NOX — Dine In the Dark is back and this time round, they’re located on Club Street. Okay, fine, they have a refreshed dining and drinks menu with the latter, created by Sam Wong of Ah Sam Cold Drinks Stall fame. While the concept is still there — dine in the dark, gasp in wonder and proced to pay the bill — here, Jesper Gustafsson the owner takes us through what’s new and fresh.
Hi Jesper, how’s it going? What’s the response for NOX – Dine in the Dark like so far?
The response has been astounding so far and we can tell that many have been thrilled to experience our refreshed tasting and cocktail menus and dine with our friendly visually impaired hosts again. Our recent package for Valentine’s Day was filled within days of its release and we are currently almost fully booked for the next one month with very limited seats available.
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When I meet someone for the first time, I usually like to ask them this: Are you able to summarise your business in 10 words or less?
A unique dining experience in complete darkness served by visually impaired waiters. Haha, that’s 13 words.
What was the #1 brief you gave to Sam when it came to the cocktail menu?
Amazing flavours plus uniqueness in terms of preparation and presentation! At our bar, you would not find the typical cocktails that can be found in most other bars as I wanted the unique experiential aspect of NOX – Dine in the Dark to be translated into our cocktail menus.
Since the bar area is the only point where guests can engage their sight and take photos, I also requested for Sam to design aesthetic cocktails that would help to set the scene before they proceed to dine in pitch-black darkness.
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Have there been less “accidents” on the part of diners with the 2.0 of NOX – Dine in the Dark?
Accidents are surprisingly rare actually. I think people are extra careful as they can’t see anything in the complete dark dining room. I would not be surprised if we actually have fewer broken glasses than a ‘normal’ restaurant.
How much of the menu has been revamped? Most importantly, what are some of your favourites?
The whole menu is new. We’ve always been known for our refined Modern European cuisine since our opening in 2014. With this refreshed menu, we will still be focusing on a similar cuisine but with a touch of local flavours. Our tasting menu changes every 8 weeks so that our regular guests can anticipate a novel experience every time they return.
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I can’t tell you my favourites as our menu is a secret and you would have to come down to try it for yourself. But there might be an amazing dish with a crustacean on the menu which I personally love.
Do you perhaps think that mod-European food is easy to consume in the context of NOX – Dine in the Dark because…they’re usually very “minimal”?
Modern European cuisine gives you a lot of freedom to pick and choose from so many different great cuisines and the possibilities are endless. Our menu consists of a total of 12 different dishes that are specially crafted to showcase our quality ingredients by creatively pairing them with varying flavours, temperatures, textures, and aroma.
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Do you have an interesting story from a customer of NOX 2.0?
We have already had our first single diner (quite rare) come to dine with us. It was a guest who was really into food and just tried to get every single ingredient correct. As diners don’t know the menu before their meal it’s a lot of fun trying to guess the dishes before we reveal photos of them and walk the guests through the menu after the meal.
Lastly, do you know the #1 song on your Spotify from 2021?
As we were closed for the 2nd part of 2021, I can’t really recall but for this year it’s probably been Cold Heart by Elton John, Dua Lipa, and PNAU.
Once you’re done with this story, click here to catch up with our March 2022 cover stars, BTS!
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