<div><p>TAIPEI (Reuters) - Waitresses wield swords and flare flames at diners, who have to get past a moat before sitting at their table in the dimly lit dining hall.</p><p>The same customers are also encouraged to take photos with the warrior-like waitresses, who dress in black or red to look like ninjas in keeping with the theme of a dark but lively restaurant that opened last month in Taiwan's capital.</p><p>"The ninja is mysterious," said Ou Chia-wei, owner of the restaurant simply named Ninja, explaining why he chose that theme for the Japanese-style restaurant. "On that premise, we can do magic tricks and light up the food."</p><p>Waitresses working the barely lit dining room floor burn specialty menus, which vanish without a trace of ash, and send flames snaking across tables as customers watch.</p><p>A moat and screen of cascading water just past the front entrance make customers wait a few minutes until the drawbridge goes up, leading to a dark stairwell toward the dining hall.</p><p>There are professional magic shows, as well as cabarets, for those who walk in at the right times.</p><p>Ninjas were mercenaries who resorted to unusual warfare strategies such as espionage, sabotage and assassination from as far back as 700 years ago in feudal Japan. They remain a common, enduring theme in Japanese folklore.</p><p>Ou, who also owns a hospital-theme restaurant in Taipei, and his wife put the three-storey Ninja eatery together on their own without hiring a designer, said his landlady Ting Tsui-lan. The overall investment was T$15 million ($470,000).</p><p>"The owner had already liked ninjas and figured that would be a pretty obvious, visual theme for the restaurant," said restaurant sales manager Hsiao Dai.</p><p>Ninja competes with restaurants that specialize in airliner, dinosaur and toilet decor in a city teeming with theme diners.</p><p>Owned and staffed by Taiwanese, it serves Japanese food priced for office workers who frequent it at its location in a congested part of town.</p><p>Japanese cuisine and culture are popular in Taiwan, where Ninja has seen steady full-house crowds of 150 since opening in late January.</p><p>Customers are intrigued by the theme, with a 26-year-old woman saying she might rather work than eat there.</p><p>"We make friends with the customers," said waitress Tu-tu Lin, laying her sword aside to explain to the woman the tricks of her trade.</p><p>(Editing by Miral Fahmy)</p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=69718750&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>
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