The worst dining experience of my life


There are many things in life that don’t go together: Paris Hilton and carbs, for instance, or skinny jeans and, well, just about anyone. Restaurants and concepts are another; I’m all for subverting expectations, but the fact is that restaurants are for eating, drinking and talking. Any ‘concept’ that gets in the way of those basic requirements is a bad one. And most do.

ctaste is just such a concept restaurant. It has taken me some time to work myself up to writing this review, given that in response to an email I sent to one of my friends about it he said, ‘god Vicky, it sounds like you need counselling after that’. ctaste is so wrong on so many levels that it’s hard to know where to start.

So I decided to look on the website to see how it describes itself. I quote: ‘Enjoying your food, but in a different way. Using your senses, but see nothing. Visiting ctaste Amsterdam is not like visiting an ordinary restaurant. In ctaste you will enjoy your food in the complete dark…’ What is wrong with this picture (apart from the horrible grammar)? First up, ‘using your senses’; yes, that’s what I do every day at every mealtime. I eat with my mouth and my nose and my hands and my ears and my eyes. And there’s a good reason for this. Heston Blumenthal understands this; that’s why he’s got several Michelin stars. Depriving diners of one of their senses is just nonsensical.

‘ctaste – Dining in the Dark – will seat you in a literally pitch-black dining room where you will be guided and served by blind or visually impaired individuals’, the website continues. This strikes me as kind of disability tourism. My grandfather was blinded by the war and I’m sure it wasn’t much fun. I have no desire to participate in this type of strange voyeurism (pun intended) on a world I’m lucky enough not to inhabit. And incidentally, our waiter wore glasses – he was no more ‘visually impaired’ than 50% of the population.

I can’t tell you much about the food because I was so busy trying to fight down the rising claustrophobia that I can barely remember tasting anything. I do know that the wine we’d ordered to come with our starter arrived after we’d finished it, and the rest of the wine was vinegary, oxidized plonk (wine is one thing I seem able to taste with my eyes shut) and half of it ended up all over the lap of one of my fellow diners. Unsurprisingly.

And finally: ‘Our team will make sure that you will not forget this evening easily’. Well they succeeded there. It was, without exception, the worst dining experience of my life. If I could give it no stars at all, I would; sadly the coding doesn’t let me. I would have had more fun burning the fifty euro note I used to pay.

I suggest that ctaste change their website text to something along the lines of ‘Warning: do not enter if you have, or have had, any of the following conditions:
- claustrophobia
- fear of the dark
- common sense’

Or better still: ‘Closed’.

ctaste

1 Star Rating   

Amsteldijk 55, 675 2831

website 


Follow the Amsterdam Foodie:



Write a Comment

Take a moment to comment and tell us what you think. Some basic HTML is allowed for formatting.

or

Reader comments

Comment number:
1
Written by:
Chris
Posted on:
March 11, 2008 at 10:49

So you didn’t really like it then!?

This place does sound like a pretty bad idea.

I’m not sure about grand father’s visual impairment being directly related to WWII, but I guess that I should stop worrying about the accuracy of your familial references.

Comment number:
2
Written by:
marja
Posted on:
March 12, 2008 at 2:10

Hey Vicky,

As you know I enjoyed myself at our Supperclub dinner. It was pretty obvious they were struggling the night we were there. But in all fairness, being an ex waitress I cannot help but feel sympathetic. I have screwed up a reservation or two in my life… The food wasn´t bad for 25 euro´s for a 3 course dinner. I though poached salmon, ostich steak and raspberry coulis was a nice menu. Okay, it wasn´t much and even I (I eat like a mouse) could have eaten more. It wasn´t perfect but they did reduced our bill with 2 bottles of wine.

If you´re afraid of the dark, or have claustrophobic tendencies, I would not recommend this place. But I don´t have any issues with that and I (and so did Nick) had a great time and we enjoyed our food (price / quality wise). Might even go back in a less busy week when things are more going like normal.

P.s.

About skinny jeans. I remember a time I shared your opinion on this for sure…Nowadays I feel fabulous myself wearing ´em ;)
See ya at Tokyo Cafe April 2.

Comment number:
3
Written by:
Vicky
Posted on:
March 12, 2008 at 2:36

Thanks for the comment Marja, always good in the name of balanced journalism :-)

But somehow with these restaurant week deals they always seem to end up costing me €50 even though the food itself is only supposed to be €25… but maybe we’re just alcoholics!

As for the skinny jeans, I must admit I own a pair too, but ONLY wear them with boots and something long over the top – so they are rather more like denim tights in my case!

Comment number:
4
Written by:
Lauga
Posted on:
May 5, 2008 at 1:40

Hello. Wandered in here after googling ctaste.
Just wanted to share my experience of ctaste as I had a completely different experience.
I went there with three other people who really like to experiment with food and restaurants and we went there with a really open mind.
The concept was explained to us at the beginning and it was explained to us that the waiters were either completely or nearly blind.
Our waiter had glasses on but we could see that he didn’t have good eyesight even with glasses on because at the end of the evening he started talking to one of us thinking it was one of the other waiters.
For us it was a really good experience, and I thought it gave us insight into what blind people have to experience daily. The food was really good and it was so fun to “look for it” on the plate. When you thought you were done then “Oh – there’s more here – how nice”.. And the wine that we got fitted the food so well. Also it was really fun to guess what food it was on our plates.
The fact that the waiters are competely or almost blind makes them the best waiters for this concept because they will probably not walk into things as people with good eyesight would likely do. They know the environment very well and know how to use their senses in the right way in this environment. So I think this is also a great job opportunity for blind people who enjoy being with people and like to serve – because they probably wont have the opportunity to become waiters at some mitchelin places.
Opposite to your night, I had the best time in there and enjoyed my food and wine and experience. I will definetly go there again if I visit Amsterdam again, or go to another place like this (I know of one in Berlin). And I also recommend this place with other people who like to experience something very different.
To go there, you have to be very open minded and willing to experience new things and it is probably not good to go there if you are claustrophobic or afraid of the dark. Actually, I am afraid of the dark myself but in the hands of the waiter and with the atmoshpehere that was in there I felt completely safe, so in there I felt no fear.
What I don’t understand is why you went there if you didn’t like the website or the concept.. This is a place where you have to be open minded.

For my parts, this is a night I will never forget – for me it was a complete success and one of the best dining experience of my life.

P.s. Agree with you on the skinny jeans.

Comment number:
5
Written by:
Amanda
Posted on:
November 19, 2009 at 8:23

I visited the ctaste restaurant last year for my boyfriends birthday and it was amazing!! The people were all lovely and our waiter was blind, its amazing how well he could navigate the restaurant, I’m a waitress and really don’t think I could do it blind! The food was delicious and we totally thought we were eating all sorts of exotic things, one of which turned out to be a mere strawberry. I would definately go back, and after seeing the previous comment really want to try the one in Berlin. In this context even if the food hadn’t been that great, the night in ctaste is about the overall dining experience and I would recommend it to anyone.