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How foodies felt their way to Swiss blind dining

Total darkness can serve to enhance a top-notch gourmet experience, as Catherine McLean discovered on a recent visit to a trailblazing restaurant where the lights are off and the food's out of sight. 

How foodies felt their way to Swiss blind dining

It’s lunchtime, but the guests lining up at this Zurich restaurant must first get a briefing on the dining room’s rather unusual rules: cellphones and watches must be stored in lockers, and diners must wait for their waiter to guide them personally to their table.

The diners don’t mind. These strict procedures aren’t the brainchild of some over controlling Maître d’, but instead are aimed at ensuring guests have an authentic and safe experience at this unique restaurant.

Welcome to fine dining at the blindekuh, the world’s first dining-in-the-dark restaurant. Guests find themselves in a pitch-black restaurant, light-transmitting devices like cellphones having been confiscated at the door. It’s a kind of darkness that most people rarely experience.

Since blindekuh first opened its doors in 1999 in a quiet downtown Zurich neighbourhood, it has become a city institution and inspired more than 20 similar restaurants around the world from Berlin to Montreal to Shanghai.

“This is special,” says Adrian Schaffner, blindekuh’s manager, bringing over a large guest book to help explain why the restaurant has proven such a hit. “People are looking for something special.”

The restaurant does indeed deliver on that promise. People are guided to their seat by holding onto the shoulders of their blind or visually impaired waiter. There they are confronted with the challenge of eating without seeing, a humdrum task that suddenly requires a lot more concentration: that pesky piece of pasta may very well miss your mouth and end up in your lap. When a guest is ready for a smoke or washroom break, they must call their waiter to guide them back out. 

For most people who don’t have a blind friend or relative, dining in the dark is the closest they will come to experiencing what it is like to be stripped of sight.  

As the dark removes a guest’s ability to see, however, it enhances other senses. It’s suddenly much easier to follow a conversation or focus on how the food actually tastes. As the blindekuh promises on its website, the restaurant allows it to showcase everything colourful from the world of the dark.  

“This is a real experience, it’s no fake,” says Schaffner.

The restaurant, which took its name from the German “blind cow” children’s game, was the inspiration of the blind pastor Jürg Spielmann and Stephan Zappa, a visually impaired psychologist. Working together with Andrea Blaser, a blind social worker, and Thomas Moser, a blind singer, they created the foundation Blind-Liecht in 1998. In 1999, they opened the doors to their restaurant in a former Methodist chapel in Zurich.

The aim was to give visually impaired and blind workers a job, while introducing the seeing to the land of darkness, narrowing the gap between the two groups. At first, there was some scepticism, according to Schaffner.

“People sometimes didn’t give us a lot of credit,” he says. “They thought this will last a half year and then it will close.”

But the press came calling and the restaurant took off. Reports in Swiss papers were followed by the international press, including the Wall Street Journal. In 2005, blindekuh opened the doors to a second restaurant in Basel.

This restaurant is not about easy to eat finger food. The menu, which changes weekly, offers a choice of three appetizers, main courses and desserts. A recent menu featured a perch filet in a lemon-caper butter sauce with rice and artichokes, along with peppers filled with mashed potatoes in a mushroom cream sauce. Most diners choose to eat with cutlery instead of their hands, Schaffner says.

Copycats have sprung up around the world, most of which dined first at blindekuh, according to Schaffner. Some have kept the concept of blind or visually impaired serving staff, such as the Dans le Noir? chain of restaurants, which first opened in Paris and have since expanded to London, Moscow, Barcelona and New York. The same goes for the unsicht-Bar in Cologne, Berlin and Hamburg.

Others have decided to, ahem, cheat, and hire seeing waiters and equip them with night goggles to serve in the dark.

Of course, doing things the blindekuh way is not easy. This restaurant takes more effort and money than say the average Italian pizzeria.

It takes time, for example, before a blind waiter is comfortable manoeuvring around the room. (The table setup never changes.) As well, the restaurant always needs a person in front to prepare the guests for this new dining experience. The waiters, blind from birth or accidents, work part time and receive an above-average salary, according to blindekuh.  

The restaurants don’t do advertising – it’s too expensive – but instead rely on repeat diners, word-of-mouth reviews, along with referrals from hotels. On weekends, the restaurant is often still booked out.

“It’s a difficult business,” Schaffner admits. But fortunately “blindekuh is really an institution. People really like it.”

The two restaurants in Basel and Zurich generate more than 3-million francs ($3.3 million) in annual sales. They also receive donations from the public and businesses.

In a bid to generate more money, blindekuh two years ago opened a “sight-bar” in Basel, where guests can grab a few drinks in the light after dinner in the dark. There is also an event room for more than 200 guests, also in the light. 

Along with serving food, the blindekuh also hosts cultural events. Upcoming acts include an alphorn band, and a salsa dancing night. The later event seems especially intriguing for the reserved Swiss, promising that the upbeat Latin tunes and veil of darkness will get their feet moving “all the more.”

External website: Blindekuh

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DISCOVER SWITZERLAND

Where are the ‘best’ restaurants in Switzerland?

Switzerland is home to some top restaurants, many of which have earned the prestigious Michelin stars. But where are they all and does this mean they are the best? Share your own recommendations below.

Where are the 'best' restaurants in Switzerland?

In October, Michelin presented this year’s renowned restaurant selection of the Michelin Guide Switzerland 2023 at the EHL Hospitality Business School in Lausanne.

The guide introduced five two-star restaurant newcomers (three of which are based in French-speaking Switzerland), while Michelin handed out a total of nine MICHELIN Green Stars for environmentally conscious gastronomy.

In addition to the newly crowned restaurants, Michelin also announced that a further 15 Swiss restaurants had been awarded the Bib Gourmand – which highlights good-value-for-money restaurants – prior to the award ceremony.

Overall, Switzerland’s local gastronomy includes 138 starred restaurants as well as 33 MICHELIN Green Stars-eateries.

So, where can you find the crème de la crème of Swiss restaurants?

Top of the list

The gourmet restaurant Memories, located in the Grand Resort Bad Ragaz (St. Gallen), is among Michelin’s four three-star restaurants this year and a great start for indecisive eaters with an appetite for Swiss alpine cuisine.

Under the kitchen management of Sven Wassmer, Memories’ offers customers seasonal menus consisting of several surprise taste experiences in place of an à la carte menu.

Schloss Schauenstein in neighbouring Graubünden – where Andreas Caminada and Marcel Skibba run the kitchen – is also among Switzerland’s three-star Michelin restaurants, alongside the Cheval Blanc by Peter Knogl in the city of Basel with Peter Knogl as head chef and the Restaurant de l’Hôtel de Ville in Crissier (Vaud) with Franck Giovannini at the helm of the kitchen.

Two-star newcomers

This year also saw five Swiss restaurants snag two Michelin stars for the first time, of which The Japanese Restaurant at the luxurious The Chedi Hotel (Uri) is particularly noteworthy. Swiss twin chef duo Dominik Sato and Fabio Toffolon took the reins of the Andermatt-based restaurant in the spring where they serve up an exciting blend of Japanese cuisine and timeless European influences.

While in the Deutschschweiz, you may also want to check out the region’s second two-starred newcomer: Mammertsberg.

Diners at this exclusive boutique hotel and restaurant, with Silvio Germann as head chef, get to enjoy elaborate meals with deep flavour while overlooking Freidorf (Thurgau) with views reaching all the way to Lake Constance. A three-course meal at the restaurant will set you back 184 Swiss francs per person and needs to be prebooked.

Those looking to enjoy fine dining in French-speaking Switzerland will find themselves spoiled for choice as three new restaurants have joined Michelin’s two-star ranks.

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L’Atelier Robuchon in the city of Geneva, which is housed in the basement of the luxury hotel The Woodward, offers diners a cuisine inspired by regional and seasonal products cooked up by executive chef Olivier Jean.

In neighbouring Vaud, the menu at La Table du Lausanne Palace – with an unmatched panorama overlooking the rooftops of Lausanne, the mountains and the lake – includes anything from delicious frog legs to salmon from Graubünden and wood-fired venison, while La Table du Valrose in Rougemont (Vaud) wows diners with its modern French-influenced menu.

19 new one-star restaurants

2023 also saw a total of 19 Swiss restaurants added to the country’s list of one star Michelin-rated eateries, bringing the total number of one-star restaurants to 108.

Among them is the Wiesner Mysterion – Zauber in Romoos (Lucerne) with its unique alchemical natural cuisine – as chef Stefan Wiesner puts it, for which the restaurant was awarded one star on its first try. The restaurant’s exceptional nine course menu – which is introduced with a short story by Wiesner and tailored to reflect each season – costs 225 Swiss francs per person.

The restaurant ZOE in Switzerland’s capital Bern – which also received the green star for its sustainable concept – is renowned for its modern and creative vegetarian dishes prepared by operational duo Fabian Raffeiner (kitchen) and Mark Hayoz (service).

Restaurants with sustainability at heart

With sustainability gaining importance worldwide, many on the lookout for their next perfect night out also choose to consider a restaurant’s sense of responsibility.

This year, nine Swiss restaurants were newly granted a MICHELIN Green Star for their commitment to the environment and resources and acting as role-models within sustainable gastronomy.

Among them is the modern Zurich-based elmira. Based in the basement of a former silo on the Löwenbräu brewery site, elmira’s cuisine places importance on choosing seasonal products – meat, fish or vegetarian – as well as ingredients sourced from the immediate vicinity where available.

Meanwhile, the La Tapis Rouge in Brienz (Bern) relies on its 2-hectare vegetable garden for fresh produce which is supplemented by local farms and small-scale producers. The produce the restaurant does not manage to use up for either its vegetable-focused or completely vegetarian menu is not wasted, but rather fermented or marinated.

READ MORE: Swiss government wants residents to eat less meat to protect the climate

15 affordable restaurants

In this year’s edition of the MICHELIN Guide Switzerland, 15 new restaurants have received Bib Gourmand award, which highlights restaurants that stand out for the particularly good value for money they offer.

Not surprisingly, most of them are located in rural areas and offer a good assortment of Swiss and international – particularly Asian – delicacies.

If you’re looking for inventive cuisine on a (Swiss) dime in a cosy setting, then you may want to visit the Le Mont-Rouge in Haute-Nendaz (Valais). At the restaurant, guests can order local, authentically homemade dishes paired with a selection of fine wines from the Valais region.

In German-speaking Switzerland, the rustic Schüpbärg-Beizli may be in the middle of nowhere, but it is well worth the trip to Schüpfen (Bern) if it’s Swiss specialties you have your eye on.

The restaurant – or Beizli (tavern) as it’s called in Swiss German – aims to delight guests with a range of traditional Swiss dishes with a modern twist. Its current menu includes cheese ravioli, Swiss salmon, and beef fillet to be followed by a pumpkin pie, plum compote and a variety of ice creams.

You can find a comprehensive list of the remaining restaurants featured on the MICHELIN Guide Switzerland 2023 here.

READ MORE: How many of these must-try Swiss regional delicacies have you tasted?

Is your favourite restaurant in Switzerland in this list? If not where would you recommend for readers?

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