So… the food would have to come pre-cut, no? I mean, given that I can manage to cut myself when I see what I’m doing, it doesn’t sound like ordering a T-bone would be a good idea…
Put me in the “no way” camp. I need to see my food just in order to avoid showering everybody with my drink.
How does that even work? Even if the food’s cut up, what do you do, stab at your plate until you hit something squishy (hopefully not your date)? I think it’s an intriguing concept, insofar as the idea of concentrating on only one sense is intriguing. Not worth $99, though, and I can’t see the execution being anything but hideously awkward.
My wife and I went once to a similar place in London: Dans Le Noir, where you’re also eating in pitch black, and you have blind waiters that can lead you to your tables and out again etc. Not sure how the food in the place mentioned in the OP compares, but this one had pretty good food.
Pretty much, yeah. Ours wasn’t cut up, I ended up just slowly passing the knife across the plate until I touched some food with it and cut from there. At this place you could also order a surprise menu, where (barring allergies/dislikes you specify) you don’t know what you’re being served. Makes for a very interesting experience where you try to figure out what flavours you’re eating without much concept of what it actually looks like. Not being able to see, you have no preconceptions about how something’s going to taste apart from texture when cutting it, so very interesting.
The waiters will take your hand and touch it to where they put down plates or glasses etc so you can position where things are on the table. You adjust quite quickly to getting a sense of where everything is on the table (at least your stuff)
We also sat right beside another couple that we ended up striking up conversation with for most of the time. Very strange to talk for a while sitting right next to people and have no idea what they looked like until we finished our meals and were out in the foyer paying the bills.
Not sure how the place in the OP rates, but the experience of the concept itself I’d definitely recommend.
Would you, could you in the dark?
Only if it’s green eggs and ham. Thank you, thank you Sam-I-Am.
Do the waitrons get night vision goggles or something? I mean, I had a hard enough time avoiding the chaos of a restaurant when I could see it in the light. I can only imagine how many trays of food they’d drop in the dark…
The place we went to had blind waiters, I checked the site for this place and it looks like it’s the same:
I came in to just to mention that place. I’ve been meaning to go there for a while but haven’t got around to it yet. I mostly dine with my wife and she really doesn’t want to go there.
That site is much nicer than the one I posted.
This is the stupidest thing I’ve read in donkey’s years. Is this restaurant right next the one that has BEDS instead of tables? It’s called Duvet, in NYC. How rich and bored do you have to be to investigate these novelties? If I had the money to dine out, it would be in a good restaurant, think of that! Not putting money in the pockets of those frantically trying to attract bored assholes. Maybe they should have an all-toilet restaurant - assume the position on the throne, be served prune juice Cosmos, red hot chili peppers, all-dairy entrees…might get ugly in there, but hey, it’s new and different!
I agree.
Why not just get some takeout and eat it in the closet? Or with a blindfold on? In fact, come over to my place, for half the price of that restaurant I’ll give you twice as much food and a private dining room to boot (my basement closet with the burned out bulb).
Say what you want about the menu and prices etc, but I’m totally not getting all the hatred for the concept itself…
I thought it was a fantastic experience, forcing you to really think about how much you rely on your sense of vision by having to try to function without it for just the length of a meal. It also gives a real appreciation for how differently someone blind would perceive the world, while seeing the little ways you already start to adjust and form a different mental picture of your surroundings just in that short time.
I can see people being weirded out by the idea of physically trying to eat without seeing what’s on the plate, but “stupid”, “gimmicky” and for “bored assholes”…what?
Edit: and it’s not just the same as just putting on a blindfold. Your eyes are open, feel like they’re functioning normally, but there’s just no light at all getting to them.
How do places like this deal with lit “Exit” signs? I would think that fire codes would require the lit sign, and then the lit sign would cast enough light to spoil the experience.
Never. I won’t even dine in “dim”. I am a nitpicky eater. I have to be able to see the fat and gristle and the stems and the mushrooms and the wilted lettuce etc. so I can get them safely to the edge of the plate and out of the way of the good stuff. I also enjoy the appearance of the tasty stuff.
I’ve seen those dark restaurants on tv and I can see the appeal but I am not their target.
Still thinking about it. It could be fun to go with someone sexy if they had an exclusionary menu - no mushrooms, no onions etc. so when the food arrived it would be a mystery with no bummers. That I would do. But probably more fun at home.
Now I’m having food fantasies, sharing chocolate mousse naked in the dark 
I like the concept, but unfortunately enough of my food winds up on my shirt when I can see it.
Funny you mention that, the critic quoted in the article, Richard Foss, is an old friend of mine.
I think I could get the entrees and other stuff at Trader Joe’s and do a dinner party for three or four people for $99.00 plus tax.
Going to this place has been a prize for a couple of the competitions on “Hell’s Kitchen.” Gordon Ramsay seems to have a real thing for it, though I get the impression that the contestants aren’t overly enthused about it.
Could you take the lamp out of your bedroom and serve me while I’m sitting on your bed in the dark? That way I could have TWO trendy experiences at once!
This eating in the dark thing is so stupid it’s offensive. “The blind experience” my ass - I wonder how much actual blind people enjoy eating without seeing. Why not a pitch dark bar instead? (well, actually I’ve been in a couple of those).