Dining in the dark

My husband made me watch About Time a few weeks ago. I usually hate romantic comedies and/or anything with Rachel McAdams in it, but it was actually ok (because anything with Bill Nighy has got to be decent, right?).

Anyway, the film featured a restaurant, Dans le noir, where people enjoy their meals in complete darkness. A friend of mine had told me about this before, but we were once again reminded that “we have to try that”.

So my husband booked us a table for the very next week.

The premise is that you experience your meal in the shoes of a blind person, in absolute darkness.

On arrival we were asked to put any light emitting objects in a locker, together with any bags, coats, etc that we might want out of the way. We were then asked to choose from four surprise menus: meat, fish, vegetarian or Chef’s surprise (which can be anything!). Having had a look at past menus on the website, I was a bit apprehensive as to what they might put on my plate, so I went with the safe option of vegetarian, while my husband chose the meat option. We have promised each other that next time we will be adventurous and have the Chef’s surprise – be it crocodile, kangaroo or internal organs of various animals!

We were then guided, by a blind waiter, into the pitch black dining room. Even though my guide (the very tall and amiable Jack) was right in front of me, I shuffled slowly along, just in case I tripped over something, and a moment of mild claustrophobia seized me, but it passed quickly as we were at our table within a few seconds. Once at the table, I felt relaxed once again, even though I still had to negotiate sitting down!

We were seated next to a pair of girls from Brighton and later on were joined by another couple. This is the social aspect of this experience, where you are encouraged to talk to strangers by being seated right next to them, and with no pre-conceived ideas based on what they look like, you are all in the same boat together, whether you are a mega millionaire or a celeb or just plain old Joe Public, and you are able to freely share the experience with one another.

We were given a bottle of water and some glasses (together with our ordered drinks) and told to pour our own water, which I did quite successfully, I might add! Trying to eat my starter with a knife and fork was less successful and I gave up quite quickly and used my hands to put the whole thing in my mouth. Goat’s cheese wrapped in something. Meh. Not a big fan of goat’s cheese, but it wasn’t very strong, so tolerable.

My main course was delicious! From what I could tell, it was an aubergine and cheese bake, with some sort of bean salad and samoosas. (Later I found out that it was a lentil and pea shoot salad, and phyllo pastry with cream cheese.) Several other people on our table went with the meat menu and one of them was quite excited in finding blackberries in her main course. This led everyone else to go blackberry hunting on their plates.

Dessert was also very good, lemon tart with a crème brulee top, with fruit salad.

After dinner, we were led back out by Jack, and one of the staff showed us the menus for our chosen meals.

I thought it was a really great experience and a tiny insight into a blind person’s world. The pricing is a little on the expensive side, but they do mention that the premium you pay is for the experience itself, which you don’t get in a normal restaurant.

A bucket list item? Maybe not, but definitely an experience you won’t forget in a hurry.