Dans le Noir

We had purchased coupons via groupon (65 $ for 2 persons, instead of 120 $), and was glad to have done so; we got a cocktail, entrée, main dish and surprise dessert. The experience was truly one of a kind, as the waitstaff are all blind and you eat in the dark. The staff was very friendly and we had a great time. The only thing I would have changed were the portions of the meal, which were on the small side — I would not have gone without the coupon.
Note: You need to order your meal and drinks before entering into the dinning room, so plan ahead for what you’ll be wanting throughout your meal (water, wine etc) as they will not offer refills or extras after you’re seated.

Very nice experience.
I had grilled mushroom for starter, steak and chocolate cake. My husband had snails, veal and surprise desert. All the dishes are tasty. Way out of my expectation. I would recommend to all my friends.
The staff were very helpful too.
Price wise, I think with the coupon, it is a steal.

Arrived on time and found the lounge to be extremely over crowded the coat check Is self service and not ideal for Montréal in the winter time as there were people jammed in front of the rack and just too many people for the space to move comfortably
Once we placed our order it took about an hour to seat our table, with no seating in the lounge it wasn’t a comfortable experience
The in the dark experience was interesting and quite fun, to explore your table and examine your place setting using only touch is really cool
I wouldn’t expect a five star meal or five star service, it definitely about sitting in the dark eating rather than the experience of flavors smells and textures that it could be. It does get very loud and is hard to carry a conversation at times due to the noise
I would definitely recommend trying it but I would also recommend leveling your expectations a little before going, the food will be good but not stellar, the service will be average at best (banquet style service in the dark)

It is an unforgettable and really a unique experience that should be done at least once! You eat and drink, listen and talk in a complete darkness which makes you realize how greatful you should be for ability to see that is taken for granted. We were told that the waiters there are blind but they do a good job! Food is average, so it is not the place to just dine– it is a place to experience a different kind of dining.

Petit souper en amoureuses hier soir au resto Dans le Noir. Bonne soirée dans l’ensemble.
Accueil: on entre dans un rez-​de-​chaussée éclairé où une hôtesse prépare les drinks et nous invite à choisir nos plats sur le menu. Nous fermons nos cellulaires, commandons et attendons notre serveur, le charmant Ricardo, qui vient nous chercher environ 15 minutes après l’heure de réservation prévue. Nous partons vers les toilettes à la queue-​leu-​leu, la main sur l’épaule de la personne devant. Les toilettes sont propres et Ricardo semble nous y oublier. Dix minutes plus tard, nous sommes dirigées à notre table.
Entrée: on nous apporte un verre de sangria très sucrée, c’est la fête dans notre bouche. Je mange de délicieux escargots à l’ail et champignons. La quantité est bonne. On m’avait dit que c’était parfois un peu cacophonique, je constate que c’est vrai… à cause de quelques individus qui ont peu de classe. On modère sur le vin, les amis?
Plat principal: filet mignon et légumes. Les patates pilées goûtent la préparation instantanée. Drôle de première impression. La viande est bonne mais un peu trop cuite pour la cuisson demandée. Les légumes sont ok. La sauce, par contre, ohhh la sauce, j’en aurais pris une deuxième louche!
Les gens appellent le serveur par son prénom, nos yeux s’habituent peu à peu à l’obscurité totale. Nos autres sens s’éveillent. L’expérience est agréable. On nous apporte notre demi-​litre de vin maison. Correct mais sans plus. J’en renverse sur mon chandail, mais j’aurais sûrement fait la même chose à la lumière.
Dessert: on choisit le dessert surprise. Gâteau au chocolat avec crème fouettée pour nous deux… Correct mais décevant pour le prix. Ricardo nous escorte vers la sortie. Nous sortons juste à temps: un groupe d’adolescents bruyants vient d’arriver. Une chance que c’est écrit à l’entrée qu’il faut modérer le bruit!
On se confesse mutuellement avoir mangé avec nos doigts un peu, pour être certaines de né rien manquer. Je né l’ai pas dit, mais ça m’est aussi arrivé de faire des grimaces. QUE D’AUDACE ET DE FOLIE!
Nous avons profité du restaurant grâce à un rabais trouvé sur le web (deux pour un). Si j’avais payé le plein prix, j’aurais certainement été déçue. Les plats n’étaient pas exceptionnels, mais l’expérience l’était. Merci à Ricardo et à l’hôtesse, c’est grâce à vous et à l’obscurité que nous avons passé un moment hors du commun!

Went here with my girlfriend at 6:30 on a Saturday night. The food OK but the service was awful. I would never come back here and never recommend to friends for any occasion.
Service: After ordering our food, we were taken to our table. We were given water initially but were never offered a refill for the entire meal thereafter (almost 3 hours). We ordered a ½L of wine but the first glasses didn’t come until almost an hour into the service, just before the main course. Our appetizer was confused with another table’s and the waiter almost seemed annoyed that we asked for our original order. The waiter spilled my girlfriend’s second glass of wine when he delivered it and offered no apology, let alone a replacement. After each of the appetizer, main course, and dessert was delivered, the waiter abandoned us until the next course. After dessert, we sat there for 45 minutes with empty plates in front of us until a different waiter found us and escorted us out.
Food: The caprese salad was decent, our pasta and chicken were OK. The chocolate cake tasted like it came from a supermarket and tasted nothing of chocolate.
Ambience: At times it got really loud if there was a drunk/​obnoxious group in the room. I was lucky to be sitting next to my girlfriend rather than across so at least we were able to talk to each other. I couldn’t imagine having a good conversation sitting across a table from someone given the darkness and noise.

After an hour of preparation and make up, my boyfriend surprised me with taking me Dans le Noir for diner.
We both took the surprise menu, allowing the Chef to tailor the diner from the list according to our diets (vegetarian for one and dairy free for the other).
I had the Fillet Mignon that I ate with my finger, cutting being difficult when you don’t see, and BOY WAS IT GOOD !
If you’re a meat eater, it’s a wild and rare experience to eat such tender meat with your hands while no one can witness your primal adventure, making the feelings more vivid.
I’m glad I had the occasion to try!

The concept of dining in complete darkness is really interesting and the food was well made. It is definitely a good and unique experience. Our server was also very competent and friendly, which made our trip all the better. Points we disliked, however, were mostly surrounding how the restaurant is kept. The front steps need fixing for discoloration, the menus should probably be re-​laminated to look newer and I hit a splinter in the wall I was seated next to in the dark. It was also very noisy inside the restaurant, which made it very hard to have any conversations inside. I think that’s the case maybe due to floor design. For the price you pay, I’d expect a little better from the owners when it comes to presentation and safety. My chair was wobbly as well, which wasn’t a great first impression. Otherwise, the service was great and the food was good. I’d recommend this place to my friends.

This past Sunday, Anthony and I went to Dans Le Noir; a restaurant where the waitstaff are all blind and you experience what they experience while you eat– in the pitch dark. I had bought a coupon for us from Groupon during the summer but with school and work we only had the chance to go now (3 days before the coupon expired-​phew!) I had been very excited to go but also a bit wary since I didn’t know how I would react once I was in the room.
Located close to St Laurent metro, Dans Le Noir offers diners a very unique experience. When you first arrive, you are welcomed in a lobby where you put your coats away and put your purses and valuables in a locker. You are then able to look over the menu and give a waiter your order.
When they are ready, your name is called and this is when the real experience begins. You meet your waiter, (we had a gentleman named Ricardo-​very nice) and she/​he then leads you into the room. You have to hold onto his shoulder and listen to where he tells you to go since you can’t see AT ALL. He seats you at your table, then tells you where your utensils are on the table.
Right away, you notice that you start to speak louder while you slowly adjust to the fact that you can’t even see your hand in front of you. The staff promptly brings you a drink (sangria made with white wine) and soon after your appetizer. For the full menu, go here.
I chose to have the caprese salad and Anthony had the crabcake. It was so strange how even though you may have had that meal numerous times throughout your life– it tastes different. Anthony said his crabcake almost tasted like mashed potatoes.
Something that took some time to get used to was the fact that you couldn’t see your food, nor where you were cutting! You just had to hope that you were doing an okay enough job to not be making a mess on the table, your lap or your face. It definitely added a comedic tone to the whole thing.
For the main course, I had the Veal Scalopini and Ant had the filet mignon, both of which were tasty and had a side of vegetables and potatoes. We decided to order a half a bottle of the house wine and it accompanied the meal very well.
We finished it off with dessert; I had the Chocolate Mousse which I am still craving and Ant had the Cheese Cake. By this time, I was greatly enjoying the experience. It was as though time and space did not exist– you almost felt like you, yourself did not exist anymore– it was surreal.
Once you are finished, you are led back into the light filled lobby to get your jacket and adjust to being able to see again. We had seen many people come out looking squinty eyed with food on their shirts but Ant and I had done alright! I had made it through the whole meal with my knife and fork and Ant well– he enjoyed it all with his hands which is perfectly fine! Who would know right?
Overall, it is an experience that I believe everyone should partake in. I’ve always had much respect for the blind but after this– it really sinks in how different living is for them and the respect increases. I loved the experience so much I wish I could go all the time. For those of you who think, «Just eat at home with all of the lights turned off.» it is NOT the same thing. Leave your house, away from all of your electronic devices, all of the noise created by the machines you may have, just disconnect– it really is an amazing experience. I could not stop staying it throughout the whole night– it really is just simply amazing.

Incredible concept, amazing experience, relatively good food.
It’s a little unnerving to literally not be able to see your hand an inch in front of your face, but it does make this a memorable unique experience. Also, it’s impressive that they manage to pull it off logistically, but they do.
I would like to apologize to them for coming in with a bunch of drunk rowdy guys on a bachelor party, and being about as loud as a jet… one that is covered in booze.

The food was good, at least there was a positive side to this experience. My spouse and Iwent to Dans le noir after purchasing a Groupon. We went there a wednesday night. The place was packed, we had to wait at least 20 minutes before entering the dining room. Other than the food, the entire experience was horrible. The service was extremely slow!

Le restaurant Dans le noir est situé en plein coeur du quartier Ville-​Marie. Comme son nom l’indique… vous mangez dans le noir. On né parle pas de noir qu’on peut voir ou avec une lueur, on parle de noir total. Vos yeux né s’habitueront pas à la noirceur totale même jusqu’à la fin du repas.
Un serveur, aveugle, vient vous chercher vous diriger à votre table. Dès que vous entrez dans la pièce, une certaine peur s’empare de vous, vous êtes dans l’inconnu. Je dois dire que cette peur né part pas rapidement… Vous faites le choix de repas avant d’entrer dans la pièce noire.
Bön, si on arrive au coeur d’un restaurant, la bouffe. Le type de cuisine est français, donc vous trouverez pas mal ce à quoi vous vous attendez dans les restaurants du genre: saumon, poulet grillet, filet mignon et compagnie.
Je vous avouerai que vous né devez pas aller là en pensant vivre une expérience culinaire au niveau du goût. La nourriture était ok, mais avec le fait qu’on né peut pas voir ce que l’on mange, ça donne une façon bizarre de manger parfois. Par exemple, vous allez vous rendre compte que ça va beaucoup mieux manger avec vos mains qu’avec des ustensiles pour voir exactement ce que vous mangez.
Si on regarde du romantisme, ce n’est vraiment pas la place où vous pouvez faire une date. Le monde parlait très fort étant donné qu’on né voit pas la personne en face de nous. De plus, ça va mal se serrer la main…
Ce fût une expérience spéciale, mais je né crois par que je la referais. Il y a comme un sentiment pas le fun quand on est dans le noir complètement.

J’ai eu la plus grande frousse de ma vie !!! J’étais arrivé en retard pour la célébration d’un anniversaire d’une amie à moi. En arrivant à la réception il y avait de la lumière j’ai fait commande de mon plat. Je vois que ma guide serveuse porte des lunettes spéciale pour pouvoir voir dans le noir (j’en voulais une aussi) et elle me demande de me placer derrière elle et de bien tenir ses épaule. On forme un train .Elle m’a diriger à ma table. On peut pas utiliser notre cellulaire. Il faisait vraiment, mais noire même pas de lueur de lumière …
Arrivé à mi — chemin de ma table je suis tombé et je me suis assise sur une de mes amie La serveuse 《 Julie》 m’a bien rediriger vers mon mon siège. Assise je suis mise à paniquer. Il faisais trop noire et je suffoquais. J’avais chaud ! J’avais peur ! Je voulais partir, mais heureusement que mes amies étaient amusantes, car ça m’ a aidé à me calmer. J’ai réclamé mon verre de vin rouge et une verre d’eau. Mes amies m’ont dit de fermer mes yeux. Le fait de fermer mes yeux m’a beaucoup aidé et m’a tranquillisé et aussi le fait que mes deux boisons son arrivé ça m’a aidé aussi. La nourriture était correct. J’ai préféré mon dessert qui était une crème brûlée .Délicieux ! Quand on a dû partir mes amies et moi nous devions crier le nom de《Julie》. Nous avons formé un train. Chaque personne maintenait fortement les deux épaules de la personne qui la précédait.

Manger sans le sens de la vue… Expérience incroyable!
On commence doucement en étant dans un hall d’entrée avec lumières tamisées. On habitué nos yeux petit à petit…
On choisit nos plats avant de sombrer dans le noir. On peut choisir un plat «surprise» pour encore plus être à l’écoute de ses papilles. Une fois à l’intérieur, c’est vraiment étrange comme sensation. J’avais failli reculer (pour la petite anecdote), mais ça vaut le coup de continuer à mettre un pied devant l’autre dans cette atmosphère noire.
Les serveurs sont bien sympathiques et sont tout à fait à l’aise pour raconter leur histoire personnel.
Manger sans le sens de la vue… Je me répète, mais c’est une expérience incroyable!

Totally cool experience.
It is hard to set an expectation for a first Dine in the Dark experience, the only things I could imagine beforehand is how I would spill my drinks, have a hard time cutting my food and stumble over chairs. When the time came, what awaited us is an totally unique and amazingly cool experience.
The restaurant is located right off St. Laurent Station on St. Catherine, the store’s lighted area is the waiting area, where the hostess handed us a menu of choices where we pick one entrée (appetizer), one main course (entrée) and one dessert) for the gastronomique menu. Each person’s orders is taken down and our names were called when the waitresses and the waiters are ready to usher us into the pitch dark dining area of the restaurant. The instructions are to put your hand on the shoulder of the person in front (with the wait staff leading) and form a human train through the darkness. The wait staff are blind and able to navigate in the dark extremely well. Once we were ushered inside, a certain sense of panic poured in associated with going into a space completely devoid of light, rendering the sense I use the most completely useless. Within the few minutes of navigating to the hand washing area (yes, you will probably need to use your hand to eat at some point) and the table, the entire experience is about learning to listen and execute instructions carefully, feeling and anticipating turns through the hand-​on-​shoulder, and trusting completely. Once we arrived at our table, the waitress helped us feel our chairs, sat down and get acquainted with the location of utensils and napkins on the table. We were treated to our first drink, where it was placed right next to the wall divider on the left of the table — how clever, an absolute reference point for setting down the drinks. Our appetizers came shortly after, poking and picking up snails with a fork is something else in the dark, an action we are probably not even conscious of in the light, became a half guess-​work, half dependent on transmission of feelings from tip of the fork. For a few times, where I ‘thought’ I picked up something, I was met with an empty fork. Oops. It was also quite cool to only realize what you are eating after it’s already inside your mouth. The snails (with mushrooms) were quite good, not overly cheesy or exceptionally greasy. The main course was a little more challenging, not only did we need to pick up what’s in our plate, we also need to cut it, pick up the proper piece, and sharing a taste with the other person became a creatively almost impossible task. After practically picking up my veal scallopini whole and taking bites out of it, the veggies and potatoes almost became too impossible. I start feeling my way around my beans and resorted to using my fingers. Boyfriend came up with a creative way of passing me a piece of his filet mignon by meeting my hand along the side of the table. Yay, success! We figured something out by ourselves. The meal was great but the experience we spent between each meal was more than awesome, we spent time analyzing the differences in what we are feeling eating in the dark and eating in light, which dishes would be most difficult to eat in the dark (we think it’s Phở), imagining and making up stories, and creating and trying different ways to do various things without using our eyes, like feeling each other’s facial features, looking for each other’s hands and having so much laughs. At the end of the meal, we were pretty confident in having a cup of coffee in the dark and managing our table top to not spill anything.
The food was great though just having the experience was much more than worth it. Our waitress was attentive and helped guiding us through our entire meal, we loved her. The experience was definitely one of a kind and quite amazing, and I came out cleaner than a brand new napkin because of all the attention I paid to carefully navigating through my plate.

Comme le nom l’indique, ceci est un restaurant ou l’on mange dans le noir complet. C’est intrigant et plutôt amusant (on a bien rit tout le long du repas) mais pas quelque chose que je ferais régulièrement. Le concept n’est pas nouveau à Montréal mais ce restaurant est ouvert depuis a peu près 1 ans (qu’on m’a dit).
Tout commence dans le lobby où l’on nous invite à faire un choix d’entrée, de plat principal et de dessert (dans le cas d’un repas a trois services). Pour chaque service, on a l’option de choisir le plat surprise (choix du chef) — on doit donc deviner dans le noir ce que l’on mange. C’est ce que j’ai fait! On choisit aussi les breuvages, bière, vin, etc. La carte des vins est simple et limitée mais il y a quelques vins qui sont corrects, à mon avis. Les serveurs, qui sont partiellement ou complètement aveugles, nous amèné a notre table dans le noir et l’expérience commence.
En tout et partout, nous nous sommes bien amusés. Il y a beaucoup de bruit (60 personnes peuvent être assises par service). Il semble que dans le noir les gens compensent en parlant plus fort. Le service fut correcte, notre serveur et copropriétaire était très plaisant. La bouffe par contre était moyenne. Rien de mauvais mais rien de sophistiqué. J’ai bien aimé deviner ce que je mangeais. On nous a aussi offert un digestif à prix réduit, ce qui n’est jamais méchant.
Les clients autour de nous, c’est autres choses. Par malheur, un de nos téléphones (en sourdine) s’est brièvement activé générant un peu de lumière (qui est beaucoup dans le noir complet). Oh la la, les bêtises que nous avons entendues! Complètement déplacées, comme si dans le noir on pouvait se permettre de manquer de civilité. Certains ont même clamé que leur repas était ruiné (en 10 secondes) — les malheureux…
Bref, faite attention à vos cellulaires…