Since 2006, Dans le Noir? restaurant, located in Clerkenwell, London, has been offering the opportunity to taste creative dishes in complete darkness, accompanied and served by unexpected guides. According to the website, \dinner or lunch in pitch darkness is an original experience that allows us to re-evaluate our perception of taste while reclaiming our senses, to reinvigorate our relationship with the world and others and to experience a surprising encounter with something different.’
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Popularised in the Richard Curtis film About Time, the restaurant offers surprise and vegetarian meal options.
From the outside it looks like a completely normal restaurant. On entering, diners are asked to take a seat, and their order is taken. They are told that no light source is allowed in the restaurant and camera, phones, coats, bags and smart watches are left in lockers. Then guests are led into the dining area by a waiter.
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The chef and kitchen staff get to cook in the light but of course the waiters have to make their way through the restaurant in pitch black. Dans le Noir? employs between 10 and 12 visually impaired or blind guides at the London restaurant. More than 30 people among their teams worldwide are visually impaired which is almost half of their staff.
All the menus are tested and improved through tastings by sensory experts in pitch darkness.
In the series of video interviews below, diners reflect on the experience on emerging from the darkness.