Have you ever ate in the dark? Complete and total darkness. When stripped with one of your five senses, everyday tasks change a great deal. Having to rely on touch, smell, taste, and sound is very difficult for someone who is used to having the gift of sight. However, some people do it every day and get along fine. Dans Le Noir is a dining experience where the two roles are reversed, and you can enjoy dinner in the dark, led by a blind server. This experience may sound a little strange at first and not everyone wants to step out of their comfort zone. As soon as I heard about this I immediately wanted to go. This experience is supposed to enhance your taste buds and allow for you to enjoy a dinner without first judging the food by the looks.
I made reservations a month in advance and had been stoked for this dinner for a long time. Finally is was Saturday night and Laura, Sarah, Maria, Nolan, and I headed out to dinner. Since we have adapted to the Italian lifestyle, we were running about 15 minutes late and missed the introduction about the restaurant Luckily, I had briefed everyone about the experience and the menu options. You can choose between the Meat Lovers, Fish Lovers, Vegetarian, and Chef’s Choice surprise dinner and whether you want a 2 or 3 course dinner. We ended up choosing a good variety of 2 meats plates, one vegetarian, 2 chef surprise, and also appetizers, dessert, and a bottle of red wine. We put everything we had on us in a locker and headed to the dining room.
Right before we entered we were introduced to our wonderful server, Thomas. Standing in a line, with our right hands on the shoulder in front of us, we were led through the 3 layers of curtains into the dining room. It was indeed, pitch black and your eyes never adjust. Here we immediately heard forks scraping, glasses clinking, and chatter from the other guests. I’m guessing there were about 10 other tables with guests that were just as confused as we were. We were told to wait and then Thomas came over and led me to my chair. I immediately started feeling the table to get my bearings. The HRA girl in me went crazy. First of all my knife was horizontal, which was strange. The fork was on the left. A napkin was placed in the middle with a simple tri fold I’m guessing. We had two glasses, a bigger one for water, and a smaller cup for wine. It was driving me crazy not actually being able to see the room, but I drew up a layout in my head. I listened to the other guests to gather their reactions. Throughout the night we heard other tables drop silverware, glasses, and lots of “Ohh noo”. Not us, we did pretty well. Thomas returned with a bottle of wine. He handed me the bottle and told me to pour and enjoy. HOLD ON. I just ordered red wine and he wants me to pour it in the dark… He then politely explained that I hold my glass with my finger in it and simply just pour until it touches my finger. Ya, it is that simple, as long as you make it in the glass... which I thankfully did.
Our dinner conversation was quite interesting. It’s strange to communicate without seeing someone else’s reaction. Sort of like a 5 way telephone conversation I guess. It was kind of fun because you can react however you want and nobody will ever know. Later I found out that Sarah was making faces and rude gestures the whole night. Jerk. We had a great time discussing our food and trying to guess what it was. My favorite memory is when the table next to us (at least we think) decided to start singing “The 12 Days of Chirstmas”. I’m pretty sure that everyone in that room joined in. I’ve started to notice that when people are in situations that are different from their normal life they seem to bond real fast and act like they’re been friends for a long time. I guess it’s a way to find comfort in a situation.Antother fond memory is when Maria informed us that if you lick someone and they don’t see it, that they won’t actually know. So guess what, it’s true. No details though. What happens at Dans Le Noir, stays in that room. Although, I would pay a great sum of money to watch a video of that dinner. I can only imagine how silly we would all look attempting to eat.
Attempting to eat… well this was quite an experience. All I knew was that I was getting a “Meat Lovers” dinner and a dessert. Once my entrée arrived I picked up my fork and knife and hit my plate. Missed. Opps. Once I found my food I started to cut and took a bite. I liked it. Not sure what it was, but it was good. I continued to eat bite after bite. After awhile I gave up and just started pushing things on my fork with my hand. I kept tasting many different flavors, but I couldn’t detect them. I knew I was eating some sort of roast and I tasted some balsamic vingerette. Even when I recognized a flavor, most of the time I couldn’t figure out what is was. We rely so much on looking at what we eat that our taste buds are often overlooked. There was only one thing on my plate that I didn’t like, and I’m still not sure what it was. The “red wine” we had was a simple wine. I was extremely excited to try and figure out what it. In my wine service class we taste 2-3 wines and class and describe them. However, without seeing the wine I felt lost. I’m not sure why since I was searching for the aromas, but I didn’t really smell much. However, once I started eating my meat platter, the wine changed. It was very flavorful and brought out the flavors of the meat. The mystery wine was a good choice. Then the dessert came. OH MY was it good. I broke the faint chocolate shell and tasted the chocolate and raspberry mousse. I got so excited because it was delicious and I actually knew what it was that I announced it to the table… a little too loudly. Sorry to everyone else in the restaurant for ruining the surprise. Luckily we were one of the last tables there, so it wasn’t a big deal. I wanted to lick the plate and I really should have. Or maybe I did, no one will ever know.
After the meal, Thomas led us back out and we were able to see what we ate. It turns out the meat plate was split into 4 sections, each with a different meat and sauces. Thinking back I guess that’s how the plate was set up, but I don’t really know because at the time I was just scraping my fork around until I found food. I was spot on with my guess of the dessert, right down to the strawberry and jello on the sides. I can’t exactly say what I ate for the sake of secrecy, but it was good. And the experience is priceless. I can’t stress how much I would recommend this place. It was great with a few friends or would be a really funny date (especially a first “blind” date). Talk about really getting to know someone. If you have the chance in New York, London, Paris, or Moscow be sure to check it out. http://www.danslenoir.com/index.php
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