Some say it’s better to light a candle than curse the darkness. But this is one place where you ditch the candles, flashlights and cell phones and try to taste the food in complete darkness. This is the Dark Side, after all.
It’s the first restaurant of its kind in Kyiv, in the atmospheric Podil district near the Dnipro River. It offers a challenging experience for those of us who rely on visual clues for their impressions, especially of food.
There are only three types of set menus available to have a dinner in the dark room – meat, fish and vegetarian. Each of them has three dishes. The guests are supposed to guess what they’re being served by the texture, the flavor and the taste because they are not told in advance what dishes they will be getting. Each set menu costs Hr 240, and includes a 0.5 liter bottle of still water.
If this does not feel like your type of thing, you can choose to eat in the light room instead. It offers European cuisine a la carte, and a good choice of gourmet teas that includes a range of oolongs, pu erhs and rooibos.
I booked the table in the dark room ahead of time for a Saturday night, but when I and my friend arrived, it turned out I need not have bothered – the place was completely empty. The waiter greeted us and showed the way.
We lingered before the heavy curtain that divides the light and the dark room. Here, the waiter explained the rules of the game and gave us a couple of aprons, whose color symbolizes your chosen menu: red for meat, green for vegetarian and dark blue for fish.
Then, the exciting moment came. The waiter donned a pair of night vision goggles and asked one of us to put a hand on his shoulder, and the other to follow suit. We followed him into the total darkness in a slightly surreal procession that was more like a cross between a children’s game and a dream than a restaurant experience.
Many dark restaurants in the world employ staff with impaired vision because they tend to be the best guides for visitors in the darkness. The first such restaurant appeared in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1999. It was a success, so other such venues sprung up in France, Germany, Finland, US, Poland and Russia.
Their names vary – Dans le noir, Unsicht-Bar, Taste of Darkness, The Dark Restaurant. But the essence remains the same: to give people an opportunity to combine a new culinary experience with aglimpse at how blind people feel when they eat.
Kyiv’s Dark Side has regular staff. Our waiter helped us to the table, but it turned out that sitting down on a chair is a real challenge for people who are used to relying on their eyes. Next, we tried to feel around the table for knives and forks, and attempted to figure out how to top our glasses with water without spilling most of it on the table.
Soon, our food arrived. We chose the fish and the vegetarian menu, and both of them were rather light. The waiter served the meals quickly despite there being no dim light or shadows in the room. He was still wearing the night vision goggles, though.
In the next minutes we tried in vain to find the food on our plates. Eventually, we gave up the cutlery and decided to use our hands. After all, eating in the dark has its own advantages: it does not matter how savage you look. Your weird waiter in night vision goggles is the only one who can see you.
The other advantage is that you can steal food from your friend’s plate – and get away with it (as long as you don’t drop anything on their knees).
The starter was a somewhat flavorless salad, which did not leave a great impression. Then, it was time for salmon and scallop with an arugula salad from the fish menu, and potato pancakes from the vegetarian menu.
All food seems strange and unfamiliar to start with when you’re eating with your hands since texture is usually something you feel with your palate. But the taste of the dishes served did not seem particularly special.
At last, desserts came, filling the room with new flavors. We were served baked apples with honey and fruit tartlets. The desserts, again, were tasty, but somewhat on the plain side: the apple was soft and sweet, with a sprinkling of walnuts. The short tartlets were filled with custard,
and topped with mango and strawberries.
The whole
eating experience seemed to last for just 20 minutes or so. But it turned out
that 1.5 hours flashed by while we were struggling with eating in the dark.
It turns
out that when you eyesight is switched off, the other senses kick in. You smell
gets sharper, and the whole experience gives a tingle to your nerves. (Not
recommended for nyctophobiacs, their
nerves would more than tingle.)
Kyiv Post staff writer Olena Goncharova can be reached at [email protected].
The Dark
Side
Website: http://www.darkside.kiev.ua
Tel.: 044-428-88-38
067-659-91-75
14-A
Ihorivska Street
Working
hours 12 p.m. – 11 p.m.
