Dans le Noir ? London Restaurant — Restaurant in London

My wife and I dined here in August 2025 and were served by the very witty and extremely professional Gawl.The food was very tasty, the experience is truly unique and like nothing we have done before. When you read its pitch black, it really is. Like you can hold your own hand an inch in front of your face and you still will not see it. This did not put us off in any way, but please do bear it in mind before booking. If it's not for you, that's ok, just know what you are signing up to. Before you enter the room they do take for safekeeping anything that can be reflective (like a wristwatch), but not things like diamond earrings and/or rings (so image how dark it really is if they are not worried about the diamond absorbing and reflecting the light back)! Also, if you need to, you can leave the dark dining space and visit the restroom during the dining experience, but we didn't as that would have "broke up" the atmosphere of truly dining in the dark. All in all, I highly recommend this to anyone who does not have issues with "the dark". I would not repeat the experience as it really is the element of surprise which made it so fascinating for us (like how will you "see" what you are eating - spoiler alert - you dont, and sometimes have to resort to helping yourself with your hands to ensure food is on the cutlery, which sounds counterintuitive, I know!), but I am very happy we did it once. Also, we were told that the menu changes every six months or so, so you can visit twice a year to surprise your taste palette, if you would like. In summary, I would definitely recommend at least one visit in your life and hopefully you get Gawl who made the whole two plus hours fly by! P.S. 1 I have not taken any photos so not to spoil your experiences. P.S.2. Kudos to the restaurant owners for employing blind and visually impiared people. On a very serious note, this restaurant experiences is really exceptionally informative of what it is like for blind and visually impaired people. Of course, the fact that the customer gets to return to their everyday life, whilst those who are blind or visually impaired do not leave this "darkness" is not lost on anyone who gives it a bit of a thought. Really makes you appreciate the...

Clearly, if you are thinking about coming here, the gimmick of eating in the dark has to seem super interesting and that was the case for us as well, but actually this restaurant was a lot more than just that.

First of all, they were right that you should get there at least 5-10 minutes early. It meant we could choose our drinks for the meal and learn a bit more about how the menu works.

After that, we were able to meet our server and get led into the completely pitch black dining room. Like, no light whatsoever. This was very disconcerting at first, but our server was super friendly and supportive as they sat the three of us at our own table. That did mean one brave soul needed to be alone on their side of the table, so perhaps coming in an even number of people would be best (there are apparently a lot of 2 person tables as we learned afterwards - we never would have known in the dark).

Of course, this is dinner, so after attempting to pour ourselves water in the dark (only one of us spilling a bit...), our drinks and appetizers came out. It was quite the experience eating in the dark, let me tell you. We ended up settling on primarily exploring with one hand (make sure you wash your hands before going up) and using the fork with the other hand. It actually worked quite well and the food was really good.

Now, it was about that time after the appetizer course that the darkness really started settling in. Was the room really long? Or maybe it just had a low ceiling? It did kind of mess with your head, so what helped us was just to keep talking.

Thankfully, it wasn't long before our main course came and it was also delicious. Exploring our plate together almost felt like an escape room - one of us would discover something and tell the others and then we'd try to figure out what each thing was. It was actually really fun.

We didn't have the dessert course, but afterwards they do show you pictures of everything you ate - honestly, they all looked as delicious as they tasted. You'd definitely be happy getting this food in a normal restaurant too.

Overall, everyone was very friendly, we had a great time, and the food was good! Can't really go wrong with that...

Definitely an interesting experience to try, but the price to quality ratio was not there. The food itself was enjoyable, but I'd estimate at least half of the price you're paying is for the experience and unique element of the restaurant, rather than the food or atmosphere.

The biggest issue for our party though was the atmosphere of the place. While the staff were very friendly and our blind waiter was accommodating, the dark room feels very cramped, and appears to have a lot of hard surfaces, so it was extremely loud both with guests, waiters, and service.

It's necessary for the staff to speak as they move, so they don't bump into people and people know to expect them; and it's known that guests can sometimes be louder when they don't have visual contact with the person they're speaking to, but the volume, clattering, chaotic service, and raised voices really give the atmosphere of a fast food restaurant, rather than a relaxed dining establishment.

For a venue that is focused on removing a sense, so heightening others, I'd expect more attention to be paid here. Focusing on improving the atmosphere with solutions such as, softer surfaces, calmer staff, quieter trolleys, using gentle bells to communicate movement, playing calming music, having fewer guests so there is more space between them, briefing guests before they're in the dark rather than hearing the same shouted explanation for each new group that arrives, or even having the bar staff downstairs operate in a calmer and more relaxing manner, would make a good improvement to the experience and make it more likely we'd bring people back.

Right now, you're paying a relatively high price for the experience of being in the dark, with fast food quality atmosphere, food around the quality of your average pub, and generic wine. Perhaps fun to try once, but not something we'd revisit or recommend.

Our advice, try one of the other dining in the dark experiences that exist around the world that pay more attention to the atmosphere, not just food in the dark. Or if you're going to go to this one, bring earplugs and/or book at the...