There was nothing from Fear Factor, and for the most part, ingredients were fairly easy to identify. Suffice it to say the meal consisted of fairly basic foods that most people will have eaten before. To preserve the mystery, I won’t reveal what I ate. Running my fingers around my plate let me gauge portion sizes and how much food I had already eaten, since I had no visual cues. (The kitchen cuts up your meat in advance, which was handy since I lost my knife early on.) While at first it was odd poking my fingers into food with unknown textures and temperatures, I was surprised by how quickly I got used to it-probably since I knew nobody could see me. After attempting to use cutlery, we followed Hounnake’s suggestion and ate with our hands. “Oops! I’m having trouble finding my mouth,” my friend admitted, laughing. The biggest challenge was avoiding knocking over my drink while feeling for the glass to pick it up.
When the first course arrived, I couldn’t concentrate on her story while trying to eat: my clumsy motor skills and the unexpected flavours and textures in my mouth distracted me. Though she was sitting next to me, my friend’s disembodied voice seemed to come out of nowhere as I stared into the blackness in front of me. It overstimulated my other senses with a swirl of background music mingled with faraway conversation and the necessity of patting down the table to orient myself to the place setting. Initially, the loss of vision felt overwhelming. I had expected some ambient light, but there wasn’t any: it was as disorienting as waking up in a hotel room in the middle of the night and having to feel your way to the bathroom. As soon as the front door closed behind us, everything went black there was no need to use the eye mask provided. (The restaurant won’t have its liquor licence until December.)Īfter the hostess took our order-three courses, one beef tenderloin, one “surprise”-our server, Lazare Hounnake, led us in from the patio, clinging to one another conga-style. For the main course, there are five selections, including peppered garlic prawns, veal schnitzel, and fresh ravioli or, you can choose to be served a surprise dish once again. Both the starter and the dessert are a “surprise”. We had a choice of a two-course set menu (starter and main or main and dessert) for $33 per person or three courses for $39 per person. When I arrived for dinner with a friend, the hostess greeted us on the dimly lit patio and directed us under a heat lamp to peruse the menu. According to Mousattat, the restaurant hopes to raise awareness of the challenges faced by people who are visually impaired, provide employment, and offer guests a fun few hours. “We usually expect on a Saturday night a couple of glasses will break,” he said, speaking from his experience in Toronto. They do everything from seating patrons to delivering plates to cleaning up the inevitable mishaps.
In a phone interview, general manager Sami Mousattat explained that the servers, who were recruited through CNIB, trained for two months. But neither servers nor guests can see anything in the dining room. The cooks-led by chef and recent Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts grad Kristina Walgenbach-are not blind, and they work in a lit kitchen. According to the Vancouver restaurant’s website, the concept originated with a Swiss man named Jorge Spielmann, who is blind he would blindfold his dinner-party guests to show them what the experience of eating was like for him.Īt Dark Table, all eight of the servers working at any given time are visually impaired. That’s because it operates without any lights in the dining room, and blackout curtains cover all the windows, blocking out street light.ĭark Table is owned by Moe Alameddine, who founded O.Noir, a “blind dining” restaurant with locations in Toronto and Montreal. Forget dinner by candlelight-how about dinner in a pitch-black room? For those who appreciate an out-of-the-ordinary restaurant, Dark Table is the ultimate adventure.Īlthough Dark Table opened in September in Kitsilano, if you drive by in the evening you might think it’s closed.
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