Ultraviolet is a multi-sensory, immersive dining experience in Shanghai, where only 10 people can eat at a time and reservations are notoriously difficult to secure.
Source: Ultraviolet, Eater
Ultraviolet was created by famous French chef Paul Pairet. The walls of the restaurant's dining room are bare and white, with no décor, paintings, or windows — only a single table and 10 chairs.
Source: Ultraviolet
But during the meal, the room is transformed by light, sounds, and scents. This version of the room, called "Autumn Soil," resembles an enchanted forest.
Source: Ultraviolet
"The experience unfolds as a play. Food leads. Each course is enhanced with its own taste-tailored atmosphere: lights, sounds, music, scents, projection, images and imagination... and food," reads Ultraviolet's website.
Source: Ultraviolet
The technology, which includes lights, projectors, dry scent diffusers, infrared cameras, and a surround sound system, is controlled remotely from a "Techno Room."
Source: Ultraviolet
In another scenario, "Pop Center" displays rows of brightly-colored, familiar pop culture images.
Source: Ultraviolet
Ultraviolet claims to hold one of the world's record ratios of employees per guest, with 2.5 staff members to each guest.
Source: Ultraviolet
New York Times columnist Frank Bruni ate at the restaurant in 2013 and found the food to be excellent, writing "... just when all of this starts to feel too gimmicky, too fast, too much, [Pairet] slows everything down for three relatively straightforward main courses — of sea bass, rack of lamb and Wagyu — that have a classic French pedigree and leave no doubts about his mettle as a cook. They’re a pivotal breather, and they were breathtaking."
Source: Ultraviolet, The New York Times
Opened in 2012, Ultraviolet is advertised as "the first restaurant of its kind uniting food and multi-sensorial technology."
Source: Ultraviolet
Pairet, the chef, wants the restaurant to be anything but pretentious. "Ultraviolet is hopefully about doing things seriously without taking oneself too seriously," he wrote on the website.
Source: Ultraviolet
A meal at Ultraviolet, which includes 20 courses and a drink pairing, starts at about $575 per person and can cost up to $860 on certain days of the week.
Source: Ultraviolet
This "crunchy fierce salad" includes crisps of rice, a bread roll, cheese and potato, mushroom, arugula, and turnip.
Source: Ultraviolet
