BEIJING, Jan. 15 -- As Asia's first dark-dining restaurant, Whale Inside offers Beijing's gastronomes a taste of blind living.

    Since the restaurant opened for its trial run on December 22, more than 700 diners have come to see or not see what it is like to eat in total darkness. "It's something completely new and exciting," said diner Tong Hao, of Shanghai.

    Customers choose from a set menu in the well-lit lobby before entering the dining area through a specially designed one-way corridor. Before patrons can enter the inky black dining room, staff confiscate all light-producing paraphernalia such as mobile phones, digital watches, matches and lighters. Once all such belongings have been safely stashed in lockers, servers bespectacled with night-vision goggles lead patrons to their seats conga-line style.

    Dinner is served. Zhang Wei

    Inside, foodies feast on meals in a photon-less dining room, where they can't see their surroundings, their food or their dinner companions. The dining experience involves searching for spoons, groping for glasses and floundering to find the food. In concept, by eating without the distractions of presentation and dcor, diners become better able to savor the taste of their meals.

    "When you're deprived of sight, your other senses kick into high gear," explained manager He Zaijin. "Because of that, we place a greater emphasis on fragrance, especially with our soup."

    When they leave the dining area, patrons spend a few minutes adjusting their eyes in the dimly lit "transitional chamber", before facing the harsher light of the lobby.

    Currently, diners can choose between two set meals: the Dark Classic Set and For Lovers Set particularly appropriate for a blind date.

    Eventually, the restaurant plans to expand its set menu to include six additional options: the Business Set, Vegetarian Set, Family Set, Friends Set, Whale Set and Secret Set.

    Each meal includes at least one mystery dish.

    Diners can win prizes by guessing the constituents of the Five-Ingredient Mystery Meal, which comes with the For Lovers Set. He said only 18 diners had guessed correctly so far.

    The Dark Classic Set includes a soup, two "mystery" entrees, two main courses and a fruit pudding for 138 yuan ($17.7).

    At 214 yuan ($27.5) for two, the For Lovers Set includes soup, a plate of seven mystery foods, two entrees, two main dishes and a fruit platter for dessert.

    One of the entrees in this set is the Ring Meal. Eating this dish requires each sightless couple to place a deep-fried apple ring on a deep-fried apple stick before feeding the rings to each other, much to the amusement of the servers who watch the spectacle using night-vision goggles. He said that only 30 percent of visiting couples successfully land a morsel in their lovers' mouths.

    He believes that eating in the dark increases intimacy among those at the table.

    "When eating in the dark, people communicate more, and their interactions improve," He said.

    It is this concept that gave birth to the restaurant's slogan: "A world without emotional distance."

    The restaurant is considering hiring blind servers like many of the other dark-dining restaurants around the world, but is still figuring out the logistics of training them.

    The first "dining-in-the-dark" restaurant opened in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1999.

    Whale Inside takes its name from a Chinese fairytale about a shipwrecked boy who is swallowed by a whale. According to the story, the lad lived in its lightless stomach for several years.

    The restaurant will officially open on January 20, but reservations are already full until Valentine's Day. It might be a trendy eatery, but it may not be the best place to see or be seen.