Toronto and O.Noir

Friday night we headed up to Toronto. Toronto is one of the big cities in Canada that I’ve never been before so I was interested to see how it compared to the other places I’ve been and really liked like Quebec and Montreal. 

The traffic was pretty insane. It took us almost an hour to get inside the city. It was also much bigger (and more modern looking) than I anticipated. Downtown was pretty huge and since it was dark and lots of traffic we didn’t get to do much exploring of the downtown. After checking into our hotel (the Chelsea Eaton- nice hotel but way too busy and crowded), we collapsed for a while and tried to decide what to do before dinner. Our reservations at O.Noir weren’t until 8 so we had a few hours. Since we had been drinking wine all day we didn’t really feel like going out for drinks and it was so cold out that in lieu of walking around we just decided to take a nap.

Once it was time to head out we decided to walk to O.Noir since it was only a mile away and parking was a nightmare. I’m glad we did because we were able to see the neighborhood and some of the local shops on the way. 

O.Noir was probably the only really cool thing I found to do in Toronto (at least that interested me in the winter months). It’s a concept restaurant where the dining room is completely pitch black. You order your food in the lobby/bar area and then your waiter comes out to lead you to your table. The wait staff is blind. 

It was a really disorienting experience. Our waiter, Elias, led us to our table and we sat down. You couldn’t tell how many other people were in the room, if anyone was next to you, or what was going on. After a while I just had to close my eyes because they kept trying to adjust. I had ordered all 3 courses off the menu but they have an option for a “surprise” in each course. Patrick did the surprise appetizer and dessert.

They brought out our appetizers (I had octopus) and I realized how hard it was going to be to eat in the dark. I couldn’t get anything on my fork, each time I’d think I got a piece of octopus and brought the fork to my mouth it was empty. Good thing it was dark because I had to resort to feeling around on the plate with my hand and then holding a piece of octopus while I stabbed it with my fork.

Patrick’s appetizer was also interesting, mainly because we didn’t know what it was. They don’t tell you what’s in the surprise course so you just have to start eating and guess. I think it was some sort of salad with nuts and dates. 

For the main course we both got filet mignon. It comes out pre cut, thankfully. I was surprised at how good the food actually was. I had to do more finding of my food with my hands and my only complaint is that they probably should just give everyone more napkins.

Dessert was good too- chocolate mousse cake for me and cheesecake of some kind (surprise) for Patrick. The whole dinner took about 2 hours and it was pretty weird because you’re not allowed to have any kind of light so you couldn’t check your phone so we had no idea how long we had been there or what time it was. 

I left with a much stronger appreciation for my vision and the ability to do all the things that I’m able to do. It was a really interesting experience and if you get the chance to go to one of these types of restaurants, you definitely should!