Photo credit: Squirmelia | Flickr

It may seem strange to call Cloud 9 a hidden gem.  The restaurant – a giant, UFO-shaped disc – sits atop the Empire Landmark Hotel in downtown Vancouver.  It’s 42 storeys up and visible from just about everywhere in the city.

But I’ve never met anyone who’s actually been inside.

Cloud 9 is, of course, no ordinary restaurant: It’s a (drumroll, please) revolving restaurant.  As you eat, the entire dining room ever so slowly spins around.  Back when the hotel first opened in 1973, this was no doubt the kind of futuristic thing – like Space Needles and TV dinners – that was all the rage.  Vancouverites would have lined up to experience fine dining on a giant merry-go-round 400 feet above Robson Street.

With time, however, the novelty must have faded.  Today, Cloud 9 remains popular among hotel guests and visiting out-of-towners.  But for a whole generation of Vancouverites like me, it has been nearly completely forgotten.

All of which is a shame because it still has possibly the best view in all of Vancouver.   Continue reading:
Hidden Gem Alert: Cloud 9 Revolving Restaurant