Dining in the Dark

For Carlos's bday date, I wanted to go somewhere super special. Ok... actually let me be honest. I wanted to go to a certain super special restaurant, and inserted his bday date as an excuse to splurge the $$$$ per person ;D

Last Wednesday I checked out the famous Opaque in the highly ghetto Western Addition portion of Hayes Valley. Opaque is an entirely pitch black restaurant. It is designed to simulate what it's like to be blind and having all of your other senses heightened. So freaking cool. I was very happy when Carlos was as excited as me about the surprise experience. 

You enter and immediately walk down stairs to a dimmed corridor. There you look at menus and pick your 3 course meal. After you decide, you are escorted in to the darkness by a legally blind waiter. I thought the route to the table was one of the coolest sensations of the evening. It's really crazy to just hold on to the waiter's shoulder and put full trust in his navigational skillz. We were very lucky and seated at a booth in the corner (or I assume it was a corner). When they say dark, they really mean it. You can't see ANYTHING at all. 

We had an amazing time just hanging out waiting for our various courses. You are started off with drinks and bread. I was happily surprised by how easily I was able to bring the food to my mouth. Being in the dark is fun because no one can see what you do... :) it makes it quite easy to prank your tablemate and move around the condiments. 

After the bread course, you are delivered a plate of 3 veggies & 3 sauces and given the challenge of guessing. It's actually surprisingly hard, and we got all of the sauces wrong. It's odd how much visuals play in to remembering what day-to-day tastes are. The meals were pretty good as well. I had a salmon curry dish w/ potatos, and Carlos got chicken w/ rice.The weirdest part about the entree was trying to use the fork in the dark. I think they delibrately put your food on a giant plate so that you keep missing. It's a bit unnerving because I kept putting the fork down, feeling resistance, and then bringing it to my mouth empty. So weird. 

I'm really glad we went on a Wednesday because it let us savor our meal more. Our waiter kept returning ready for our next course while we were only half way through the previous. Every time he walked up he would whistle or hum to warn you. During some of the breaks, I'd imagine how easily someone could approach you in silence... super creepy but I love freaking myself out.

The desserts were ok, but I wasn't a big fan of either choice. It was mocha pudding or chocolate cake. Both kinda gross :P. I was so excited about the experience in general that I didn't even care about the food though. It was just so neat to have an entire meal essentially blinded. It's crazy because you can hear other patrons in the distance, but it's hard to determine how far they are from you or how the restaurant is positioned. 

We milked the experience for as long as we could and didn't end up leaving until almost 11. I'm so so so happy we went. Although it was pricey, it was totally something I think everyone should do once with a date. It was a very intimate and fun experience that I'm very glad I got to be a part of. 

Highly recommend :D. Although! If you go in SF, be careful where you park. I grabbed a spot on McAllister (less than a block away), and when we came out we found the car behind us had its windows smashed in :S. Eeks.