Dubai restaurant offers unique dining experience

Dubai: It’s the kind of after-taste that I wasn't geared up for. It hit me no sooner than I emerged from my maiden ‘blind-dinner’ at a purpose-built ‘black-hole’ in the Fairmont Hotel’s Spectrum on One restaurant, still blinded by the sudden burst of light following an hour-long blackout. In fact, it’s the couple of realisations in the aftermath that defined my overall experience, indeed making it a Dubai dinner with a difference.

First, not everyone can be man (or woman) enough to be led by a stranger into a pitch dark room to be sat in front of a dinner one knows nothing about (I just had to take a vote count from my colleagues at the news desk and my family, my wife included). Second, those who brave the odds are sure to acknowledge that the dinner does much more than satiate the palate.

For me, one of the first few to experience the novelty in Dubai, it turned out to be an eye-opener – with food inadvertently being the stark reminder why one shouldn’t judge things by their appearance. There are many who can’t see, but those who are fortunate enough must know there is always more to something than meets the eye.

And that’s precisely the idea at the Noire - Fridays through Mondays when guests are asked to leave their mobiles, watches and any traces of light behind to enter a totally dark room and simply eat in the nothingness around.

Similar concepts have been played out before in New York, London and Toronto, but Dubai has a fine veneer. And mind you, a diner is completely unaware of who is sat next to him or what’s being served to him – no secrets revealed to him till he/she finishes the meal although be rest assured, all particular requests and dietary requirements of an individual are strictly kept in mind by executive chef Lorraine Sinclair.

While you are encouraged to appreciate the food for how it tastes and not what it looks like, you also automatically end up doing your bit for the ones without eyesight in real lives – Dh27 out of every Dh325 bill for the set three-course meal with free-flowing beverages go to Sightsavers, a UK charity that works in more than 30 developing countries to treat blindness, restore sight and advocate equal rights for people with disabilities.

“Tonight we are going to take away from you, for an hour, your most important senses – your sight,” warns one of the ‘guides’ with night vision glasses while addressing the motley crowd of about 30 gathered for ‘Noire – Dine in the Dark’ earlier this month, about when it opened to the public for the first time here.

His message was simple: we judge too many things with our eyes – the people around us, the places and not least the food. And now it was time to turn a blind eye to everything around and simply be guided by our other senses just like a blind man.

It all did sound exciting at the beginning, but it’s the quirkier side of blind dinners that makes it adventurous too. The fear of the unknown – you think you are probably enjoying lamb stew or braised chicken, but for all you know you may have been unsuspectingly gorging on a squirming octopus or the lethal pufferfish.

Or wait, maybe you are actually eating what you thought, but the mind constantly draws you into all sorts of games. And it happened to me right from the starter. It felt crunchy and toasty but smelled fishy.

I guessed I was having a lobster, but there was no way I could confirm it. I ate along. It was only afterwards, upon my request, the dish was revealed: lobster on crispy sweetbreads. I had guessed it right. But I was uncertain all the way – for all you know it could have been an electric eel.

The main course got even more interesting. I had no clue from the sound or smell what was being served, cautiously feeling my way to the fork and spoon (there were no knives!) and then nervously reaching out to the warm casserole thinking it was lamb stew. This time I was wrong. Braised Beef on Ciabatta Crust with Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Home-Style Gravy and Spaghetti. I pretty much got all of it but the meat wasn’t correct.

Dessert was fun too - it made lots of crackling sounds and tasted something like sweet noodles with raspberry flavour. I was told it was Spheres and Meringue. But that’s just half the story which obviously keeps changing every week.

The other half is your story, it could be the same or different from mine but it’s for you to see and tell. As they say, it’s indeed amazing what you will see in the dark!