Eclipse Dark Dining Experience.....thoughts?

Groupon deal. Interesting idea (chef menu, but patrons have blindfold on so you focus on taste/texture).

I'm intrigued, but has anybody tried this?

Singerdon
Waukesha, WI

 

A blindfold?

When this was a fad back in the 90s the restaurants were using rooms with no lights at all.

With blindfolds I can see some people not liking that:
- may not be comfortable to wear for some people
- if my wife spent an hour on her hair she probably won't want to have some strap through it squishing parts of it down or messing it up when she takes it off
- are they going to wash the blindfolds after other people use them, even if they don't appear dirty? I don't want the sweat from somebody's brow rubbed all over my face
- even if they are expandable straps its hard to find a comfortable size/fit for everybody

And then if the purpose is to focus on taste and texture: a lot of those cooking competition shows on TV the last few years have these taste/palate segments where the competing chefs are blindfolded and have to identify foods based solely on taste and texture. Most of the time they get the items wrong, even what should be the most basic or obvious, and those are (usually) professional chefs - so its a little hard to fathom that the average Joe Schmoe is going to actually get anything out of that.

 

Not something I would be interested in.

 

I have not been there, but I did go to O Noir in Toronto. Interesting idea.
Instead of being blindfolded, your server, who is blind, takes you through double doors into a room completely dark. They warn you about no cell phones or luminous watches. Your order before you go into this room.
Once seated, your server brings out the dishes and hands them to you so you know where they are.
While it was an interesting experience and I'm glad I did it, its a one off.
We could hear a number of other diners in the room and it sounded fairly full. However, it was unsettling and not a place where you'd linger over coffee.