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| - I've learned to always be extra cautious when I plan to visit a new restaurant with reviews skewed so heavily to either end of the spectrum. Unfortunately for Dark Table, their skew towards to negative ended up being realized during my visit.
Dark Table is an interesting concept, piloted in Montreal and Vancouver prior to its implementation in Calgary. The dining room is pitch black, and the wait staff are all visually impaired/blind. This concept has a ton of potential for a next-level culinary experience, but Dark Table not only hugely missed all these opportunities, but also boasts very poor food even compared to a regular restaurant.
I won't repeat the details about the process that is well detailed in other reviews - that's all novelty. Ultimately a visit to any restaurant is about the experience, yes, but the experience is ultimately about the food, and the food at Dark Table falls way short.
The restuarant layout was awful, it was clear that the tables and chairs were poorly organized, and the sitting spaces were incredibly tight - i was crammed right up against a wall.
We opted for the 3 course, comprised of a "surprise" starter, a selection of main course options, and a "surprise" dessert.
The surprise starter was a run of the mill salad - potato based, with mediocre flavours. Unfortunately, the vegan rendition of the starter salad was even worse, with a cheap tasting vinaigrette on top of some greens. Really, the starter in fact was more of a side salad.
While the salad came relatively fast, this was the point in the evening when the experience began to go rapidly downhill. The main course took probably 25 minutes to appear after the starter plates had been cleared!
The main course was apparently a veal with veggies and mashed potato. I'm going to preface this by saying, I have a history of eating a LOT of frozen dinners in my early days, and the mashed potato was somehow WORSE than the mashed potato in a frozen dinner. Not only was it not creamy, it was also somehow watery. In addition to that, it had "unmashed" chunks, which you would imagine would not be "watery and grainy", but somehow was also watery. Needless to say I was perplexed. The veal was average at best and the veggies were unremarkable. The whole main course experience was exceptionally similar to a $5 hungryman plate (often on sale for less than $3).
The other main was a vegan mushroom risotto..... oh boy. Okay, so I will say that the fact it was made vegan without cream and cheese etc really makes it difficult to get a good risotto, but even given this understanding it was a real miss. The food was bland, and the mushrooms were cheap and didn't impart a lot of earthy flavours, etc. Truffle would have been an ideal addition to this, or any type of premium mushroom.
By this point in the night, the novelty of the dining in the dark experience has long worn off, especially given the food experience doesn't leverage the darkness at all. However, our night was not yet over. We were then "forgotten" about for HALF AN HOUR, AFTER we finished the main course.
When we finally flagged down our waiter, we told him we wanted the desserts to go, and asked to GET THE HELL out of Dodge. He obliged, and then proceeded to wait another 10 minutes before coming to fetch us to walk us out.
(The dessert was grocery store sorbet and a small, store bought slice of cake, are you serious.)
It took us 2 hours to get a side salad and a main course. Ridiculous. This 3 course menu? It rings it at $42 a person, without selecting any supplements. FOR FOOD THAT COULD HAVE BEEN PREPARED FROM THE TO GO SECTION OF A GROCERY STORE.
I will say, the waiter was very friendly and as helpful as possible, though they appeared to be short staffed. However, I found the host and the manager both to be short with me, with some attitude.
The only reason this place is getting 2 stars instead of one is because the visually-impaired wait staff are truly hardworking, pleasant, and friendly.
Incredibly poor execution at Dark Table. If you want a Dark Table experience, go elsewhere. The only case that I would consider revisiting this place would be if they went under new management with a new executive chef.
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