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Paris Restaurant Review: Dans le Noir (4th Arrond.)

// September 29th, 2009 // Restaurants

I can say without question that I had one of the most interesting dining experiences of my life last night. A close friend of mine is visiting Paris and we were looking to do something out of the ordinary, so we chose to book a reservation at Dans le Noir. “Dans le Noir” directly translated means “In The Dark” and the name of the restaurant could not better sum up the dining experience–you literally dine in complete darkness. Interesting concept, right? The inspiration behind this and other so-called “dark” restaurants around the world is that when diners are deprived of their sense of sight, other senses are heightened–namely the sense of smell and taste.

The evening began by checking all items at the door that have the ability to emit light including cell phones, lighters, and watches. Next, we were asked to select what we wanted to have for dinner.  There are only a few options to choose from: appetizer + main course, main course + desert or appetizer + main course + desert. We both chose the third option. While guests have the ability to select what they’ll actually be eating (food allergies are taken into consideration), most choose to go with the “mystery” option which means exactly what it implies–you don’t know what you will be eating. After selecting our dinner option, we were introduced to our waiter Moran. Moran, like the entire wait staff, is completely blind. Each waiter/waitress has memorized every square foot of the interior “dark room” of the restaurant. A brief introduction and instructions followed and then I placed my hands on Moran’s shoulders and Ben did the same to me. We were led into the dark room slowly and when we finally reached our table, I was told to stand completely still while Ben was led around to his seat on the other side of the table. Moran then explained what exactly was on our table and gave us instruction to call his name if we needed anything, then we were alone with our bottle of wine and what I would guess were about 20-40 other diners.

After strategizing for for a minute or two with Ben about how we were going to pour our wine, we eventually agreed that the best move was to pour it while holding one finger just inside the glass–it worked out quite well. A few minutes later our appetizers arrived. Moran called Ben’s name first, as he reached out to feel for his hands to hand him the plate, then came mine. Our attempts to use our forks and knives turned out to be futile relatively quickly and we instead chose to eat with our hands. While you could hear the clanging of utensils around us, I personally think eating with our hands added to the experience. The tactile sensations were quite interesting as we tried to eat without spilling dropping food all over ourselves. Throughout the night we played a guessing game, attempting to pinpoint what exactly we were eating. Most of the time we were pretty far off (as we found out later). I can say without question that the entire meal from appetizer to desert was delicious. The quality of food at Dans le Noir is up there with some of the better restaurants I have dined in here in Paris.

When the meal was over, we were escorted back out of the dark room and into the light. The first thing I did after trying to handle the harsh light was to check out my white shirt (not the best choice when dining at Dans le Noir)–I only had two small spots, not bad. We were then presented with a menu binder that included pictures of everything we ate. As I mentioned earlier, we were pretty far off in guessing what we were actually eating, but I can say that the dinner looked as good as it actually tasted.

I would recommend that everyone dine at Dans le Noir at some point during their time in Paris, as the entire experience is one that is not soon to be forgotten.

Want to see this location on a map? Map of My Visits