A Meal for your Senses: Dining in the Dark

Imagine yourself sitting at a restaurant. You choose from one of four surprise menus: Chef's choice, seafood, meat or vegetarian. The waiter brings a surprise wine. Then your meal is set in front of you. The catch is that you can't see it. You can't see anything. You're literally dining in complete darkness.

How do you know when to stop pouring your wine? How do you use your knife and fork? What do you do if you can't make any visual first assumptions about what you're eating?

There's one restaurant in London that's based on this concept: dining in the dark. The owner is blind and opened it to show other people what he experiences while dining every day. All the waiters are also blind. Aaron and I went for dinner last night and it was a really eye-opening ... or eye-closing... experience.

First, we 'conga-lined' into the dark room with our waiter. We could hear other conversations in the restaurant but couldn't see anyone else or where the tables were. Our waiter helped us into the chair and then described what was on the table. Two glasses - one large for water, one small for wine - a napkin, fork and knife, and bread basket. He recommended that we pour our wine or water with one finger in the glass so we could feel when it was getting full.

As he set things down, he would tell us where they were or what shape the plate was. Aaron chose the meat menu; I chose the chef's choice. It was weird to have to rely on all your other senses besides sight. Aaron actually ate his meal with his knife and fork, but I ate with my hands - nobody could see me!

It was also really interesting to have conversations with people you've never met in the dark. We sat next to a nice couple - it was the guy's birthday - and we ended up talking with them the whole night. At the end of the dinner, we left the darkness and went to the bar together for a night cap. And there the waiters revealed what we had eaten.

Aaron and I both had some weird dishes, but we actually thought they were really good. I won't give it away, but again, I can't believe how delicious it was! Would we have eaten it had we known and been able to see it? Maybe not. But that's part of the experience of dining in the dark!