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| Diner's being led to their table at a Dark Restaurant |
Looking for a spooky dining experience for your Halloween
evening? You may want to give a new
foodie trend a try—dining in the dark. Dark dining fans say limiting your
vision strengthens your other senses, like taste and smell, intensifying the
flavors of your meal. Several pitch-dark
restaurants have opened up around the world, including Paris, London, and
Barcelona, and New York City.
At Dans Le Noir in New York, they say their experience is
like “dinner and a show,” where patrons’ senses will be awakened, as
they are allowed to completely re-evaluate their perceptions of taste, smell,
and texture.
So here’s how it works. You arrive in a lighted lounge,
where a host describes the dining process, hands you a waiver to sign, and
offers four different menu categories for you to choose from—but with no
specifics. You will be asked to leave your cell phones, lighters, and any other
sources of light behind before you are guided into the dining room. All servers
are blind or visually impaired, both because they are more efficient in the
darkness and to raise awareness about blindness and disability.
You will not find bones, pits, or fat on your food, and
dishes are kept simple to avoid spillage—no soups on these menus!
After dinner, your guide brings you back to the lounge,
where you can chat about your experience, see pictures of what you ate, and
enjoy a post-meal coffee or tea.
The three-course menus range from $54 to $69 per person, not
including beverages. You can learn more about the experience here, as well as
make reservations.
Would you try a meal in a dark restaurant?
