O.Noir - Montreal

When I went to Montreal, I not only looked for the best places to eat, but also those places that were unique to Montreal.  One of the places that I went to was a place called O.Noir, which served dinner in the dark.  The restaurant is located on a wide boulevard that has been made car free, so there is at least a walk of half a block even if you are dropped off on the corner of the street on which the restaurant is located.  The restaurant has a large storefront with glass windows looking into the lounge where you start your experience.  The space has a cement floor and a plank ceiling with inset lights.  There is a bar at the back of the room with hanging lights and a set of lockers off to one side where you are to store your cell phones, watches, and any other light making accessories.  It is in the lounge where you make your drink and dinner selections.  You have the option of ordering two or three courses. and there is also an option for every menu and drink selection to get a dealer's choice and find out after dinner what it was that you ate.  My thought was that knowing what you were getting would make it easier to wrap your head around what you were eating and drinking, so I went all in and ordered three courses and a cocktail, all dealer's choice.  Not only would I not know what I was getting, I wouldn't even know what to expect,  After I ordered, I was directed to a table to wait for my waiter, who was blind, who would direct me to my table. I was told to grab his shoulder and follow him.  The room was pitch black and I was seated at a two top next to a brick wall.  It was so dark that my eyes were seeing swirls of light trying to see something.  From the voices in the room, I would say that the room was crowded.  I heard French, of course, but I also heard English at at least 4 other tables, in addition to Spanish, and what sounded like Russian.  Those were the languages that I could recognize.  It was loud and there were a lot of people speaking, some in languages, that I didn't immediately recognize.

 After sitting in the dark and listening to the room and the conversations around me, there were a group of doctors from South Carolina and Florida sitting one table over, my cocktail was brought to me.  It was interesting. It started with Vodka and also used Creme de Violet, Egg White, Ginger, Simple Syrup, and was garnished with an Orange. I immediately recognized the egg white and could tell that it was a white liquor.  I knew that it wasn't gin and thought it was vodka, but I wasn't certain because of the floral flavors that came from the Creme de Violette and the spice of the ginger.  I also recognized that it was garnished with an orange.  While the flavors were familiar, the combination was not, but I did like it.

My Appetizer was a Turkey Croquet with Spicy Mayo and a Side Salad with Vinaigrette. This was interesting.  The croquette was the first thing that I found and I thought that it was some sort of fried meatball.  I ended up eating it with my hand because I had some difficulty cutting into it with my fork.  While I was eating it, I found the spicy mayo.  I figured it was a sauce for the meatball, so I dipped the meatball into it a few times.  What was left was solid enough that I was just able to grab it with my hand and put it in my mouth.  The side salad I found last and that was mostly eaten with my fork, though it did involve me using my other hand to put the greens onto my fork to eat them.  After the first course, I quickly realized that I would need to wash my hands at the end of the meal because I was going to need to use them more than I normally do when eating.

The main course was actually easier to eat (after I felt around with my hands a little bit).  It was Pork Osso Bucco with Mashed Potatoes and Crispy Kale.  The mashed potatoes and crispy kale were easy to eat by fork and the mashed potatoes were easy to recognize by taste.  The Kale, I was kind of clueless on.  The meat was tender and I immediately recognized it as pork, though I did not recognize that it was an osso bucco.  I was able to mostly cut it off the bone, but since I had mostly resigned myself to eating with my hands, I had no problem with picking the bone up and chewing the meat off of the bone that I was unable to cut off.

Dessert was a Cheesecake with Berries and an Oreo Crust.  With dessert, I wasn't exactly sure what I was eating, though I knew that I liked it.  I recognized berries, chocolate, and cream cheese, but I couldn't put it all together.  It probably didn't help that it came apart so easily that I ate the individual elements separately.

I really enjoyed my experience here.  I had done a dinner in the dark before in Chicago at a pop up in a private residence, but with that dinner we wore blindfolds and our menu was made to eat by hand, so it was a little less messy.  This was more like something that you would find in a restaurant which made it a bit more difficult to eat.  It was all good, but I definitely had to wash my hands after dinner.