Last night I went to O’Noir (620 Church St.) for dinner. If you aren’t familiar with the concept of O’Noir, it’s a restaurant where you eat in complete darkness. Why you ask? Because everything is better in the dark…

You enter into the restaurant, and it’s eerie. It’s a massive long hallway, with rooms going off to both sides, and the light sort of trembles as you walk into the main room. It feels like you’re standing in the middle of the board game Clue. You meet a hostess who explains that for dinner you have two options; a three-course meal for $39 or a two-course meal for $32. I opted for the three-course meal to get the whole experience. (Aka I’m a hungry girl).

All the servers are blind and act as your guides for the evening. Once you order with the hostess a server enters from one of the many large doorways, with a cloud of darkness waiting behind them. My waiter’s name was Viktor and he was now ready to escort me into TOTAL darkness.

Okay, BRING IT ON. Left hand on left shoulder of the person in front of you and proceed in. This is serious darkness. There is no hope of even making out a shape, but your eyes continue to search and find some sort of resolution to your uneasiness.  Tip: your eyes won’t ever become accustomed, so stop trying.

Viktor helps me into my chair. What a gentleman. And then he proceeded to let me touch everything in front of me, showing me the butter dish, a placemat (cause it’s going to get messy), a napkin (refer back to messy comment), a fork and knife. Viktor leaves and comes back to the table with my drink. He always announces himself with a, Hi Lindsey. He sets my chilly beer down and I relax for a second.

Remember to just enjoy the experience.

And then the eating begins. First off, you want to touch everything with your hands. When the waiter sets down your course you just want to play with it like play dough. You have no idea how the food appears in front of you so your instinct is to familiarize yourself with it the only way you can. Try and avoid doing so, even though it is tempting. Confession: My friend doesn’t know I spread the butter on my dinner roll with my fingers. HAHA.

Now lets talk about the fact that I’m a vegetarian. Hey, I’m a vegetarian, and this dark experience makes me afraid I’ll bite into meat and not know it. As all vegetarians can attest to, soooooooooooooooooooo many times you order something at a restaurant without the meat, but it comes out with meat on it anyways.  The difference is that on a regular occasion I can see the meat so I don’t eat, but in the dark it wouldn’t work like that. As I bite into my main course of spaghetti I swear I taste meat. “Viktor, there is meat in this spaghetti.” THERE ISN’T MEAT.  I’m just paranoid, and now I’m blaming Viktor. I take another bite and it’s deliciiiious and MEAT FREE. “Sorry Viktor.” But it is interesting how your brain wants to protect your values.

Here is the shocker, eating in the dark isn’t the oddest part about the experience. The most interesting aspect of this experience was my interaction with my dinner partner. It is insane how much I rely on forms of physical gestures and expression in conversation. There I was talking to my friend about the latest happenings in my life and I HAD NO CLUE if she was listening to me or not. I mean, I hope she was, because she’s a good friend, but you have no encouragement, whether it’s a nod of the head or a smirk of a smile letting you know to continue with the story. This is experiencing conversation on a whole new level.

I highly suggest O’Noir as a restaurant for a date. Perhaps not the first date, because oddly, sitting in the dark not looking at one another is quite intimate. Try it for the third date and you’ll be en route to discovering something completely new about each other.

Best to make reservations- 416-922-NOIR (6647)

~ Lindsey Peterson