Where to Eat in Oslo, Norway

If there’s one thing I do when I travel it’s eat, so I’ve obviously taken pictures of every meal I had for a ‘Where to Eat in Oslo’ post so you could all experience it with me!

I was lucky enough to be sent there for work for a full 11 days and although not all of this was centred in Oslo, the majority was and so this meant I had to find a restaurant most evenings. Cue me tweeting for help and scrolling through various apps to find places to wander around and restaurants to seek out. It’s not a cheap city so I didn’t order loads (for fear of being told off by finance!) but generally everything was fabulous. Read on to see what I decided to eat in Oslo!

On arrival my first restaurant was Cafe Skansen, a beautiful bright yellow building lit up with lights and looking extremely warm and inviting whilst shuffling around in the snow outside. I’ve written in some of my other Oslo posts how I’ve never really experienced ‘real snow’ apart from what we’ve had the in the UK the last few years so I was shuffling a fair bit at times!

What To Eat in Norway

What To Eat in Norway

What To Eat in Norway

True to it’s promise it was warm and welcoming inside, and I was quickly shown to a table. The menu revolved around local dishes and included a lot of fish, so trying to be healthy ish I ordered some fish with vegetables. This was my interpretation of the menu and the helpful waitress who tried to explain a lot of the dishes to me.

What To Eat in Norway

It didn’t look the most appetising but I can assure you the fish was cooked to perfection, it melted in my mouth and the vegetables were also really tasty – there are tomatoes underneath the spinach I promise! The fish also came with a side of something that they didn’t call mashed potato but that’s definitely what it was, I really wish I could remember what it was called. I wasn’t too impressed with the appearance but MY GOD it was tasty (may have something to do with the large volume of butter) and moreish.

I’d definitely recommend going here for good solid comfort food with a Norwegian twist, and order anything that sounds like mashed potato it is WORTH IT

Olivia’s was my port of call the next night, I’d walked passed it previously and it also looked warm and inviting. It looked like a classy wine bar which served pizza, which is obviously my kind of thing, but also the chairs all had furs on and blankets on the ones outside so I knew it was a cosy stop for me.

What To Eat in Norway

What To Eat in Norway

Here I ordered a glass of wine and a pizza, it was a classic margherita with mozzarella on as I just love a basic pizza. It was cooked to perfection in a stone oven (I watched it being cooked from my table) and I was ID’d for the wine even though I’m 30 – 10/10 would recommend for the flattery alone but the wine and pizza were quick, reliable and I want another.

What To Eat in Norway

What To Eat in Norway

One thing I would mention is the cost of drinks. A G&T set me back £14, a pint of Magners was £12 and a glass of wine was £10 – the bottles on the menu at Olivia’s started at what was equivalent to £85. So just keep that in mind, it’s probably not going to be a boozy holiday unless you’ve got the cash to splash!

Frognerseteren is a place I have previously mentioned in my post on the Holmenkollen Ski Festival. It’s a beautiful building at the top of the hill at Holmenkollen when you arrive by train. I’d read lots of reviews everywhere that mentioned specifically their infamous apple cake and hot chocolate on tap, so I obviously had to do it for you guys and participate in such a terrible combination.

What To Eat in Norway

What To Eat in Norway

I mean just look at that absolute beast of an apple cake?! I did actually have this as my lunch because it was just so big. To say it was a doorstop would be an understatement, and I was a little worried! I will be honest and say I didn;t finish it but oof it was tasty and I think everyone should try it. There are so many pieces of it available (I did arrive early) so I guess it didn’t feel as special as it could have because the demand is so high, but they do run out regularly.

Personal highlight for me was helping myself to the hot chocolate from a tap in the wall – they genuinely make such a huge quantity of hot chocolate it warrant its own tap! I’d go back again and again if I didn’t mind feeding myself into a sleep coma, but that was enough sugar to last me until tea time!

What To Eat in Norway

Later on I visited Louise, a restaurant I had spotted on my wanderings and thought would be worth a try. It can be found in the Aker Brygge area of Oslo near my hotel so I spent a few evenings here walking around the restaurants and shopping areas. It feels like a safe area for a single female so I walked around here to get my steps every day!

What To Eat in Norway

First up I was recommended to try Solo, a drink very popular in Oslo according to the waiter. It was very nice and tasted like an orange Fanta but better, more genuine orange taste and less fizz. It was enjoyable!

After that I ordered a lasagne with grilled vegetables, side salad and arancini ball, and what arrived was not what I had been expecting at all! I mean I was expecting a cheesy, carby bubbling dish from the oven with all the extras and was brought a plate with a deconstructed lasagne, a grilled piece of pumpkin, feta salad and a tiny arancini ball.

What To Eat in Norway

I do have to say it was all very tasty and I polished off the lot, the grilled veg was perfect, the arancini was crispy on the outside and gooey on the inside and the lasagne was surprisingly filling. However the description on the menu did not match the contents of the plate so maybe be a bit wary of those when ordering! All in al very nice though, and I was sat next to an actual roaring fire so I also fried myself a little, it was lovely after being frozen for a few days.

Another accidental stop was W B Samson, I hadn’t planned on spending much time frequenting the bakeries but this one just caught my eye one too many times (was too near my hotel to ignore….) and I caved and had to buy a cake.

What To Eat in Norway

What To Eat in Norway

The reason for entering the bakery was to find myself a Skoleboller or Skolebrod, roughly translated as school bread. It’s a sweet roll filled with custard, and covered with icing and coconut. Clearly I HAD to try one to sample all Norwegian delicasies and this one I can also 100% recommend. Get one, and try not to get covered in icing and dessicated coconut as you would with a sugary jam donut, it’s delightful!

So where else to eat in Oslo? Asia of course!

What To Eat in Norway

Unsurprisingly it sells Asian food, from sushi to curries, spring rolls to bao buns. I obviously went straight for the bao bun section as I’m a huge fan of the buns, it was a great choice however I was unsure what to choose next. The waiter was a little aloof but helpful when I got hold of him and helped me understand the menu.

Essentially it was like a tapas style (for the most part) so I was recommended to choose 3 dishes but I only ordered two as they weren’t small. I loved the decor inside this place, it was pretty dark inside with funky exposed bulbs everywhere and the bars were lit up from below with blue lighting. It was interesting and different to the other places around, it was still warm and inviting but didn’t look the same.

What To Eat in Norway

What To Eat in Norway

The first option I picked were the Asia Taquitos, these were recommended to me and contained salmon and tuna tartare, avocado and jalopenos. I skipped the jalopenos but these were incredible, it was so fresh and the tacos had the perfect amount of crunch. There were recommended and I’d tell anyone else to order these too!

My own choice were the crispy pork belly bao buns. These did not disappoint at all!

What To Eat in Norway

What To Eat in Norway

The perfect combination of pork belly, miso ketchup, kimchee slaw and coriander. The buns were soft and doughy, the pork belly was slow cooked and then fried to crispy perfection and the kimchee slaw is always one of my favourite things additions to meals like this. Super tasty and moreish but after these two I was done!

What To Eat in Norway

What To Eat in Norway

For my final evening I went to Elias Mat, a restaurant I found online that had so many great reviews. It was quite a walk from my hotel to get here but it’s so nice to walk around the city of Oslo especially in the snow when the weather is cold, dry and crisp.

I had also heard the menu contained a great selection of food traditional to Norway which I felt was appropriate on my final night.

What To Eat in Norway

What To Eat in Norway

I chose the traditional Reindeer Stew for a warming and comforting end to my trip. It contained reindeer, bacon, mushroom, onion and carrot with double cream and Norwegian brown cheese sauce served with mashed potato.

This was the creamiest butteriest mashed potato I’ve ever experienced. When it arrived I never thought I’d finish it but I did in fact polish off the entire thing (I’m blaming the cold weather and the long walk….) The reindeer stew was also melt in the mouth, and although I thought it was a little odd at the beginning I’m now a huge fan of lingonberries when they’re on the side of a meal like this.

What To Eat in Norway

What To Eat in Norway

I don’t often have dessert when I travel with work as I don’t get to exercise very often and eating restaurant food for nights at a time (even if it is gloriously tasty) doens’t do much for one’s figure! However in the name of experiencing Norwegian food I had to try the Traditional Norwegian Caramel Pudding.

I am not a fan of a jelly type dessert and unfortunately this is what that was (the description from the waitress was not accurate!). It was like a creme caramel, but it was less custard and more jelly so it wasn’t for me. The caramel was also a little weak in taste so I’m not sure if I would recommend this as much as the reindeer stew….

So there’s my round up of everything I decided to eat in Oslo. What would you have chosen? Any of them take your fancy?

If you want to catch up on my other Oslo posts you can read them here, or you can search our other travel posts by clicking here for more inspiration!

 

L xxx

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