The meal started with oysters poached in a butter sauce with Kalix roe along with a very nicely done laminated milk bread a la croissant (almost like a mix between brioche and croissant in texture and flavour) served with blond miso butter & borage honey.  My dining companion and I tried different dishes to see as many as possible and the starters were Tartare of tuna & red deer with Kalix vendace roe, white kombu, wasabi- infused cultured cream, fermented mirabelle plum and warm ginger butter (fresh and light) and veal steak tartare served with truffle aioli, shiitake, pickled white onions, aged Parmesan, toasted almonds, cress & champignons.  The latter was especially good with good judgement on intensity and quantity of the aioli and cheese to compliment the good quality veal.

The first main that had to be tried was the turbot not only as it is the ‘King of the sea’, but also a signature dish on the menu: steamed turbot Jansson’s temptation & Koshihtkart rice (Chef’s signature’ butter sauce a la Sandefiord flavoured with preserved-anchovy juice and three kinds of caviar, caramelised onions & chives).  At first I was quite surprised that the turbot was reportedly from a 1.3kg fish as the cut seems a lot thicker, but thankfully there was a good sized portion on the plate to merit the £53 price tag along with a very well done butter sauce to accompany as per the description.  This was different and pleasing and I especially enjoyed the sweetness from the stewed onions beneath the turbot that complimented the dish perfectly as did the surprisingly rice that was beautifully flavoured with vinegar and topped off with crunchy shallot rings.  This was a very good dish.

The second main was whole quail, butterflied and grilled served with a black pepper and vanilla sauce.  A nicely done dish and as nice as grilled quail on its own can be, supplemented by another original choice of sauce.  The side of butter and sake braised greens with shallots was a decent side to have and was another indication of the calibre of the restaurant for the effort placed in this and the bread.

The first sweet tried was a yuzu sorbet with fennel marmalade, pomelo, sansho-pepper meringue & fennel pollen which I found quite tart, but nevertheless enjoyable and good for cleansing the fat from the savouries tried and also reminded me of Zen’s yuzu and matchstick-meringue dessert as a pleasing reminder of that visit and the group.  Also tried were the traditional madeleines, but with the untraditional (and pleasing) hint of the beurre noisette and miso they were made with.  Coffee was declined as one can tell instinctively that this would have been at least another (relatively) high increment on the bill which would only have service charge on top of that, for something not really needed even though I’m sure the Harrods own brand of roasted-on-site coffee would have been fine.

Overall I did enjoy this dishes here and I can imagine their terraced bar (which does serve small snacks) will be very popular in the warmer months as well.

Food Grade: 74%

The meal is split between the levels of the refurbished venue which is a first for me and a very nice way of doing things I thought.  It is also a clever move to regulate table turnover and courses for each sitting and table as well as being good variation for the diner (new setting, leg stretch and interest levels etc).  The canapés are served in the ground floor open kitchen area where there is also a presentation of all of the ingredients sourced and used and each table is invited to the counter in turn to have an in depth explanation of each one and where it comes from.  There is significant care and attention in this operation and was lovely to have laid on at the start of this meal.  The mains and savouries including pre-desserts are served on the first floor dining room and the coffees and petit fours are served in the second (or top) floor of the venue that resembled a lovely lounge area laden with fine whiskeys and liqueurs.
Canapés in The Kitchen
Initial canapés included a Choux de Bourgogne – gougere with three cheeses (perfect light outer coating and pleasant cheeses); ‘Ráraka’ Kalix Löjrom which was a potato rosti with crème fraiche, brandaide pickled shallots, chive and vendence roe from Sweden – this was absolutely stunning and with the lightest of crunches.  Croustade crustacean, fennel & artichoke was a delectably light croustade with artichoke purée, lobster, fennel, tarragon leaves and bronze fennel.  This was stunning with warm lobster in the thinnest pastry case ever had and a lovely, complemented by a perfectly gentle kick of wasabi – a knock out and world class canapé.
Truffle scrambled egg, yuba was scrambled egg with maple syrup and butter with truffle from Australia winter truffles, held within a soy bean ‘skin’ or, extremely thin tartlet like case.  This was very light and with deep flavour coming through.  The final canapé was Gunkan foie gras, unagi, sakura – brioche with goose foie gras, apple balls marinated in hibiscus, unagi with sweet wine and oxalis flowers.   great combo
Mains in The Dining Room
When invited upstairs to the dining room, I was escorted to my table overlooking a charming terrace garden.  First to be served was crudo (raw fish dish): Saba, radish oroshi, fermented strawberry & coffee – chutoro from Crudo tuna served with Saba (a form of grape), radish oroshi, fermented strawberry & coffee with chutoro (fattiest kind of tuna from the belly) tartare.  This was simply gorgeous and a brilliant combination of fat and sweetness.
Chawanmushi, engawa , coriander, white asparagus was next.  This was essentially an egg-based custard, engawa (skat of flounder) coriander, white asparagus broth, gin, lemon juice and coriander and citrus leaf oil – a complex combination but with very pleasant umami.  Hirame (flounder from north Japan) came with teardrop peas, wasabi & ginger yoghurt, whey dashi, Thai basil oil and Thai basil flowers.  This for me was absolutely outstanding and the dish of the meal. It was fragrant, aromatic, light and in beautiful harmony with the earthy peas combining with the gentle wasabi and Thai basil.
Onion, toasted almonds & liquorice powder and cream, almond foam made with milk from Haikado (very fatty milk from finest cows on the planet) was next and this came dangerously close to being as good as the previous dish.  Two absolute knock out sensations one after the other is rare and I was forgiving the bill more and more with each mouthful.  Next up was flatfish from Kinki (region in Honshu, the southern island of Japan) was served with an all-time favourite sauce of mine – vin Jaune (creamed sauce made with dessert wine), walnut and Zén Réserve caviar.  This had different levels of salt, and fat in each bite and the combination of textures here was interesting.
A selection box of beautiful knives from Morakniv were displayed and I was given the choice of which one to use for my game.  Guinea fowl, mitsuba (parsley) & mustard emulsion, sudachi kosho (fermented paste of Sudachi type of citrus) was served next.  The guinea fowl was decorated with an emulsion of Japanese parsley and mustard spray of Sakura flowers in vinegar with chanterelles which was a magical combination of everything.  Utterly succulent game with a gentle kick of mustard, again judged to perfection served with Hokkaido asparagus for textural crunch.  Colour, texture, protein, fat and low carbohydrate – it was close to a perfect dish as any.  French toast “Grande Tradition 2008” with Balsamic vinegar, parmesan custard, Manjima West Oz truffles was next in the form of a ‘bite’ and this was absolutely superb.
Finally, a pre-dessert of sorbet made of yuzu, konatsu (citrus fruit), Buntan (family of grapefruit) & saffron, kokuto (Okinawa black sugar) aspic (jelly) and Kinome plant leaves.  This was an incredibly smooth sorbet but quite bitter and had wood-like notes which sadly didn’t work hugely for me as a combination as pretty as it was. Momo (Japanese peaches), from Yamanashi near mainland are the highest grade of peach (Daitaro) which came with pêche, elderflower, peach sorbet, star anise cream, 3 peppers, arctic raspberry, rhubarb root oil and crystallised roses meringue sticks seasoned with three types of pepper (roast, long and black – all from different parts of world in Asia and Africa). These were extraordinary peaches in an extraordinary consommé and the beauty and power of this simple offering was worth the long process of being at that table for that offering.
Coffee and petit fours in the Living Room
The final part was served on the upper most level where the first to be served was Muskmelon & Manzanilla sherry gel, Miyazaki mango with coconut rum and vanilla, Shine muscat grape from Japan and grapes infused in verjus, rose, seasoned with house gin and honey vinegar.  Again, one cannot fault the power of these ingredients and as is customary at the end of a Japanese meal, the finest fruit is seen as a delicacy and privilege.  Coffee was from a Singaporean company called Papa Palheta and served with with Hokaido milk.  Along with this came a ‘Waffle party’: Swedish waffles from woodruff cloudberry jam, tonka and almond cream, sea buckthorn and brunost caramelised brown goats cheese (akin to Norwegian Gjetost which I had much of growing up).  The final Western petit fours were Sicilian pistachio macaron, blood miso and matcha with fleur de sel (French salt flake) – all of which were as well made as they can with the simple pistachio actually being the favourite.
If that was hard to read for the detail, spare a thought for how much goes in to that meal and one can understand more regarding the experience and the usual question I receive which is, “Was it worth it?”.  Emphatically yes is my answer to this experience and I would happily save up and go again.  A genuine 3 Michelin starred experience and somewhere you are going to get sheer quality.
Food Grade: 96%

Wall, where the restaurant is based, is a hamlet within Northumberland and Hjem has a gorgeous view of the surrounding rolling countryside from its vantage point. I very much liked the way that beers and many non-alcoholic drinks options are just as promoted as the more expensive wines upon entry. The restaurant has a lovely bar and waiting area for all diners that were hosted prior to being welcomed in to the restaurant table by table. Another nice touch was the steamed towel for everyone at  the table before any of the meal was served. You only have to dine anywhere in Japan for this to appear, even at the most routine of places every day to realise why it is such a good idea and ask why don’t more places do it in the UK? It’s a delight when it is produced as it was here. 

The opening snack was a choux pastry beignet of duck liver,  spring onion, duck skin, glazed in flower honey. This was a superb start – the pastry was light, good flavour on the duck liver and the salty, crunchy duck liver skin offset perfectly by the spring onion and sweet honey glaze. Could have eaten 5 of these very quickly. 

Cured egg yolk with eel was served in an egg shell with aerated brown butter foam and rainbow chard. This was utterly delightful and light – the salt content from the eel was pitch-perfect and I was overjoyed with the simplicity of this snack. A croustade of lobster emulsion, lobster claw, fennel jelly and fresh dill was next. This was another very good snack: the thin crust shell held the abundant lobster filling well and the hit of fennel jelly and dill were fresh and strong.  On reflection, there is not actually a huge difference between this crusade and that served by Zen, the 3 Michelin starred Scandinavian-Asian restaurant in Singapore by the legendary Bjorn Franzen.

Celeriac tart with trout belly smoked cod’s roe came with a hint of nduja for a gentle kick and I thought worked surprisingly well. Then a tartlet of rump tartrate (aged for 2 weeks) served with anchovies, rapeseed oil and potato which was hard to fault in anyway with a beautifully balanced level sweetness within the seasoning of the tartare on a perfectly thin, crusted tartlet. 

Mushroom on toast home made sour dough, preserved chanterelle mushrooms (pickled from 2021), parsley and lardo from Rachel Hammond (who also supplies the nduja) and mustard seeds. This was beautifully sweet from the pickling and mustard seeds and practically dissolved in the mouth. Another hot towel arrived at the end of this final snack which was another very welcome addition. 

The first course was white asparagus with a butter milk foam and covered in caviar from the prized supplier N25. There was an absolute abundance of caviar on this dish and although I was afraid this would seriously impact on the salt content, it was actually again, balanced extremely well, giving just the right amount of salt uplift to the buttermilk foam. The asparagus itself was good quality and a pleasure, but perhaps more a vehicle for the supporting acts covering it. 

Dover sole from a 5kg fish, gently steamed came with green asparagus and a goats butter with lovage oil sauce. The sole, whilst not the most powerful in flavour was perfectly cooked and was melt in the mouth and the goat’s butter was nicely toned down (goats cheese and milk can be quite pungent and too strong but this was well judged). The asparagus and barbecued vegetables gave a good, complimentary bitterness to level everything up and was an enjoyable dish.  

Bread from home-milled grains to make a brioche glazed with brown butter and serve with air-dried ham. The brioche was wonderfully light and so simple with the glaze and ham doing a lovely job to add the extra finish. No messing around required here and this went down entirely well. 

The next small course was morel mushroom ‘mushi’ served with preserved hedgehog mushrooms, thyme, tarragon, custard of morel with a broth made with pork. A very light and fragrant dish and almost aromatic with the strong impact of the herbs (particularly the tarragon) and when all combined with the salty broth and creamy custard, this was a little interlude that packed a large punch and worked very well together. 

The final savoury course was pork, grilled and barbecued served with cauliflower purée and wild garlic in tempura batter. Entirely enjoyable dish. The pork itself on its own had quite reserved flavour, but with the nicely judged additions made for a very nicely done main course in typical, light fashion with all working well together again. 

The first of the sweets was caramelised oat, horseradish ice cream and apple gel which is also the only dish to have remained on the menu since the beginnings of the restaurant. Although I found some parts of the horseradish and various spoonfuls a little good salty, I appreciate the crossover that it and it’s point as a pre-dessert, blending sweet and savoury.  

The main dessert was a brown butter ice cream, cream with rapeseed and Pedro Ximénez syrup and waffle. Although the crust of the waffle was a little over for me, I could see everyone’s at the same level, so is clearly how the kitchen wished it to be. The brown butter cream and ice cream itself was a good spread to smother the waffle with and that was easily done. 

Coffee was from a Newcastle based company called Pink Lady. I fancied tea instead for a change to go with the abundance of petit fours. These included: canallés of rum and vanilla (slightly harder shell than am used to); tartlets of milk chocolate and black pepper and a melt in the mouth shard of meringue; Munsmuns (Swedish tea cakes) of marshmallow, white chocolate and bee pollen (very nice) and set jellies of elderflower and vinegar and brown butter financiers with caramelised filling (warm and homely final additions). 

Overall this was a quality menu all round served by a very hospitable team and for the quantity of high grade ingredients, the price tag of £120 was perfectly reasonable (editor’s note: now £150 I believe in 2023).  The view of Northumberland from the charming dining room is very pleasant and the whole experience is one I would heartily recommend.  It gets a definite thumbs up from myself and I would return in a heartbeat.

Food Grade: 83%

The menu is a set 4-course dinner at 495 Danish Krone (DK) which is approximately £56.  Additional 3 or 4 glass wine pairings are available at an extra 295DK (£33) or 325DK (£37) respectively.  Wine is natural and unfiltered, just as the Vikings used to have and not knowing the choices very well, we thought the best thing was to simply try the additional four glasses of wine to see what the score was.  Details of the wine were sketchy to gain, but In short, the wines were:

• 1st wine Chilliean Muscat
• 2nd wine Silvana from Germany
• 3rd wine Sancerre
• 4th wine Chenin Blanc

Incidentally, the island of Læsø is famed for its salt thanks to the routine floods it receives from the sea every year which are then filtered by the soil and sourced through wells.  Vester is Western and Øl is beer and for design reasons the ‘beer’ is capitalised for the restaurant name to be different.

The meal started with nibbles of fermented seeds, fermented carrots, juniper and a duck snack.  Although these were a touch salty, they were pleasant snacks to open up with.  More snacks followed with tartare of beef, with savoy cabbage and pepper root, which was fair, but essentially had more leaf than beef.  A Spring roll with fermented cabbage, roasted garlic and curry was the absolute winner with its garlic dip on the side.

Whitebait came with panko dried and roasted buttercream,  tomato dust and fermented seeds.  The sauce was a redcurrant sauce with lemon verbena & grape, chicken skin and snow crab which was very good.  The oat bread was nice but very plain so more salt in the butter would have been a good uplift here.

New fresh potatoes from Laesoe were sautéed in miso, potato purée, salted speck, sunflower seeds, parsley, pearl onions, clams, sauce of clams and cheese aged in hay.  This was a good combination when tried altogether and the potatoes themselves creating a lovely puree which was well made (velvety smooth and with good fat ratio).

Catfish from north of Laesoe was wrapped in lard and served with a frankly knock out couple of sauces.  Once sauce was creamed and made with caramelised bone with milk powder & another a reduction of plums and onions.  The new peas were marinated in avocado sauce and sea fennel and this dish was the star of the meal.  The catfish itself was wonderfully succulent and the compliments of sauces were brilliant.  Bravo Thomas.

The sweet was a cream cookie crumble with fermented cube of ice with beer and chocolate candy floss.  This was perhaps a little too sweet overall, but hats off for the innovative design.  Prior to this final course, there was a spectacular sunset to admire which a couple of us non-native islanders had to have a good look at.  Because it is such a beautiful location in general and so simple I have included more photos than usual of the area.

They do in fact sum up what this experience as like – utterly charming and a little treat of a place.  I loved the way the chef and his staff were very good with customers, easy and natural to talk to and no pretence associated with the meal in general. Many of the islanders came to sit at the quayside just outside the restaurant to admire the sunset too and the garden area outside the restaurant also has a lovely fireplace for everyone to gather around at with drinks whenever they wish.

What a superb restaurant and lovely dinner experience all round, heightened by the company and occasion that it was.

Maaemo (an old Norse word meaning Mother Earth) is led by Executive chef Esben Holmboe Bang who is actually Danish (from Copenhagen).  The cuisine is representative for the whole of Scandinavia but with the focus of products from Norway.  It opened in 2010 and the 17-course tasting menu is the only menu choice which makes for a logistically smoother operation for the kitchen.  Allow me to get a couple of niggles out of the way early, in that dietary requirements are catered for as far as can be but I gained the impression that the flexibility for allergies is less so based on the one menu design.  Whilst the restaurant will make every effort to make arrangements for all, there may be a possibility on some guests having to skip a course or two depending on circumstances.  The wine list is comparably expensive with bottles starting at roughly £90 at the cheapest end and no options by the glass.  However, again, there is a silver lining in that the restaurant does a matching wine menu and if you wish to only have one or two of those, it is arranged for the diner’s preferences – you are simply more in their hands.  I think the latter of these two points (wine menu) can easily be enhanced in the next re-design.  Charm, which all staff at Maaemo seem to exude, had a way of dissipating these smaller restrictions.  

The restaurant itself is barely a 10-minute walk from Oslo Central station and getting to it from the airport is a breeze from Oslo Gardermoen airport (20-minute express train rather like the Heathrow Express to Paddington).  It overlooks the main approach to the train station and is located in the same block as swish looking apartments so don’t worry if you can’t see the actual sign until you reached the top of the outdoor stairs.  There were actually two well-dressed gentlemen at the top of these stairs ready to guide guests into the restaurant as the first very nice touch.  Inside is bright, spacious and as nicely Scandinavian-designed as you would expect. 

A cold and damp scented towel greets each diner and is another simple and very welcome touch on a hot day and these small things make a huge difference to the overall experience, making you ask yourself just why don’t more places do this when the cost for doing it is not significant?.  You can also tell you are in fine hands when the opening greeting is relaxed and sets all of the parameters of the meal in a calm and professional manner and sets the scene.  Bravo again here.  

On to the canapés and opening bite-fulls.  First up was rye bread with compressed and pickled elderflower yeast cream, rhubarb gel, fermented morels and powder which had a lovely cream, crunch and elderflower essence.  Sheets of celeriac and berries filled with apple blossom with fermented apple and lingonberry were delicate and floral on the palate.  Roasted chicken skin with caviar, pickled shallots and tarragon was absolutely outstanding in every way and a fairly exquisite take on surf and turf with care to making the salt levels not too high.  A caramelised onion tube with ‘Rakfisk’ (a Scandinavian classic of rotten trout) came with pickled leek and horseradish and was a perfectly light and pleasant mix between the two.  

Salsify gel and salsify cream base with dill oil is a signature dish of the Executive Chef and it is easy to see why.  It is beautifully and gently balanced and difficult to see how that can be improved.  Another take on salsify on a purée of smoked salsify accompanied a pickled white onion with lemon thyme stems and aquavit. There was wonderful acidity within this and with an actual delayed floral finish.  A very clever conceived dish involving a ride of sweet, acid, smoke and vibrant flavours in one.  Tender king crab came from Vanager fjord in the very north of Norway where the country meets Russia and the conditions for getting these all year round crab is treacherously cold, rough and dangerous for the divers.  The crab itself was beautifully fresh and tender with a simple reindeer stock to accompany which I thought was brilliantly handled.  Just in the same way that one of my most revered dishes over time has been the king crab at Noma, glazed with simple egg yolk, this was a marriage of two flavours and confidence of the chef to just stick with those two. 

Wild salmon from the west of Norway, was cooked in salted butter and came with wood sorrel, pickled Jasmin, black garlic, fermented white asparagus.  There was an absolutely sensational sweet add on from the wild garlic to another fresh, clean and beautiful fish course.  Bread was served as a course (an indication of how much work goes into this) and was a brioche bun glazed in honey, served with cultured butter of chamomile and honey.  This was utterly beautiful to look at but not my personal favourite flavour for butter as cultured butter is obviously sour; the honey and chamomile did its best to offset this but the tang of the butter was thankfully toned down and is good to try things out of one’s comfort zone.  Sticky hands after this led to another cold, wet flannel to wipe hands after breaking the honey bread continuing the quality service.  

Rømmegrøt is a classic Norwegian dish of sour cream porridge and originates from olden times when dairy was extremely expensive and most dairy was sold to Sweden or weddings and the reserve of the privileged. Split cream of wheat flour usually has thin slices of elk meat on top but in this case, had shavings of reindeer heart on top as the meat with pickled plum vinegar.  There are rare moments in dining when you have a dish that is utterly faultless and this was one of them.  For such a simple offering, the warmth, balance and judgement that has gone into this one dish was on another level and this was the personification of the Michelin guide’s definition for 3 stars of ‘exceptional cuisine worth a special journey’ as I would genuinely fly back for this dish.  

Stuffed morels with smoked cheese from Lofoten (islands way off the Northwest coast of Norway) was served with a sauce made from fermented morels, butter and infused in blackcurrant wood and smoked juniper.  This a very pleasant way of having morels (usually never a bad time for morels) and the flavour combinations were fine but the cheese inside appeared a touch cold for the warm dish it was which impacted on its texture.  It is perhaps better either being hotter or a different cheese that is smoother and runnier in texture but not volcanic in temperature at the same time.  

Norwegian Lamb came from the West coast of Norway and the slab shown prior to the meal was slow-cooked for four hours with a range of herbs as its bouquet garni and this ended up being presented as a miniature slice on the plate and served with garlic mustard leaves, pickled violet flowers onion marmalade on bottom, reduction from saddle stock. This was high-grade lamb with lovely crispy skin, well-rendered fat and with wonderful reduction.  There was nothing to not like with this and whenever I have lamb in a restaurant which is average in ‘lambness’, it’s times like those I wish I could just teleport them to moments like this to share the taste and show just how lamb can taste.  This was another utterly superb and knock out dish albeit in micro form (all diners have a different amount of stomach space I appreciate, but I would have been very happy for a touch more here).  This was another dish that was simply hard to fault in all-round cooking and flavours. 

The cheese course was a product of liquid nitrogen antics, served frozen with liquid pickled black trumpet mushrooms from Stavanger (Southwest coast).  This was a playful invention with it very much needing the pickled sweetness from the black trumpet mushroom and was good to have the cheese within the collection of savouries, but I believe you can gain the same essence of cheese in its normal, room temperature state when it is really good.  You might just need to prepare your mouth with some hot water before having this course as possibly the coldest substance in the universe to eat.  

Cultured milk was the first dessert with rhubarb & oxalis (an edible flower like wood sorrel). Normally herbs in dessert don’t do much for me other than the picture, but this was actually very good as the leaves had natural sweetness in them when bitten through and the milk and whey completely toned the sourness which was a very good call.  Next was a blend of coffee, butter and hazelnut.  A super-smooth ice cream with a hint of coffee was on a bed of hazelnut crumbs and coffee gel and drizzles of melted salted butter from Røros (renowned region in central Norway and on the border with Sweden), solidified on top of the ice cream on contact causing a pleasant texture almost like a thin layer of wax.  Most importantly, the deliberately scorched hazelnut had a touch of bitterness that was good and all came together nicely.  A mini tart of wild strawberries (miniature in themselves and the smallest I have ever seen) came with custard and on a pastry that was deep in flavour.  This had a hugely potent strawberry taste and I was sad when it was over.  

No Scandinavian meal or outing is complete without waffles.  These were beautifully thin and aged in beef fat with buckwheat miso as another lovely twist that did work well with the sweet pots of sour cream, cloudberry jam and brown cheese spreads.  I haven’t had Gjetost (pronounced ‘Yetost’) since childhood days and this immediately made me smile as a result being in its more spreadable form.  This was all served with a very subtle and drinkable coffee from Tim Wendelboe as the restaurant’s single choice of brand finishing the meal on another very good note.  Were it not for the courses with cheese for example, I would have gone with a slightly higher percentile.

On a miscellaneous note, I was informed that Maaemo will be moving from its current premises to another site about 500 metres away in the New Year in order to have greater facilities (more lavatories than the one at present and a greater kitchen and kitchen development area) but the number of covers will remain the same which I was pleased to hear as the focus will / should remain on the diner experience as a result. 

You know when you have had a quality meal when you are a bit down when it has to come to an end, even after 17 courses.  The whole experience here is one of the greats and at the heights of professionalism which was a true pleasure to be the recipient of.   I told the kitchen team afterwards that it is actually not a guarantee these days that going to a 3 Michelin starred restaurant will bring about a grand experience, but on this occasion it very much did and I meant every word as I do now.  A super meal and experience in general which I heartily recommend.

First up, there was a real thumbs up for the bread.  It’s always the same – if enough care is put in to the basics there is an instant feel good factor.  The selection included sour dough, rye with nuts (very squidgy) flat bread (knökkebröd) with carroway seeds (aniseed family) and pumpkin. All these proved to be sound in that the flat bread was not too thick and the rye bread not too dense combined with good flavours.

For a restaurant stemming from its 2 Michelin starred roots I was surprised that the staff were not explaining the dishes for the table and wished to drop off deliveries to the table as per a cafe, but then again this maybe the intention in keeping it casual.  The grandeur of the venue combined with its mother restaurant in New York being a two Michelin starred venue makes this a little odd tonot wish to go that little bit further, but is a small observation.  All parties had the 3 course set menu and it was very good to see that these were taken from the a la carte and actually I thought that some were the better options regardless(!) hence opting for this menu.

What was fun was being able to have a selection of smörgåsbord offerings on this set menu and a vast array of different flavoured aquavits to choose from along with half a dozen different beers to choose from to wash these down with.  Each course had a different 25ml shot of Aquavit to choose from including Aquavit with cumin, lemon, honey, sherry vinegar, elderflower, anise, fennel, dill, raisins, barley, cinnamon, thyme, the list goes on – you name it, there was probably an Aquavit it was in.  And thankfully these weren’t as ludicrously heavy as I was expecting from many a drunken Christmas Eve.  At 1130 on a Sunday morning, this was frankly good news that these Aquavits were more fresh than hit you with an alcholic sledge hammer in style.  So all in all, another nice touch on the drinky side.

The starters were slighty mixed in that the black pudding was very nicely done (soft, gentle and without too much grease) but the gravlax didn’t appear to have much of the ‘Grav’ (pressed element of sugar, salt and dill) in to the ‘Lax’ (salmon) itself but appeared to be more salmon with dill sprinkled on top.  The dill sauce was also a little lacking in dill punch for our palates which was a shame as this is one of the mother-ship  combinations, but it simmered at the doable level as a starter and was nicely fresh.  For the mackerel lover, all elements worked well together but more of an explanation on those elements and guidance from the staff as to how much should be mixed, if at all etc and this is where more interaction from the staff is not just a status bonus, but a simple practicality.

What wasn’t such a small issue unfortunately was the piece of bone in the cod that I had but otehrwise the dill emulsion was utterly gorgeous to go with the light and well done cod itself.  The veal was done beautifully, falling away from swipes of the knife and I have to say these were pretty much the finest Swedish meatballs and meatball sauce I have had on record.  My childhood is littered with being spoilt with a vast array of wonderful sauces from my Mother who still can knock these out of the park, including Swedish meatball sauce but am sorry to say that this was even better….but only just(!).  Desserts were simple and satisfyingly well done whilst rosehip may not be to everyone’s palate (it can be quite bitter) it did not seem to be very vibrant here as a dessert – more kick or sweetness would have elevated this.

Overall it was a very worthwhile experience and is retained in the bag for other occasions and even if Scandanvaian food is something you find too much in surplus of these days, or just not your bag, the value for money set menu here was very good.  As I am half Norwegian, I have a natural soft spot for the cuisine and world in itself but that has not made me generate positive discrimination for the culinary verdict on this visit – as a summary, I found the food comforting, fun, clean and as if I was in caring hands, but ones that had just missed the mark on one or two aspects; not enough though to make me not come back as I left with a smile and a desire to come back another time.