NOX, Singapore - Restaurant Review

Location: China Town
Price: ££
Value for Money: 5/5
Overall: 5/5
Perfect for: Unique Experiences, Special Occasions

Making our way to the restaurant, I was excited and curious for what was in store for the evening ahead. Located just off the hip and bustling Club Street, NOX in the Dark is a restaurant with a big twist.

The Concept:

As you’ve probably guessed from the name, diners are invited to enjoy a 12 course meal in complete darkness. This isn’t dining with just a few lights off, it is literally dining in pitch black, with only your touch, taste and smell senses to guide you. This concept is nothing new, it’s been around for many years and there is one located in London too.

However what attracted me to this particular restaurant, is the fact that the staff, including waiters and chefs, are visually impaired. Many had been born seeing, but woke up one day to find their sight had tragically been lost forever.

The food aside, I wanted to hear from these brave individuals and to experience for myself what they had to endure day in, day out, in a world that sometimes sadly loses sight of those afflicted with such tragic disabilities.

This was a unique opportunity for me to allow my other senses to awaken whilst dining. An experience which would usually include taking dozens of photos and making notes for later write-ups.

It was an opportunity to truly savour conversation as well as food and drink. In a technologically abundant world where various screens compete for our attention, we have largely lost the art of simply communicating with one another without being distracted. Yes, I was indeed excited for what lay in store.

The Experience:

Upon entering the restaurant, we were greeted by our friendly host, Qai, one of a very small number of staff without visual impairment. Whilst enjoying a couple of house cocktails and a tasty amuse bouche to awaken our senses, Qai explained exactly what was in store.

In a few moments, we would be greeted by a visually impaired guide who would lead us hand-on-shoulder style to the dining room and escort us to our seats.

We would be served three courses that were comprised of four dishes as well as paired cocktails with each course.

After the dinner, we would be led back to the lounge area and given a form to fill in with our guesses of ingredients in each dish. Qai would then show us pictures of the food and explain exactly what we had eaten.

Dining in the Dark:

After enjoying our cocktails in an ambient lounge with lighting showcasing the three primary colours, we locked away our phones and were warmly greeted by Hong Wei. He was our visually impaired guide, who led us up a flight of stairs and into a pitch black dining room filled with the laughter and conversation of guests and servers.

It was quite surreal and my eyes, and the rest of my senses for that matter, struggled to adjust to the darkness for several minutes. I couldn’t tell how big the room was or how many diners there were and I could only tell that my husband was in front of me through voice alone.

Hong Wei literally guided our hands around the contents of the table, which consisted of a bottle of water, two glasses, two placemats, and two sets of cutlery. Thankfully, Hong Wei poured the first round of water as we adjusted to the darkness as best we could.

Soon after, we were greeted by Bernard, our server for the night. Four years ago, Bernard woke up blind one day without any signs or warnings. In a past life he was a drama teacher but sadly had to find another course of employment.

A few months later, Bernard found out about NOX in the dark and their commitment to hire and train visually impaired staff from scratch and soon enough he had found a new calling. A natural born communicator, Bernard is a larger than life character with an infectious personality.

It was truly an experience in itself just hearing how he had overcome such tragic adversity whilst keeping intact his boyish enthusiasm and positive mindset. I’m not sure I could say the same if I was in his shoes.

The Menu:

Soon enough, Bernard brought us out the first course for the evening, along with the paired cocktail. After successfully finding my knife and fork, I held the small plate close to my mouth and sampled the first dish, which had the unmistakable pungent flavour of blue cheese along with fresh salad leaves and a couple of other ingredients I could not identify.

I won’t go through all the courses as they are supposed to be a surprise, but throughout the dinner, there were some ingredients that were on the tip of my tongue but I just couldn’t name. There were also other ingredients I was completely baffled by.

The flavours were for the most part delicious but there were some flavours that my guest in particular didn’t like. These seemed to be the more ‘fishy’ ingredients, which were strong in taste and slimy in texture. Without sight to go by, my taste buds were honed and I was savouring the flavour in each bite, even though I couldn’t unanimously identify the ingredients.

Despite this the experience was fun! I was excited with each new dish I was about to try and discussing with my husband what we thought was in it. We could also sense the other guests were having fun too as we overheard similar conversations to our own. Meanwhile, the staff were navigating their way through the dining room with loud beeps and clicks as well as shouts of ’coming through!’.

After enjoying the last course of desserts, my favourite course of the night, Bernard led us back to the lounge area where our eyes really struggled to adjust to the bright lights.

It took a good few minutes to fully adjust. We embraced Bernard and thanked him for his warm hospitality and for sharing his story with us. It was quite strange seeing a person for the first time after having already spoken to them in complete darkness for a couple of hours.

In the lounge we set about filling in our forms guessing the ingredients for each course after which Qai put us out of our misery and showed the dishes and what was in them.

We had some successes but for the most part we were quite wrong. We had wrongly guessed duck breast for salmon which was interesting and found it surprisingly hard to differentiate between vegetables like carrot and potato. It showed us that we really do rely on sight when eating our food and making sense of what is in it.

As a result of dining in the dark, I don’t have any pictures to share of the food we tried. The team are also keen to keep it a secret, in order to allow future diners to guess the dishes without any preconceptions. Which is all fair enough!

Overall:

All in all, we had a fun and enlightening culinary experience at NOX In The Dark. I’d highly recommend it for an alternative date night, special occasion or just for a change from the usual dine out experience. Speaking with the visually impaired staff and hearing their personal stories is truly inspiring.

The food is tasty and is changed up regularly to keep you guessing and, along with the 12 courses, there are optional cocktail, mocktail and wine pairing add-ons which you can savour in the dark. I especially liked their cocktails and highly recommend their Breakfast of Champions and Please Burst My Bubbles as pre or post-dinner cocktails.