10 Places Around the World to Eat Gourmet Bugs

Most times if you see a bug on your plate at a fine dining establishment you’ll yell for the waiter, ask for a refund, and never come back. But lately people are touting the benefits of eating insects. The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization recently issued a comprehensive report on the benefits of incorporating insects into the Western diet.

There are more than 1,900 edible insect species on the planet. The environmental cost of farming insects is low, and it takes up a fraction of the land that traditional farming does. Insects are rich in protein, calcium, iron, and zinc and are a source of good fats. While Asian cultures and Mexican regions like Oaxaca have known about these advantages for years, it’s taken a bit longer for the insect trend to go mainstream. Now, entomophagy (the term for consuming insects as food) is popping up in some of the most high-end restaurants in the world.

These are the top 10 places around the world to eat gourmet insect dishes.

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Try Toloache’s grasshopper tacos if you’re looking for something a little more exciting than carne asada. (Toloache/Facebook)

Toloache - New York
Rice, beans, and tortillas are typically what you think of when heading out for Mexican food. Grasshoppers, not so much. But Chef Julian Medina at Toloache has made grasshopper tacos a signature dish. “I always enjoyed chapulines (grasshoppers) from growing up in Mexico, and I wanted to share them with everyone who came to my restaurants,” he says. “The chapulines have an earthy flavor and taste a little like a potato chip — to me anyway!” The grasshoppers are seasoned with chile lime flavoring and are paired with guacamole, lime, and sautéed jalapeños in a homemade tortilla for added flavor.

Share Archipelago’s Lovebug Salad with a special someone for a most memorable experience. (Archipelago Restaurant)

Archipelago Restaurant - London

You won’t see a proper delicacy of crumpets and tea served at this exotic restaurant. Known for its array of meats and insects, this London hot spot has so many unique dishes it might make your head spin. Try crickets on couscous or the mealworm and cricket salad and then a bumblebee dessert to finish it off.

These mealworms definitely have “would be delicious fried” written all over them. (Tom Hoyle/Flickr)

Delicious Inn Restaurant - Hong Kong

Who doesn’t love deep-fried delicacies? Well, at this authentic Chinese restaurant, those specialties include cocoons, mealworms, water beetles, caterpillars stir-fried with spicy salt, and salt-baked water roaches with the shell still on. People have said the bee cocoon taste like spicy french fries, but we’ll leave it up to you to decide. While you’re at it, you might as well try the donkey meat on the menu, too.

One of the many tasty insect options on Le Festin Nu’s rotating menu. (Patrick Kovarik/AFP/Getty Images)

Le Festin Nu - Paris

Everything the French do is fabulous and on trend. So when a cute restaurant in the 18th arrondissement started serving bug dishes, it’s no wonder it took off. The trendy bar/bistro serves beetles, silkworms, sango worms and giant water bugs on a rotating menu along with decently priced beers. What more could you want than booze and bugs for a night out?

Can’t decide if you feel like having a pastry or a deep-dried locust? At Tante Truus, you won’t have to. (Reuters /Michael Kooren/Landov)

Tante Truus - Almere, Netherlands
Want some bugs along with your macaroons and pastries? This Dutch café whips up some deep-fried locusts as a snack served on the daily menu. They look deceivingly like french fries, so you won’t notice they’re critters until you see the bug eyes staring up at you.

Noma’s beef tartar: Just think of it as a very upscale version of “ants on a log.” (Stephen Valasco/Flickr)

Noma - Copenhagen
This Danish restaurant was voted the best restaurant in the world, so the fact that it’s whipping up insect dishes must mean they’re good. The restaurant is currently using wood ants in a dish of lightly cured beef tartar with celery oil. In addition it uses grasshoppers in a classic serving of Danish “æbleskiver” (a round pastry with greens in the middle and pickled elderflower on top).

Anyone up for some Taiwanese crickets? (hermitsmoores/Flickr)

Typhoon - Santa Monica, California
There are so many bug options at this Pan-Asian restaurant there’s actually an insect section on the menu. You can get Singapore-style scorpions, Taiwanese crickets, silkworm pupae and Manchurian chambai ants — served family style

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Further proof that you can throw just about anything in a taco. Worms and larvae? Sure, why not! (La Cocinita de San Juan)

La Cocinita de San Juan - Mexico City
If you’re at a restaurant in Mexico, you are almost guaranteed tacos on the menu. That’s exactly what La Cocinita dishes up, but with a twist. The restaurant’s exotic take on the classic taco features insect toppings like scorpions and spiders. Though scorpions have a sting if you get too close in the wild, their flavor is pretty bland, according to the chef. He says he has to spice things up with other ingredients to get customers to try them.

Related: Would You Eat Grasshoppers as Bar Snacks?

Prefer your creepy crawlers to come with a generous sugar coating? No problem. (Mr. Laazik/Flickr)

Candy Aisle - Vancouver
The saying “being like a kid in a candy store” probably doesn’t include visions of a tequila worm lollipop. But that’s exactly what this Canadian sugar heaven is serving up. It also has crickettes, which are dried crickets covered in spices, and a variety of chocolate covered bugs to satisfy that unique sweet tooth.

Nobody’s going to be calling these “eensy weensy.” (istolethetv/Flickr)

Romdeng - Phnom Penh

In a beautiful colonial building, surrounded by woodcarvings and silk cushions, tarantulas are the last thing you would expect to see. But at this gourmet Cambodian restaurant, that’s one of the specialties on the menu. Crispy tarantulas are prepared with black pepper and lime sauce, while stir-fried red tree ants are made with beef filet and holy basil.

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