With so many places to eat in such a small city, restaurateurs need to stand out from the crowd if they are going to survive in the cutthroat world of Hong Kong dining. But gimmicks alone won’t keep the customers coming back. Here are our picks of themed eateries that offer food that is actually worth eating. Writes Alice Chan

After School
The brainchild of designer Pokit Poon, After School is well frequented by art enthusiasts who drop in for their copy of the art mag, Art It. The interior décor is based on primary school days, featuring original wooden desks and chairs from the classrooms of yesteryear. The motif continues further with menus printed in a typewriter font on retro exercise books with yellowing pages. Even the opening hours follow the theme of school, as the café doesn’t open until 4pm, when kids break out of class. However, unlike school, this café serves alcohol. There is a small menu offering an all-day breakfast, veggie pizza and desserts such as the very popular brownie and berry crumble. The small space not only serves as a café, but also houses a small design studio. This really is a great place for all the cool kids to hang after school hours. 2/F, 17 Yun Ping Rd, Causeway Bay, 2983 2130. Meal for two: around $200.

Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.
Named after the shrimp company in the 1994 Oscar-winning Forrest Gump, Bubba Gump is a popular family restaurant across the globe. Featuring ‘down-home’ décor evocative of the film’s Alabama setting, the restaurant displays various memorabilia from the motion picture. ‘Gumpisms’ are scrawled on top of the tables, and diners get the waiters’ attention by flipping the blue ‘Run, Forrest, Run’ sign to the red ‘Stop, Forrest, Stop’. There is even a Forrest Gump look-alike who travels to all their outlets. The specialty at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co is the endless listing of shrimp dishes and well as their Dixie-style baby-back ribs. Shop 304-305, 3/F, The Peak Tower, 128 Peak Rd, The Peak, 2849 2867. Meal for two: around $500.

Charlie Brown Café
The first Peanuts Comic Strip themed café in the world, Charlie Brown Café occupies a 4,000 sq ft store, decorated with the comic’s memorabilia from floor to ceiling. From the moment customers walk up the staircase to the entrance, they are visually bombarded with figures of Snoopy, Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus and Woodstock. The café banks on the nostalgia of the comic strip and the lovability of its characters to lure customers. Images of Snoopy and the gang are not only limited to crockery and furniture, as mugs of coffee come complete with Charlie Brown’s trademark round profile on the top foam. Cakes, waffles and desserts also feature Charlie Brown, Lucy and Linus staring back at you; Snoopy, of course, only looks sideways. Other items on the menu are typical café eats, such as salads, tagliatelle carbonara, tomato sauce-based pastas, sandwiches and burgers with potato wedges. A large television screen playing Snoopy cartoons provides additional entertainment for the customers. The café also sells Peanuts merchandise such as mugs, T-shirts and stuffed toys. A must visit for all Peanuts fans. G/F-1/F, 58-60 Cameron Rd, Tsim Sha Tsui, 2366 6315. Meal for two: around $250.

Disneyland’s Crystal Lotus
Crystal Lotus features cuisine from the four major culinary regions of China: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong and Sichuan. Disney-themed dim sum keeps the kids happy and includes Mickey’s turnip and taro pudding, Three Little Pigs barbecue pork buns and Mickey’s seafood glutinous pancake, but is only available on weekends and public holidays. The presentation of the food is highly impressive, and with Mickey’s head heavily featured from dishes like the double-boiled canopy and chicken soup in coconut to a small dish of oyster sauce, the house of mouse definitely shows you who’s boss around here. Signature dishes include the goldfish-shaped dumplings in a lotus pond, baked crab with pumpkin, abalone with fried rice and double-boiled whole Chinese pear. Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel, Lantau, 3510 6000. Meal for two: around $900.

Modern Toilet
Incredibly, eating on the crapper has been deemed socially acceptable ever since this chain of restaurants took Taiwan and Hong Kong by storm. With more than ten restaurants all together, Modern Toilet started out when one of the partners was reading the Japanese manga series, Dr. Slump, on… you got it, the toilet. Customers sit on the can (lids down) while chowing down on items such as pasta, noodles, brown curries and Japanese, Korean and Szechuan hot pot, presented in mini toilets. Lasagnas are saved for the more hygienic-sounding mini bathtubs, while drinks come served in little urinals. Designed to assault and confuse the senses, highly detailed shaved ice desserts come in four different flavours, with names such as ‘bloody poop’ (strawberry), ‘diarrhoea with dried droppings’ (chocolate) and ‘green dysentery’ (kiwi), and are served in squat toilets. Despite the stomach-lurching names, the desserts are very popular and the large portions are perfect for sharing. 3/F, 240-244 Portland St, MPM Building, Mong Kok, 2308 1166. Meal for two: around $200.

People’s Café & Books
Called People’s Commune in Chinese, this bookstore-café is the place to go for Mao Zedong fanatics. Decked out in red paint, with Mao’s profile stamped on every drinking glass, jar and teapot, this is also a popular political bookstore, especially with customers from the mainland looking to get their hands on prohibited publications that they can’t get back home. The bookstore stocks stacks of books on the Cultural Revolution, the Tiananmen Square crackdown of 1989, the Great Leap Forward and just about everything else that Beijing doesn’t want people reading. The drinks menu offers a variety of coffees, hot chocolate and fruity drinks and a small food menu includes pasta, chicken wings and cakes. Due to a shortage of staff, service can be rather slow when compared to Hong Kong speed, so only order if you have time to kill. 1/F, 18 Russell St, Causeway Bay, 2836 0016. Meal for two: around $150.