This Restaurant Actually Would Let You Dine And Dash (But You Won’t Want To)

A crazy social experiment: Rent a restaurant. Give away the food.Do it again next week.

It’s an experiment in generosity.

The people behind Karma Kitchen don’t know, each week, if it’s going to work. There’s no plan B. If people didn’t want to pay, it would … stop. But it’s been going strong since 2007. The data’s in and the results are good.

The staff doesn’t know what they’re doing — and it absolutely doesn’t matter.

At most restaurants, you want a waiter who knows the menu, has a handle on the niceties, smiles when taking your order. At Karma Kitchen, you’ll get the smile. The waitstaff are volunteers, and what they lack in skills, they make up for in generosity.


You can connect with the people around you — but you don’t have to.

No pressure here. If you want to think deeply about the meaning of sharing, go for it. But if you just want to keep to yourself, that’s cool, too.

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