To put it succinctly, the difference between a medicinal restaurant and an ordinary one is that your maitre d' does not merely recommend certain dishes, he prescribes them. Therapeutic meals might include chicken and sea-horse stew for swollen neck glands, gecko lizards and chicken soup for anemia, and coconut milk with swallow's nest as an aphrodisiac. I cannot guess how long it will take American health-food restaurants to pick up on this trend, but I rather hope it does not happen soon. I know we will find some way to screw it up. So, everyone's insurance premiums will go up.
Some ingredients are far more expensive than others.
Medical ethicists will debate fiercely over who truly merits shark fin, and who must go without. The FDA will thrive as never before. Federal agents and local law enforcement, guns at the ready, will conduct frequent raids of eateries suspected of serving experimental sauces, substandard ginseng, or the viscera of endangered species. Finally, some social engineer at a major university will proclaim that medicinal food is a basic human right. Dutifully, the Supreme Court will discover that right tucked away in some obscure corner of the Constitution.