Dark Restaurant Poznan: A Foodie Journey Into The Heart Of Darkness

The world is full of natural wonders, but some of the strangest experiences are concocted by the genius, and perhaps the insanity, of man. In my search for unique culinary experiences around the world, I was delighted to find out about the Dark Restaurant while spending a few weeks in Poznan to take in their food scene. Eating here is easily Poznan’s most quirky and recommended dining experiences – and something I can finally check off my bucket list.

Leave The Light At The Door

You may have heard of restaurants where patrons dine in complete darkness. They are guided in by placing one hand on the shoulder of their waiter and seated to enjoy a meal enhanced by removing the sense of sight. The aptly named Dark Restaurant in Poznan is one of those places, but with a one small twist – you have no idea what you’re eating until the meal is over.

On top of that, you have the option a ‘Bizarre’ foods menu, which means no ingredient is off-limit. My partner and I had to give it a shot – and I do recommend dining with others, because sitting in the dark alone could be a bit off-putting.

For 140 PLN, Chef Radoslaw Nejman and his team takes you through a 3 course adventure with playing with ingredients in ways that will trick your senses. You have cutlery at your disposal, but guests are even encouraged to eat with their fingers. Touch, after all, is one of the senses that you can still rely on in the dark.

The Menus At Dark Restaurant Poznan

Mood Food (140 PLN) is a 3 course meal designed around ingredients intended to increase your level of endorphins.

Bizarre Food (140 PLN, is a 3 course meal, catering to guests willing to try unusual ingredients you wouldn’t expect to find in most other restaurants.

Menu Degustation (170 PLN) is a 5 course with two small starters, two small mains, and one dessert designed by the chef based on his long term experience at the Dark Restaurant.

Super Food (190 PLN) is a 5 course menu based on sourcing organic and regional products that are harvested ecologically with respect to the environment.

Choose Your Adventure

Our experience started in a dimly lit room with 14 chairs around a long wood table. On the table were bundles of dried shrubbery, and a large sheet of white paper curled on one end. On the opposite side of the room were two statues, each of a couple frozen in an erotic embrace.

We were explained the menu and then almost ominously asked to choose, like we were making some life and death decision. Dramatic would be an understatement. We went with the Mood and Bizarre menu. I was asked once again before my selection if I had any food allergies, because there was no possibility to exclude or substitute ingredients when choosing the Bizarre Menu. I readily agreed and with a nod from our guide, our journey began.

A Dining Experience In Total Darkness

Once ready, our waiter arrived dressed from top to bottom in black and led us from the dimly lit room to one completely devoid of light. He put on his night vision goggles and then asked us to place one hand on the shoulder of the person in front of us. Like a centipede (don’t let your thoughts go there), we moved in unison and crossed through a series of room until any vestige of light was gone completely.

Guided to our seat, we felt for the table and were told where our utensils were located, along with a bowl of water for cleaning our fingers. And then he just left without saying another word.

Music As An Aphrodisiac

You’d think that your eyes would eventually adjust to the darkness, but they never do. The darkness is meant to deprive you of your most used sense. Would our other senses heighten to compensate?  Alone, together, we sat there experiencing the feeling of blindness with only the music and our whispered conversations to fill the void. About the music. I can only describe it as a playlist designed for an orgy in Dracula’s castle. Maybe it was a mood-maker. This is definitely more of a date spot than a family restaurant.

It didn’t take long for us to realize that we were the only guests dining at that moment. Perhaps, we shouldn’t have taken the earliest reservation on a weeknight.

The next thing that added to the emptiness of the room was having no idea how big the space we were occupying. Was it cavernous or just a small nook by a stairwell? I tried not to let my imagination run wild.

You May Eat With You Fingers

By the time we started getting used to the darkness, the waiter returned with the first course. We could hear the placement of the dish in the silence, and no explanation followed – a departure from the usual haute cuisine dining experience. Once he left, I forewent the utensil and began feeling at the dish with just my fingers – as we were recommended to do.

The dish was…saucy. At the center was something akin to a mound of thinly sliced deli meat, and around it some spherical objects, and something else that was crunchy and square in shape.

Unlike at other restaurants, where you  take in a chef’s creation visually first, here, we relied on smell and feel alone. In that moment, I thought how it must have been a shame for a chef to create something so beautiful that his guests will never get to see. Or maybe he just got lazy and threw everything on a place for precisely the same reason.

Taking my first bite, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I tasted the food. In many ways, this is perhaps a chef’s only desire from his diners – to be mindful of each bite.

Revealing The Ingredients

My girlfriend and I alternated between tasting our own dishes and feed the different components of it to each other. We certainly could have given in to the bacchanalian undertone of eating out of the other’s hands and licking the sauces off the ends of fingers – if not for the paranoia that maybe in another room, we were being watched with night vision cameras.

When we had cleaned up every last morsel of food from our plates, we journeyed in reverse, once again with a hand on the shoulder of the person in front of us until we were guided back to the light.

In a different room from before, the ominous sounding gentleman at the beginning was now a lot more jubilant. With a smile, he asked us to describe what we ate and how we liked each course. I, in fact, loved the flavors and the texture of every dish. Each set different from the previous and yet flowing together very well as one menu.

Reading from a hand-written list, his smile now a bit of smirk, he  told me that at amongst the many ingredients used, I had:

Horse heart in my starter, bull penis in my main course, and freeze-dried crickets in my dessert.

To be honest, I was elated. With my adventurous palate, I did not expect to be surprised with something I hadn’t eaten before. The heart of a horse and phallus of a wild beast were certainly things I had never put in my mouth until a short while ago.

Last Thoughts On The Dark Restaurants

If you are in Poznan, whether you are adventurous with your stomach or not, go eat at the Dark Restaurant. Not only would you pay so much more for either experience (eating in the darkness and having a Michelin-quality degustation menu) elsewhere in the world, you get to have a unique culinary experience.

I certainly would recommend the Bizarre menu if you do not have any food allergies or objections. The Mood Menu my girlfriend chose was nice, but it lacked that extra sense of curiosity that came with wondering what weird ingredient was in your hands at any given moment.

One last thing, you may notice there are no photos of the meal for obvious reasons, but if you want to see what some of the creations from the chef looks like, you can see them here.

For more foodie recommendations in Poznan, check out my foodie’s guide to this wonderful city. If you’re looking for more travel inspirations, check out some of the 450+ experiences on my bucket list. Maybe you’ll find your next adventure on there.

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Updated on May 29, 2024