by H. Graciela Dyer

Created on: February 07, 2009   Last Updated: February 10, 2009

If you're looking for a restaurant where you and your lover can smooch and feed each other without being noticed, O Noir is the place to go. The restaurant opened its doors in September 2006, and offers two dinner sittings each night in a room so completely devoid of light that to call it mere darkness underestimates the total absence of shadow or nuance. Serving staff are all at least 80 percent blind, and diners can expect an evening unlike any offered in Montreal's many other fine eateries.

O Noir is located behind an unassuming storefront at 1631 Ste. Catherine Street West, accessible from Guy metro stop. What you get here is best described as a "dining experience". Within a few minutes of being seated, accompanied as I was by a female friend, rather than a lover, I was already beginning to challenge the restaurant's slogan "It's better in the dark".

Once inside the well-lit lobby, diners are asked to stash coats, bags and other personal items of value into a locker before selecting wine and food from the menu that includes dishes such as grilled Portobello mushrooms, filet mignon and chocolate mousse with raspberry. A dinner for two, with wine, will cost approximately ninety dollars.

The list of courses in each section - appetizer, main and dessert - includes a "surprise" item among the four or five choices in each category, allowing diners to add another unknown element to the novelty of eating in the dark. I decided to get the "surprise" part over at the appetizer stage of the meal, while my dining companion, in a bold move, opted to be surprised by her main course.

Our waiter arrived in the lobby and, following his instructions, we proceeded at a shuffle, each of us with one hand on the shoulder of the person in front. We were led to the other side of a thick, black curtain into the dining room - although it might as well have been a building site, because absolutely nothing could be seen through the blackness.

As we fumbled to locate our seats, the waiter assured us that he'd be back shortly with our wine. The entire meal is choreographed and punctuated with the waiters' calls and instructions, as they announce the arrival of each course and check to ensure that wine glasses and plates are correctly placed for them gather them up when each course is over. The service was fast and courteous, however, and it wasn't long before I had one hand around the stem of a wine glass and the other around the handle of a fork.

Never underestimate the importance of vision,

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