Bugs are on the menu at a restaurant in Santa Monica.

Bugs may be the creepy things you want to swat away from the dinner table, but for some people, it's part of the meal. 

On the show Fear Factor, eating bugs was a challenge most people could barely stomach. At the Typhoon Restaurant in Santa Monica, bugs are on the menu.

James Hayden, a customer at the Typhoon Restaurant, tried the scorpion.

“It’s excellent," said Hayden. "It tastes like fish."

“Everybody that’s ordered one has liked it and they come back for it and bring their friends,” said David Vidor, owner of the Typhoon Restaurant.

The Pan Asian Restaurant has served up insects for over two decades including scorpions, crickets and ants.

Outside of the United States, eating insects is not a new phenomenon.

“People have been doing it for thousands of years,” said Lila Higgans, an entomologist at the Natural History Museum, Los Angeles. "Pretty much everywhere except for the Western world, people eat bugs as part of their daily diet."

According to a report  by the Food and Agriculture Organization, insects are eaten in 36 countries in Africa, and 29 in Asia. But here in this country, it’s still considered daring.

“We spend thousands and thousands of dollars on pesticides to keep them off our food instead of looking at them as a source of protein,” said Higgens.

Crickets and wax worms are full of protein, and silkworms are high in calcium.

But for others, just the idea of eating bugs is not something they can stomach.

“I’m not very adventurous when it comes to food so I stuck with the safe thing, which is the chow mein,” said Erick Hayden, a customer at the Typhoon Restaurant.

Reach reporter Tallie Johnson here.