Yes, that’s actually a photo from dinner :)

On Wednesday, July 2, 2008, a few friends and I went to dinner at a restaurant in Amsterdam called ctaste, definitely an alternate dining experience. You’re all led in to a completely dark room, and you’re served by partially sighted waiters. They don’t bother to blindfold you, because it really is that dark in the room. Three sets of heavy curtains help ensure that.

It was a really intimate experience with friends. I highly recommend you go with a small group of people max, as you could never enjoy it as much having to talk to too many people. Although I have mixed reviews, it’s certainly worth going!

The meal was about €35, and wine pairings were an extra €15 or so. You get free refills too. Don’t quote me on it, but I think it was about €55 including a tip all said and done. With 5 of us, we ended up taking over 3 hours for the three course meal.

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Everything written after here can be a spoiler for you if you plan to go! So don’t read on if you’d like it to be a novel experience.

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After quite a few minutes, your mind can’t handle the lack of input, and everyone starts seeing things. Suzie thought she was underneath the stars. Laura thought someone touched her leg at one point. It really screws with you.

You sit at a normal table, you have a napkin, 2 forks and 2 knives. Our waiter gave one of us 5 water glasses, and gave another person a jug of water. At least three of us spilled significant amounts of water on the table trying to fill our own glasses. My section of the table was soaked. I did it twice. It’s harder than it seems!

Unfortunately, I was a bit disappointed with the meal itself. There were so many things you could have cooked to surprise and delight people, but our meal mostly lacked creativity. Our starter was a salad, some covered with prawns, mine with parma ham. It had a typical dressing, cherry tomatoes and pine nuts. All was readily identifiable.

The main course was a challenge. You’re given oversized plates, and you’d be amazed how hard it is to find all the things on there. It’s like searching blindly through a forest. I “found” a big portion of ribeye, which is nearly impossible to cut without seeing. Some friends resorted to picking it up with their hands and just gnawing on it. Unfortunately, it was really gristly, making it not the most appetizing. There were mixed veggies, which we argued about what some of them were. I still don’t know what one of them was. Potatoes roasted with rosemary were ok.

Desert was a chocolate mousse, accompanied by a lemon sorbet inundated with tropical fruit chunks. The fruit was the highlight, as you were surprised by each different piece. There were easily 7 or more different things like nectarines, and pineapple. I led the charge by licking my plate clean, since nobody could call me out on it!

It was the hottest day in Amsterdam I’ve had so far, and it was a bit hot shoved in to a sealed room. Thankfully you could take off your shirt and nobody would know! ;)