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Dining Out at Dine in the Dark

“Think you’ll be able to dine out on this experience with your friends in Brisbane?” I asked Jane who was visiting from Australia. She sat down next to me, but I couldn’t see her as the room was pitch black, of the “can’t see your hand in front of your face” variety.

“Absolutely,” she replied.

Dine in the Dark is an innovative restaurant in Phnom Penh, Cambodia that creates the experience of what it is like to eat a meal as a blind person. Phones, watches, and anything else that can produce light must be turned in in a locked box in the lobby. Food options are Western, Khmer and Vegetarian. Grant, Jane and I ordered Khmer. Nick, who is Khmer, opted for the west. Then Joe our waiter/guide introduced himself. We later learned that he went blind three years ago due to chickenpox.

The manager had me put my hand on Joe’s shoulder and the others lined up behind me. It’s no problem to slowly walk up the stairs after Joe. Then we passed through a heavy curtain. As he closed behind us, we were in total darkness. My initial reaction was a bit claustrophobic, but a few steps into the room and the feeling calmed down.

Joe ushered us to our table. “Sit here,” he ordered me. I crowded around and couldn’t figure it out. Was it a bar stool he was feeling? No, it was the back of the chair. Once seated, I felt around the table. A napkin with a spoon and a knife on the right. The fork was to the left. “There’s a glass of water and a glass of wine,” Joe commented as he filled them.

“There are actually two small tables pushed together,” I announced, pleased to feel more comfortable with the setting. “That makes sense since that way they can organize them for groups of different sizes.”

Grant suggested that we clink glasses in the middle of the table to applaud. Jane was a bit apprehensive at first, but Nick and I managed to connect. There is something about a toast that gives you a sense of accomplishment.

The first of three courses from the $18 prix fixe menu arrived. Another part of the experience is that you don’t know what you’re eating until the end of the meal when they show the photos on a tablet. great salad. I insisted it was mango as it is popular in the Kingdom of Wonders, as Cambodia is known. Wrong. It was actually milk fruit. Surprisingly, I managed it without it falling over, Khmer style with a spoon and fork.

Next up was the main course. “Chicken, it has to be chicken.” That guess only got a 50 percent mark, since it was actually one small serving of chicken with rice and another of beef with rice.

“It’s interesting,” said Grant, a retired physician, “that it’s totally dark, but I still see little white spots floating around.” The rest of us murmured in agreement. There was no point in nodding since no one could see anyway.

Dessert was a bowl of fruit. “There’s also more food on the plate,” Grant said. While he felt around, I managed to cover my fingers with syrup. I licked them off because I couldn’t think of anything else to do, although I guess I could have slipped them into my glass of water.

The meal over, we lined up behind Joe and were escorted back to the world of seers. The stay in the world of the blind was an interesting experience, but you would not want to live there.