Dans le Noir

Read this if you're considering the Dans le Noir experience... in a word: hideous. The food was repulsive and we left before the main course. Food was luke warm and mushy - if you could even find your food. We were encouraged to eat with our hands, but not offered any sort of warm towelette to wash our hands with first. Upon leaving, they offered to show us what we ate - it was such bad food, we didn't even want to know. Worst part about it - £160 later - we're famished and want to wipe the whole experience from memory.
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Don''t Dine in the Dark
2 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 4 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 0
Saturday, September 04, 2010

Great experience!!!

We went to Dans Le Noir as a group of 20 colleagues and all had an amazing time there. Our two blind waiters were very friendly and professional, the food came quickly and was delicious! Great atmosphere.

The textures and the food combination were interesting and surprising. It is quite expensive but worth it!

An experience to remember!
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Emma
8 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 5
Thursday, June 17, 2010

The worst restaurant experience of my life bar none.

I chose the red (meat) menu, and was served what tasted like chopped liver topped with Doritos corn chips. Afterwards, it was revealed that I had been served Alligator meat, topped with Doritos corn chips. I found the dish to be inedible due to it's repugnant taste and texture. I sent the meal back, and asked to try the vegetarian menu instead. I was informed that this would not be possible as the kitchen had already closed. I was given a basket of bread, in place of dinner. The bread was very stale.

The cost of the meal, with wine, came to £60. Due to my dissatisfaction, I was let off the price of the meal, but still had to pay £20 for the cost of the wine (I had had 4 glasses). The wine was of poor quality.
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1 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 0
Thursday, April 22, 2010

Have not been to a worse restaurant in my life, great concept but at the end of the day you're there for the food. I expect a £70 3 course meal to be fairly good. the wine - cheap and nasty, the food was not much better, think some school dinners would be better, the gravy that came with our lamb for main course tasted like bistro instant gravy and the lamb was chewy and fatty.. was very disappointed with my visit and let the waitress know before we paid our bill and was told that she knew the food was not up to par as many other customers have been complaining and they were in the process f finding a new chef... come on crack the whip and get it sorted!!!
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Dan
3 Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 0
Thursday, April 01, 2010

What a shame!!... This started of as one of the most amazing nights ever and ended as one of the worst! The concept is brilliant and the food is alright…(stale bread and cold main course). This place has massive potential, Just do everyone a favor and sack the waitresses in the dining room…they couldn’t have been ruder, not only did they make it perfectly clear they wanted us to leave half way though our main course but they made it so awkward ours and the table next to us left with out pudding. The final straw being when they started singing, breaking plates and spraying/cleaning the tables next to us!! Wouldn’t recommend this to a friend for fear of the same thing happening…
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5 Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 5
Monday, March 08, 2010

Dans le noir recently opened in Barcelona too. And if this is globalization we should erect a wall in the Pyrenees and keep the invaders out. (just kidding... I know most of French food is excellent ) But in this stupid place the food is a joke, the wine is awful and the price ridiculously high.

Is quite interesting to see that in Britain a lot of people share my view about this horrendous restaurant.
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Diego Blasco
3 Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 1
Sunday, March 07, 2010

I was surprised to find myself a little nervous before my visit to Dans Le Noir, perhaps due to the inevitability of making a dining faux pas. On arrival my fears were vanquished by the friendly welcome of the staff in the bar and the explanation of the dining experience. Looking around at the faces of the other guests waiting to be led to the dining room I gathered that I wasn't the only one who was apprehensive! Our guide, Derek, was a bit of a dude and with a smile a mile wide he led myself, my boyfriend and another couple through the curtains and into 'le noir'. After a bit of fumbling around to position myself correctly at the table and some slightly nervous chatter with the couple seated next to us on our table, we were handed our wine and the meal began. I became a bit of a pro at pouring wine into the tumblers provided, using my finger as a measure, and jokes and banter were soon flying around our table. As we were on of the first tables seated, it was quite disorientating not being able to figure out how large a room we were in. I thankfully was next to a wall which steadied my wildly flailing special awareness and as the room filled you began to get a sense of the surroundings.

The food arrived and was better than expected – I had previously read some pretty scathing reviews about the standard of it – and we tucked into it with aplomb. I abandoned my knife in preference of a fork-in-right-hand-left-hand-finds-food-on-plate approach which served me well. I neglected to mention to my boyfriend that my left hand was also my ‘wine measure’ hand but he didn’t seem to notice any bits of food in his wine. Phew.

The main course was a little on the lukewarm side but was perfectly edible if a little difficult to identify! (As it happened there were three kinds of meat on my plate which I blame for throwing me off a little) By this time your eyes had stopped attempting to adjust and you felt almost normal at the table. A trip to the toilet soon put paid to my new found comfort as the lights out in the corridor, dim as they were, were quite painful after the utter darkness of the dining room and my return to my chair, with Derek’s help (despite my head-butting him – sorry Derek) was a relief.

Dessert was delicious and when our wine was empty we headed back up to the bar with Derek leading the way in the now familiar conga style.

We were shown what we had eaten in a little picture book. Some of the dishes came as a complete surprise, some were met with comments of ‘I knew it!’ or ‘Yes I was right, you were wrong’ but all with a realisation of how much the sighted rely on the aesthetics of food to add to their enjoyment and how when this is removed, your other senses get more of a look-in.

All in all an evening to remember!
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Caroline
8 Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 7
Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Went to Dans Le Noir for a friend's birthday. Each of us had the menu gastronomique (3 courses, water, 2x glass of wine and surprise cocktail for £54).

The concept is fun and certainly is worth trying out, particularly as it does give us a definite sense of what it must be like to be blind and it was interesting to see how each of us coped with that. I was impressed by the service both before going into the dark front of house and during from our waiter.

There is a big "but" which is that whilst the food was interesting (2 red menus, 2 white menus) it wasn't the taste sensation I had hoped for and I thought the food could be described as "average at best" and my starter and main were lukewarm. For the same price, you could probably eat fairly well at a nice restaurant in the City. The wine was also of variable quality with what tasted like white being a bit ropey and what tasted like red being ok.

Overall, worthwhile for the experience but lacking in value of money
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5 Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 3
Monday, October 26, 2009

It was a amazing experience !!!

The food and the drinks were really tasty !!!

The waiters are really nice.

i recommend this experience to people, who want to live a unique experience !
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Mary
10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Wednesday, July 08, 2009

Read the reviews and expected the worse.... and was pleasantly surprised!

Great place to go with a group of friends for something a bit different!

Food & cocktails very tasty and service was great.

No complaints here! Looking forward to my next visit!
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norma
9 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 8
Sunday, April 19, 2009