Cafe Sorgenfri, Oslo, Norway

On the flight to Oslo I had a nice conversation with the guy in my row.  Since we were staying in the same area of Oslo we decided to meet up later.

So after checking in to our respective hotels, I met up with him to get some dinner.  He’d been to Oslo before so suggested walking over to the Akker Brygge area and seeing what looked good.

It was a pretty neat area, near to the museum of Modern Art.  Lots of new condo buildings, it looked quite fancy.  There were many restaurants, and not surprisingly, they were offering options like grilled steaks, Japanese sushi, Italian or Spanish tapas.  It seemed inappropriate to eat non-Norwegian the first night there so we looked around for something a little more ‘local’.

After making almost the entire loop we saw Cafe Sorgenfri … the menu mentioned something about Norwegian specials — bingo!  It also helped that they had nice outdoor seating, and the weather was amazingly mild even at around 10:00PM in early September.

Outdoor seating at Cafe Sorgenfri, Oslo, Norway

It was fairly easy to choose: I selected the halibut entree and he, not being too hungry, chose the halibut appetizer.  And beers, 0,6 liters of course (not that weak 0,4 liter option).  Pictures after the jump!

Here was mine:

Probably the best halibut I’ve had so far, at Cafe Sorgenfri, Oslo, Norway.

I don’t normally eat halibut as it can be a little fishy, but this one was amazingly non-fishy.  The texture (preparation + freshness?) was superb as well, a very tender and smooth feel… hard to describe.  The veggies and potatoes underneath went perfectly as well.

The appetizer:

Halibut appetizer at Cafe Sorgenfri, Oslo, Norway.

The halibut appetizer was a raw halibut, apparently just as nicely non-fishy.  Looked great as well.

Of course, the downside… in Oslo everything was really expensive.  My bill (and the waiter was cool so I added an optional tip of about 10%) came to about US$70, for one entree and one large (local) beer.  Still, the meal was excellent and I would have to say I’ve paid similar in San Francisco for less.  And to top it off, dining “al fresco” until about midnight, in Oslo, in early September!!  Well worth it, but for me a bit of a budget-buster.  So note to self: enjoy these experiences but not every day!