuh’s interior is pitch black – a goal they aim to keep; cell phones, cameras, and cigarettes are all banned to maintain the atmosphere. The premise was that by removing one sense, the other senses will be heightened, thus ensuring that the cuisine tastes better than ever before. While it sounds a bit odd, the idea has taken off quite successfully. Blindekuh was the foundation for the creation of similarly themed restaurants all over the world, including Toronto, Berlin, Hong Kong, and Los Angeles.

Innovative experiment in social consciousness or just poor food appearance?  Unfortunately, you’ll never know.

(Image via CurrentNewsweek)

5. Ninja, New York City

A must for anyone who has ever wanted to experience what it was like to live in feudal Japan - or at least to eat there.

This Manhattan restaurant begins with a trek through some hidden passageways into a feudal castle – designed with special chambers for each guest and complete with waiters dressed as ninjas. Ninja‘s menu is printed on a scroll, and the food itself seems to be a work of art to be appreciated for its aesthetic appeal. I am still uncertain if I am discussing a restaurant or a museum, but I’m intrigued nonetheless.

Just don’t try running out on the check.

(Image via NYC Go)