Better in the dark: dinner at O’Noir

O Noir Toronto

 On a couples’ night out with friends, we decided to try O’Noir where we dined in complete darkness. Off of Church St., O’Noir is located at the basement of one of the buildings in the area. 

We arrived for the 5:45pm seating (there was a 2^nd seating at 815pm) and stayed at the lounge area as we perused the menu. We had a choice of starter, main and dessert and we gave our orders to one of the servers.

When we were ready to go inside the dining area, our server gave us some basic rules and asked us to completely turn off our cellphones and anything that would light up inside. While I dutifully turned off my phone, I forgot that my handgel holder was glow-in-the-dark! Our server frantically told me to hide it! I stuffed it down my bag and tried to cover it with anything and everything I could find. Then, it was time to cover the face of my watch! Suddenly, all the things we took for granted such as luminous items, came into focus. Oh well.

Each of us held on to the shoulder of the person in front of us as we were led by our server in single-file. Now, the website claimed the servers were all blind but ours was not. She did have on some dark shades, which may have well been night vision goggles. 

We were told to feel for our utensils and bread plate then we each got some bread from the basket brought to us. I managed to spread some butter into my bread instead of my fingers. Hooray!

Our wine and water were always to be located on a certain side and we were all very aware of where they were. My friends and I committed to only wrist movements so we do not spill the drinks on each other!

We were then served the starters, main and later on the dessert. I had grilled calamari (you are not surprised, right?), Filet Mignon (which they cut up in bite size pieces) and for dessert, dark chocolate mousse. The grilled calamari was yummy--cooked just right with tomatoes and olive oil. The Filet Mignon was just ok, not great There was a side of potatoes and green beans as well. Dessert was divine, though. The mousse was so creamy and light, super chocolatey. When I had eaten all the mousse, I realized there was still the sponge cake. I convinced myself this was a deconstructed dessert :)

Dining in pitch black darkness forced us to maximize our sense of taste as our sense of sight was deprived. We savoured the flavours and had fun making sure we ate everything on our plate. While we had utensils, at some point, each of us had used our hands to feel for our food. One of our friends gave up and ate everything by hand—except the chocolate mousse, of course (I think...I hope). We couldn’t even tell if we still had some drinks but no one dared to dip their fingers into the goblet (but then again, there was totally no way to prove this) or tilt our head back to empty our glasses. Each attempt at groping our food was just hilarious—and yes, only the food was groped!

They had other selections for starters, main and dessert such as salad, pasta, vegetarian dishes. They even have surprise meals which would have been great if we were more adventurous. That would have really forced us to figure out what we were eating based on taste and feel alone! But alas, we wanted our squid and steak so we will save the surprises for another time.

The great thing about this was we were forced to focus on our food and our company. There were no cellphones to distract us, no taking of photos of our dishes, no taking of photos of each other (well, that was until we got outside). 
 

O Noir Toronto

We had such a great time and it was truly a unique experience.

Prices range from $32-40 with the lower price if you choose only a starter or a dessert and not the full three-course meal. They had a decent beverage and wine list as well. The food was ok but not excellent. However, the experience was tops! This one was really great in the dark!

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