Inside the exclusive restaurant in the middle of the ocean where one meal costs $1,634

Inside the exclusive restaurant in the middle of the ocean where one meal costs $1,634

Inside the exclusive restaurant in the middle of the ocean where one meal costs $1,634

For anyone who’s ever seen Mark Mylod’s The Menu, chances are the 2022 movie left you horrified and hungry in equal measure. Taking a cast of doomed diners to a fictitious restaurant on an island, it famously starred Ralph Fiennes as Chef Julian Slowik and Anya Taylor-Joy as the defiant Margot. While the exclusive Hawthorn restaurant that was featured isn’t real, some real-life doppelgängers thankfully come without all the murder.

If you’ve got the money, it’s nice to splash the cash on unique dining experiences when a burger from the local McDonald’s just doesn’t cut it for your anniversary, birthday, or new promotion. One YouTuber has tried out a floating restaurant in Norway that promises a once-in-a-lifetime meal experience. Of course, it comes with a once-in-a-lifetime price tag too, with a bill that comes in at $1,634 per meal.

YouTuber Harrison Webb shows us what it’s like to dine at Norway’s Iris – an orb-shaped restaurant that feeds you an 18-course menu while floating in the middle of a fjord.

Earning a Michelin star after only being open a year, Iris is dubbed the world’s most remote restaurant and is the brainchild of Danish chef Anika Madsen.

Just like the start of The Menu, Webb boards a ferry and finds himself sailing to Iris for a tasting menu that takes ‘five to six hours’ to complete. Well, at least you get your money’s worth.

Arriving at Iris, the staff explains that everything you eat is inspired by its surroundings, then take diners inside to descend three meters under the water via a spiral staircase.

An apocalyptic-sounding video says how a ‘world of the most amazing ingredients’ is beneath our feet, with the oceans offering up far more than just a ‘few species of fish’.

Webb starts with what’s effectively chips and dip, with you having to pluck your own chips from the ceiling. Moving upstairs for the main meal, Webb tells viewers: “The cool thing with this restaurant is that all the ingredients are within 500 meters.”

Highlights included a main with duck heart, which came with 27-layer laminated bread and was apparently ‘unbelievable’. There’s also a mind-blowing ice cream desert that’s made to resemble the nearby mountains. He wasn’t such a fan of another desert involving caviar, but you can’t win them all.

Viewers were equally blown away by the experience, with someone else writing: “This really did give The Menu vibes like woah! but also the whole view was so pretty💕”

Saying it looks like it’s well worth the money, another added: “This 1,600 USD is good for once in a lifetime experience compared to Salt Bae’s 2000$ 1 pc Tomahawk steak.”

A third joked: “I love the internet because I get to watch people experience things that I have no business experiencing 😂.”

If you’re ever in the area of the world’s most remote restaurant and have the money, maybe consider popping into Iris.

Inside the exclusive restaurant in the middle of the ocean where one meal costs $1,634 Read More
Meta’s Threads has grown to 300 million users More than 100 million people use the site every day, Mark Zuckerberg said.

Meta’s Threads has grown to 300 million users More than 100 million people use the site every day, Mark Zuckerberg said.

Meta

Meta’s Threads app has now grown to 300 million users, with more than 100 million people using the service each day. Mark Zuckerberg announced the new milestone in a post on Threads, saying “Threads strong momentum continues.”

Zuckerberg has repeatedly speculated that Threads has a “good chance” of becoming the company’s next billion-user app. Though it’s still pretty far off of that goal, its growth seems to be accelerating. The app hit 100 million users last fall, and reached 275 million in early November. Elsewhere, Apple revealed that Threads was the second-most downloaded app in 2024, behind shopping app Temu, which took the top spot in Apple’s rankings.

The coming weeks could see some major changes for Threads as Meta looks to capitalize on that growth. The company reportedly has plans to begin experimenting with the first ads for threads in early 2025, according to a recent report in The Information.

Threads isn’t the only app trying to reclaim the “public square” as some longtime users depart the platform now known as X. Bluesky has also seen significant growth of late. The decentralized service nearly doubled its users base in November, and currently has just over 25 million users. (The company has never revealed how many of its users visit the site daily.) Though still much smaller than Threads, Meta seems to have taken inspiration from some of Bluesky’s signature features in recent weeks, including its take on starter packs and custom feeds.

Meta’s Threads has grown to 300 million users More than 100 million people use the site every day, Mark Zuckerberg said. Read More
People speculate Elon Musk is worried about X users fleeing for Bluesky after strange change comes in

People speculate Elon Musk is worried about X users fleeing for Bluesky after strange change comes in

People speculate Elon Musk is worried about X users fleeing for Bluesky after strange change comes in

The new Twitter alternative might be making Elon sweat a little

Many are now speculating that Elon Musk is seriously worried about the Bluesky exodus after a recent feature addition to X raises eyebrows.

Elon Musk’s sporadic and often spontaneous decision making has been emblematic of his time at the helm of X (formerly Twitter) since he purchased it for $44 billion back in 2022.

Many have criticized the changes that he has brought to the platform alongside his general presence, to the point where even Grok – the AI created for use on X – has directly accused Musk of misinformation.

There have been many phoenix attempts in the wake of what many consider to be a deterioration of the platform, with alternative sites like Mastodon, cohost, and even Instagram’s own Threads showing potential.

However, none have managed to stick with users flocking back to their Twitter homes after a short while – that is, until now.

Bluesky, which was originally conceived within Twitter itself, has proven to be by far the most viable alternative for users wanting to leave X behind for good, boasting over 20 million users which includes a number of high-profile celebrities.

Some have understandably speculated that this has upset the richest man in the world, but a sudden and significant change has only further added fuel to the flame.

✨ New iOS Feature ✨ You can now hide engagement buttons and numbers below each post and interact with posts through custom swipe gestures! Give it a try! 🙈 x.com/settings/timel…
X iOS engineer May Ly announced on November 21 that a new feature for iPhones would allow users to “hide engagement buttons and numbers below each post,” effectively ‘hiding’ the like, reply, repost, and quote numbers which have become a key part of how the platform functions.

There have been rumors surrounding this change for quite a while now, but the sudden drop does seem to indicate that Musk might perhaps want to hide something.

The platforms owner did comment on the change himself, arguing: “It’s much cleaner with engagement numbers turned off. You can still see view count if you care.”

The ‘if you care’ does feel a little petulant in this instance, implying that engagement isn’t an important metric to consider – especially when Musk has modelled the platform’s creator payouts on these exact numbers.

It does also come as a stark contrast to Bluesky’s transparent analytics, as the new platform’s team are not only more than happy to share various milestones, but you can see a live day-by-day count of the overall user numbers, alongside total likes, posts, and follows.

Bluesky's interaction numbers have climbed dramatically in the last year (Bluesky)

Bluesky’s interaction numbers have climbed dramatically in the last year (Bluesky)

This shows quite a significant trend upwards for the Twitter alternative, with a dramatic increase in growth following the US election in early November, which Musk played (and continues to play) a significant role within.

This is far from the first time that similar changes have been brought to X under Musk’s leadership, with the privatization of likes being one of the most prominent, but it likely won’t be too long before this change leaves the confines of Apple devices and launches site-wide.

People speculate Elon Musk is worried about X users fleeing for Bluesky after strange change comes in Read More