I recently went to Dans le Noir in London. A dining concept where you eat your meal in pitch darkness, served by blind guides.
It was incredible and nothing I’ve ever experienced before. My friend Rosie and I got dolled up (rather pointless I must admit) and madly rushed over to Farringdon in true london style. We were greeted as soon as we entered the inconspicuous doors by two friendly staff who promptly gave us keys and a number card to hold on to. We were asked to store all our belongings in lockers before making our way upstairs to the (lit) bar area.
We were given our menus where we had the choice of either 2 courses or 3, from 4 options:
1. Surprise
2. Meat
3. Vegetarian
4. Fish
The drinks were either a surprise cocktail or surprise wine. It was suggested by one of the female staff that we both get the surprise option so we can guess the meal together, a great idea which I recommend! After a lot of stern looks and serious ‘alpha, beta’ kind of talk down her walkie talkie, we waited with the excitement building as to what would happen next.
I’m pretty exciteable anyway, but let’s just say the anticipation and the fact I was getting to experience this with my good friend Rosie was making me (mentally) clap my hands and jump up and down with excitement.
We were soon led through ominous thick, black curtains to our lovely blind guide called Christina. I was told to put my right hand on her shoulder, Rosie did the same behind me, and like a little train we were guided into total darkness.
All of a sudden my ears were bombarded with the sharp sounds of loud chatter, laughter and cutlery clinking together. I’m not sure if the fact that I couldn’t see meant that my ears instantly started to work better? I have a feeling that’s not the case, but it certainly felt like it!
I was told to feel my chair and sit down on it, this was my first challenge because I could feel the back of it but didn’t know if the seat part was to the left or right. Getting the wrong side and sitting down on air is something I would do, so this took some feeling around.
Finally firmly seated, Christina described what was infront of us – fork to the left, knife to the right, glass of water top left and our cocktail would be placed top right. She then abruptly left and we felt like two helpless dummies feeling and tapping everything in front of us.
Surprisingly, she said most people don’t spill anything. I was convinced I’d knock my glass in to my lap, or worse my neighbours lap, and leave with food smeared all over my face.
There wasn’t a peek of light inside, however much I tried blinking to see better. It felt so surreal and definitely unnerving, in the best way possible. I couldn’t stop laughing at the hilarity of it. We felt around for each others faces to get some kind of orientation. It was pretty funny when we both went to drink some water before realising there was nothing in the glass. We were later instructed to pour our own water from a jug, by putting the tip of our index finger in to the glass to know when to stop pouring. This is easier said than done believe me, especially with a big, heavy glass jug. I somehow managed through lots of giggling and jokes from Rosie.
Our starters arrived and the guessing game of what we were putting in to our mouths began.
I’ll be honest, I ate my starter with my hands. I just didn’t understand how I could use my knife and fork when I didn’t know where anything was. I wasn’t reassured by Rosie when I asked her if she too was eating with her hands, to which she replied, “What, no, of course not!” Oh well, no one saw a thing