Have you ever imagined eating without knowing what you’re actually eating? Today I’m going to tell you about one of the craziest experiences I’ve ever had here in Vancouver.

To give you some context, I’ve never been an easy eater, I have to be honest, but nowadays I live far from my family in another country, I’m an adult, and if hunger strikes, I need to eat. So I’ve become much more open to trying new things, but I never imagined I would put myself in the situation I’m about to tell you about.

In 2023, I had one of the most different and sensational experiences I could ever have, and I hope that in the end, I’ll make you want to experience the same. Dark Table, a restaurant located in Kitsilano, is more than just a restaurant; besides having delicious food, it takes you into another world, it makes you experience life in a way you never imagined you would.

The restaurant aims to give you a sensory immersion because you eat in complete darkness. Yes, that’s right, no lights at all. Inside, you’re guided solely by your hearing, taste, touch, and smell.

The Dark Table experience is led by a team of blind or visually impaired individuals, and this experience allows us to understand, at least a little, what life is like for these people.

The experience begins outside, where you can choose your main course and drink, but the appetizer and dessert are a big surprise. Upon entering, you find yourself in an enclosed space where you can no longer see anything. That’s where you wait for your waiter to come and take you to your table. Then, in complete darkness, everyone puts their hands on each other’s shoulders and walks around the space, only hearing people talking and without knowing where you’re going. I thought I was going to bump into something or someone at any moment.

With the appetizer and dessert, it’s a challenging moment; you don’t know what’s in front of you, the texture, the quantity, whether you’ll like it or not. And as much as with the main course, you understand that you need to use 100% of your sense of touch. And when I understood that, I was eating meat and rice using only a fork and making my hand as a knife; otherwise, I wouldn’t know if I was actually picking up the food.

This experience opened my mind to many things. It made me realize how, without sight, our sense of taste becomes sharper, our smells become stronger, that even in the dark, we connect better with people because there’s no phone screen to interrupt a conversation, and most interestingly, how incredibly amazing visually impaired people are in the way they live.

Truly, this is the kind of place everyone should go to at least once in their life.