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Only 10 guests can eat at this Michelin-starred restaurant per night, where a meal costs $600 and the dining room is transformed by high-tech lights, sounds, and scents throughout the evening
Only 10 guests can eat at this Michelin-starred restaurant per night, where a meal costs $600 and the dining room is transformed by high-tech lights, sounds, and scents throughout the evening
Katie WarrenNov 1, 2018, 23:28 IST
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uv room autumn soilScott Wright of Limelight Studio
A restaurant in China only accepts 10 guests per night and offers a multi-sensory, high-tech dining experience through a combination of lighting, projections, sounds, scents, and of course, food.
The 20-course meal at Ultraviolet in Shanghai will cost you between about $575 and $860.
It's notoriously difficult to get a reservation at the restaurant, which has three Michelin stars.
An avant-garde restaurant in Shanghai offers an immersive, multi-sensory experience to only 10 diners per night.
Ultraviolet, opened in 2012 by French chef Paul Pairet, claims to be the first experimental restaurant of its kind. The dining room, which has a single table and bare white walls, is transformed throughout the meal by lighting, projections, sounds, and scents, transporting diners from an abstract otherworldly setting to an autumn forest to a rainy day in London.
The meal, 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.
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Ultraviolet seems to follow an emerging trend of defining luxury as a unique, exclusive experience rather than just an expensive one. CEOs are paying to go on extreme adventure retreats for soul-searching; the ultra-wealthy buying permanent apartments on cruise ships that travel the world following major events including the Olympics, Wimbledon, and Carnival in Rio de Janeiro.
Although anyone can book a seat at the restaurant and reserving the entire table isn't necessary, it's notoriously tough to get a reservation, according to Eater.
The restaurant attracts foodies, both locals and travelers, a representative for the restaurant told Business Insider.
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.
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.
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.
"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.
The technology, which includes lights, projectors, dry scent diffusers, infrared cameras, and a surround sound system, is controlled remotely from a "Techno Room."
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."
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.
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.
