Hong Kong dining in the dark experience with blind waiters is a sensory feast with meaning

You are in a completely dark room. Not the sort of dark where you can still see the outlines of people – it is pitch black. You must rely on your senses other than sight. Your guide gently directs you – “Pull out your chair, take a step to your left and sit in it” – and as you settle into your seat, you realise you are sat at a dining table. You fumble around, eventually finding a set of cutlery, a napkin and a glass. Before long, it is time for the first course of the night, an appetiser specifically designed to challenge your senses with its texture and layers of flavour. And thus begins an evening of curiosity, confusion and a bit of detective work. What is that fruit in the starter? How many types of vegetable are on the plate? Was that a white wine or a dessert wine? This is dining in the dark by Dans Le Noir, a company founded by French entrepreneur Edouard de Broglie in Paris in 2004. As its name – which translates as “in the dark” – suggests, Dans Le Noir takes guests on a sensory journey with sight out of the equation. To date the company has expanded to 17 cities, mostly in Europe, where it operates stand-alone restaurants and collaborates with hotels. It recently signed a contract with the Le Meridien Hong Kong, Cyberport hotel in Pok Fu Lam – its first long-term project in Asia. The company has long eyed Asia as a destination. It previously held a pop-up experience in Bangkok, and was drawn to Hong Kong by its reputation as a food city. Hong Kong already has a similar experience – Dinner in the Dark, in Cheung Sha Wan – while the Alchemy in the Dark restaurant in Central closed in 2017. Like theirs, the Dans Le Noir experience is designed to be completely immersive. Ahead of the event, guests receive a briefing email that suggests wearing dark clothing, and upon arrival and before entering the dining room, they are asked to check in their bags, coats, watches and phones. Who is disabled in the dark? It’s not the blind person Chanael Lenoir, CEO of Dans Le Noir International Guests are then led by a visually impaired guide through a series of curtains to their dining table, around which they sit with their companion and strangers. It is an environment foreign to most, and adjusting to the darkness takes some time. Every light source in the room has been eliminated – even emergency exit signs. But don’t worry – the guides have walkie-talkies and can signal for the lights to be turned on in an emergency. Throughout the dinner, the guide is your set of “eyes”. Le Meridien worked with four Hong Kong organisations, including the Hong Kong Federation of the Blind and the Ebenezer School & Home for the Visually Impaired, to recruit seven blind and visually impaired guides to work as waiters for the experience. This reversal of roles feels odd but refreshing. “We are more used to being the guide, to help a blind person to cross the street, for instance,” says Chanael Lenoir, chief executive of Dans Le Noir International. “You have to put your trust on this person that you don’t know and that you think is disabled, but who is disabled in the dark? It’s not the blind person. So it’s a good way to understand that diversity and inclusion is also a matter of context, and that we can change the way we see.” In the weeks leading up to the opening, the waiters were trained by Michael Chan, a representative from Dans Le Noir London. Chan was born in the UK with retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative eye disease that leads to blindness. He could see when he was young and worked in Hong Kong for over 20 years, first as airport ground staff at the old Kai Tak Airport and then as a passport officer at the British consulate. His sight deteriorated drastically when he was in his late twenties. “Now I can only see blurred images and light, so I have to use my cane to navigate,” Chan says. “I knew when I was at a very young age that I would probably go completely blind. At that time I didn’t really take much note, because when you’re young you just don’t really bother about it, but when it struck me it’s all about self-acceptance.” “Life goes on, and I realised it was a new chapter in my life,” he adds, explaining how he sought help from the Hong Kong Society for the Blind and learned Braille. When he moved back to the UK seven years ago, he began working at Dans Le Noir, where he often recounted his experiences to diners. “It’s very nice to know that they actually appreciate and know that we can actually do what other people can do as well,” he says. Although Dans Le Noir markets itself primarily as a food experience, the added benefit is that diners can walk a mile in the shoes of the visually impaired. The experience is set up to be conducive to conversation, whether that be between guests or with the waiters, Lenoir says. “In Dans Le Noir, everybody’s out of their comfort zone, so the first guess is about the food, but then everybody is going to talk quite freely together. “In real life, this would never happen, and at the end, when they go outside, sometimes they’ll say, ‘Oh, you look like this.’ It’s very important to see how our sight gives us preconceived ideas of people.” It’s an opportunity to live something different … to live something that is quite powerful Chanael Lenoir, CEO of Dans Le Noir International Finally, of course, there is the food – three dishes designed by Le Meridien executive sous chef Jacky Chui to take guests on what Lenoir calls a “gastronomic journey”. The menu is set to change every three months, so repeat diners will also have something to look forward to every time. To avoid spoiling the mystery of the experience, all we will say about the Hong Kong menu is that texture and flavour play a huge role. Each bite offers something unexpected – you might discover something crunchy, but never taste it again, or finally realise what citrus is in the sauce as you take your final spoonful. At the end of the meal all guests are invited to step outside, where the full menu is revealed. “It’s amazing how someone will get it right and some of them get it completely wrong. When they go out, they see the photos and laugh,” says Pierre-Antoine Penicaud, the hotel’s general manager. Guests might also surprise themselves during the reveal. Lenoir remembers numerous times when diners were adamant they hated a certain food, only to thoroughly enjoy it in their unseen dish. For Dans Le Noir, success is when diners learn something new through the experience. “It’s an opportunity to live something different,” Lenoir says. “It’s like a parenthesis in your daily life. It’s a gift for yourself, to live something that is quite powerful, meaningful about food.”

Hong Kong dining in the dark experience with blind waiters is a sensory feast with meaning

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Dans Le Noir’s pitch-black dinners guided by visually impaired staff take guests on a ‘gastronomic journey’ with lessons about diversity

Dans Le Noir’s pitch-black dinners guided by visually impaired staff take guests on a ‘gastronomic journey’ with lessons about diversity