Dinner @ Oslo

I wasn’t paying a whole lot of attention to getting notes together for a blog post about this visit to Dinner – a Chinese restaurant not too far away from the National Theatre in the centre of Oslo, Norway. As a result this is going to be a bit brief.

The interior of the restaurant was dark and stylish with lots of black upholstery and dark wood. The menu was printed on glossy shiny silver paper and almost everyone inside was wearing black or grey. I felt rather out of place in my bright red lumberjack shirt.

The staff, despite the reputation, where very helpful. And the prices by Oslo standards were quite reasonable.

Inside Dinner

More trendy people

Above the stairs down to the toilets

We quickly opted for a set menu as this seemed a goo way to get a taste of some of the delights on offer without breaking the bank.

An amuse bouche. Some kind of seafood (or mushroom!?) [i said I wasn’t paying attention] on a rice cake

The starter platter

The chicken satay was a little oily and not as nice as in the UK, but the deep fried scampi wrapped in crispy noodle stuff resembling a Greek dessert and the scallops in barbecue sauce were excellent. The waiter, dressed smartly in a sharp suit, explained each dish as they were served to us. So I have no excuse for not knowing what the amuse bouche was tbh.

These were followed by the usual crispy duck ensemble with hoisin sauce, pancakes, cucumber, spring onions and unusually a homemade chilli sauce and cabbage. The pancakes were a little stuck together but there was a good amount and the chilli sauce had a good kick to it. Chilli mixed with hoisin is a good combination. The waiter brought us more pancakes without us requesting and poured my Tsingtao into my glass as if I was incapable of doing it myself. A sign of good service I guess.

The mains were lamb chops in red wine sauce, lobster and catfish in a spicy sauce, beef in something and some very sticky rice.

There was a lip tingling amount of chilli in all the dishes providing an authentic Szechwan experience. The  catfish was much like monkfish cooked very well and not at all chewy. There were some decent parts of lobster but the main body looked a bit iffy with some radioactive looking green gunk in it so we left it.

It was the first time I have had asparagus in a Chinese meal but it worked and the portion sizes for three of us were okay. We left one of the bowls of rice untouched to ensure there was some room left for pudding.

Pudding was green tea ice cream, mango ‘chutney’, fruit, crumble and cream a dish (pot) tasting more Indian or Thai than Chinese, but excellent nonetheless or perhaps as a result.