Pippa ordered us to choose our menus before hand, although you're not allowed to know what you're actually choosing until after your meal. The girls and I chose an array of the options, with Becky, Fran and I opting for the red menu, Melissa and Pippa chose blue, and Harriett daringly went for the white.
We arrived early to be greeted by the bar staff, who incredibly, are all blind. The continuation of the lack of visibility extends through all the staff in this restaurant, and I was instantly surprised, impressed and eager for dinner. We swiftly worked our way through a bottle of wine before locking our belongings away in lockers in the reception. This had to include anything that would cast even the remotest flicker of light. We begrudgingly put phones, watches and cameras away and shuffled into the corridor.
Gal, our blind waiter came out to greet us, and after several attempts managed to get all six of us in a single file line. "Hand on the shoulder of the person in front" he ordered. We did as instructed and began our very serious conga through a door, and then two sets of curtains.
The restaurant is pitch black. More so than any room I've entered before, and suddenly I was thrilled to have one of the girls either side of me. The restaurant was busy, this I could only deduce from the amount of noise. But the room felt small. We later discovered there were only six tables in the whole place. In turn, we were sat by Gal at our chairs, giggling and shuffling awkwardly until we were all in place. With unbelievable ease and precision, Gal handed us our drinks to pour ourselves. A lot more challenging than it sounds when you can literally see nothing. The girls managed well, while still in my alcohol ban, successfully managed to pour water all over my liner plate and the table.
Across the room, a noisy table broke out into an unexpected chant and laughing with blind confidence, the girls and I quickly joined in. That was until our food arrived. The whole point of eating in the dark is that it aims to enhance all the other senses, especially taste. When our plates arrived, we were informed that there was three separate mini-meals, each complete with its own condiments. We all tucked in, struggling to locate our food in the darkness with a knife and fork. Refusing to allow this to be a problem, Bex dived straight in with her fingers. No one could tell after all. The food tasted incredible, and we devoured each mouthful while us meat eaters animatedly tried to figure out exactly what it was we were eating. Fran and I were determined that beef and lamb were amongst the menu, while Bex argued she had definitely tasted duck.
It didn't take us long to finish, and our plates were cleared away to make room for dessert. We all had the same dessert, which definitely consisted of a lemon mousse-type dessert with a ginger biscuit. Once dinner was finished we all piled out of the restaurant, stumbling with distorted unease as we re-adjusted to the light. We had been warned of how distorting it is leaving the restaurant, and I had never felt more soberly drunk as I did leaving that restaurant. We were collecting our belongings when the bartender approached us "Would you like to see what was on your plates?". Was that a trick question? We threw open our menu's to see what we had been consuming. The seafood girls were correct in their guesses of salmon, while us meat eaters had correctly guessed beef, Becky had been right on the duck, and our final platter was Guinea fowl. Harriett's surprise was a definite surprise of swordfish and kangaroo. A first for all of us.
I left feeling full, surprised and totally impressed. While the food is fantastic, it's definitely enhanced by eating in the dark, and for a totally new experience, I'd recommend it every time.
All information on Dans Le Noir can be found here: http://london.danslenoir.com
All images courtesy of Dans Le Noir
