Blinde Kuh Restaurant

One of the things that I truly enjoy about living abroad is getting to experience different lifestyles. I love meeting new people and seeing how they live, what their traditions are, their culture, etc. One of the best ways to get to know someone is by sharing a meal with them. In the last 8 months, I've eaten the Swiss favorite "birchermuesli", African zebra, had many cups of proper English tea, tried Indian food, and drank German beer, just to name a few. But, I've never experienced a meal like I had last night.

Jason's sister, Missy, and her boyfriend, Chris, are here visiting and we know they are adventurous so we decided to take them to a restaurant that I'd been hearing about since we moved here. It's called "Blinde Kuh", which translates to "Blind Cow". As you can see in one of the pictures, their motto is "kultur im dunkeln" which means "culture in the darkness". The concept of this restaurant is that it allows you to experience what life is like to a blind person. The staff is almost completely blind themselves. Only the host and the head chef are not. All the servers, prep cooks, etc. are blind. The restaurant itself is completely dark. Pitch. Black. You literally cannot see a hand in front of your face!

You order from the menu in the lobby (where there are lights) before going in and the server walks you to your table like a train, where one person puts their hands on her shoulders and the others in the party do the same in a line. If you need to get the server's attention, you have to yell her name...a nod of the head or hand wave will not work here! I have no idea how the servers get around the restaurant and are able to serve food and pour wine, but ours was great! She'd say "coming in on your right, and I'll put your wine glass on your left" and things like that so we'd know where to find things. I made sure to order something that didn't need to be cut though! I didn't want to risk it.

The four of us were there for close to 2 hours in total blackness (except for a trip to the bathroom, led by Anya, our server. Luckily the bathrooms were lit). It was an unusual experience and the food was really good. The weirdest thing is that we had a conversation with the couple sitting next to us, but we have no idea who they are! I'll never be able to put a face with a name for them. It wasn't nerve-wracking as I thought it may be, it was actually very relaxing.

I have a totally new respect for people suffering from blindness. I kind of walked in their shoes for 2 hours, and just for "fun". I can't imagine how hard it must be to live that way all the time. I was really relieved when we left the dining room and I could see again. It was another cool experience to add to my growing list.

Here are a few pics of us before dinner. Obviously, I couldn't take any pictures while we ate-it would just be black!