Royal Flush: Astral Plane

Earlier this week, I celebrated Restaurant Week by hitting up Astral Plane with some Phillyists. My food was wonderful, and the dining room’s décor was comfy and adorable. But, trust you me, if there is one room in that place that truly reflects the restaurant’s name, the dining room it ain’t.

The entrance to the bathroom is right off the dining room. The door has a big glass pane in it, but they’ve considerately covered it with thick fabric, so you can’t see out and no one can see in. However, once you enter the bathroom, you still won’t see much (unless I’m an idiot and couldn’t find the light switch). What you will see is an animated, light up waterfall next to the sink. This mood lighting is complimented by nature sounds. But lest ye feel that you’ve suddenly stumbled into the woods on your lonesome, fear not: sit on the toilet and look to your right – you’ve got a friend in the small ceramic Buddha that also adorns the sink. And he’s got dried flowers of some sort protruding from his belly button.

The bathroom’s amenities were more than sufficient: plenty of towels, full soap dispenser, and more than enough toilet paper. From what I could tell, it was clean too. But I am only slightly less skeptical of ill-lit bathrooms than I am of black toilets. I have seen black toilets. They scare me. They make me think “Well, somebody is planning on cleaning this, ho hum, NEVER!” I don’t think a restaurant could get away without ever cleaning their bathroom (or, at least, I don’t think the good folks at Astral Plane would try this), but for all the things that amused me in what little light there was, I couldn’t help but wonder what was lurking in the darkness.

Image via willowbytrails.com.