“O.Noir” – dine in the dark.
Where is it??
Well, I walked down Church from the Bloor/Yonge subway line to Wellesley – couldn’t see any sign of it. I then backtracked up Church towards Bloor and still had no success. Through frustration, I asked at another establishment in the vicinity and low and behold, I had walked right past it.
The restaurant is actually below ground – underneath the “Town Inn Suites” hotel at 620 Church Street. The sign for the restaurant is not prominent enough (in my opinion) and could easily be missed. It was in a glass-fronted case positioned on a railing near the top of the many steps you have to go down to enter the restaurant (the steps are to the right of the hotel whenever you look directly at the front of the hotel).
What to Eat?!
As we entered through 2 sets of double doors, through a small barely lit corridor, into the main seating area. The decor of the whole area was a little antiquated with plain table/chairs. There we were able to view the very selective menu, order drinks and listened to ??, singer/pianist. Once we had made our menu selections, we were led to the ‘door’ into the dining room. At the door, our waitress introduced herself and led us (arm on each other’s shoulder) into the room and helped us sit down at our table. This was quite easily done with the instructions we were given by our waitress.
As per photo below – Yup, can’t see a thing. Being in the dark definitely heightens other senses and makes for an interesting evening.
I had selected the ‘surprise’ of each course (3-course meal) but with hindsight, I would actually order one of the other appetizers/entrees/dessert. My sister and other friends were not so daring!
My surprise starter was some kind of salad – it was delicious. With this appetizer, I used the fork. I did try to use the knife but found that my fingers were more useful. My surprise main dish was some kind of meat dish. The meat was very tender and tasty, so was the gravy. Not too many vegetables though. As I began eating the main dish, I came to realise that it was best the fork be left on the table to keep the knife company, reverting back to my primal instincts – fingers rule! The others did mention that they only found 1 asparagus on their plates but expected a couple more. As for dessert, two of us ordered the surprise and got the same thing – some kind of dark chocolate cake.
Overall, this restaurant is somewhere I would take friends or family who are visiting or want to have a different dining experience. We noticed that the portions seemed to be smaller than what we are used to. In saying that, you could always try your neighbour’s food – who’s to know, eh! It’s always good to leave the patrons wanting more of a good thing. The whole experience was good and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in trying something different. No food or drink was spilled (nor wasted) and if you want to lick the plate, you can!