Consumers at the Whale Inside Dark Restaurant are led by a waiter with night - vision Goggles . Inside Dark Restaurant in prefix = st1 /Beijing, a table of 30 diners was getting quarrelsome."I'm touching your head!"said one, like a talkative child. "Who just said that?"another replied. Such voices floated across the 90-plus-seat restaurant, but no one could see who was talking, except the waiters, who were equipped with military-grade night-vision goggles.        In the new conceptual dining, restaurants are turning off the lights to focus attention on the food. The trend seems to have started inZurichand has since spread all over the world, with diners sitting in _ rooms and, lately, being served by waiters in night-vision goggles. The idea is that by depriving  one sense (sight), other senses are heightened.         Darkness has other benefits. ''Chinese people tend to be shy,'' said Chen Long, who owns Whale Inside Dark, which opened in January. ''People have found it easy to break the ice here.''        The first dark restaurant, which opened inZurichin 1999, had a simple intention. The goal ''was creating jobs for the blind and handicapped people,'' said the manager. The concept has been popular in Paris, London,Sydneyand elsewhere, offering new variations on sight deprivation, by which people can experience a lot in a completely dark condition.        In Beijing, the Whale Inside Dark Restaurant is not only about heightening the sense of taste, but lowering social inhibitions . It is popular with Internet daters, who met on matchmaking Web sites that are spreading throughout China. Diner for two is about 225 yuan, or $29 at 7.76 yuan to the dollar.        Eating in the dark is not without its troubles. Instead of family-style dining, food is served on single-serving plates. When each dish arrives, the server guides your hand to the plate and offers helpful tips like, ''This course is eaten with a spoon.''        The style seems to be working . ''People feel a lot more comfortable when they can't be seen by others,'' said Mr. Chen, who is opening a second branch in Shang-hai, ''Couples get to know each other without seeing other's faces.'' The advantages of the dark restaurant include the following except_.
lowering social inhibitions heightening the sense of taste breaking the ice easily for some shy persons becoming an Internet daters' centre