One of the best hotel lunches I have had in Norway.
So, OK, I´m not mega rich, I don´t frequent fancy hotels on a regular basis and I haven´t actually had many lunches in them, but in the past month I´ve been to two and both were sufficiently fantastic to warrant me including them here (a Zermatt one to come). Today`s, the venerable Hotel Bristol, slap bang in the middle of where everything happens in Central Oslo, was just a pure delight.
From our reception at the front desk to enquire how to get to their car park (driving into and parking in central Oslo these days is so frowned upon, and with an old diesel car to boot…) to getting back into said car a couple of hours later I can´t fault anything (and believe me, I would if I needed to. All the staff we encountered, were, without exception, not just polite, but friendly and pleasant, the food was delicious, with an unmatched combo of attention to detail, quality produce at a decent price and the ambience and setting just lovely.
It´s an old hotel with a lot of history (there´s a fascinating story of it being requisitioned as an impromptu hospital to treat casualties from a German munitions ship that exploded in the Oslo harbour during World War II) and has apparently recently been modernised and refurbished. For lunch you come right into the library and foyer-type conservatory area where tables are discretely distanced and beautifully set, there are chandeliers a plenty and even a little nymph statue holding a big fish – and while it´s a bit plush and traditional, it´s all very tasteful and comfortable.
On to the service. I was sold by our waiter Jalal immediately filling our water glasses and then for the duration of our lunch continuing from a discrete distance to ensure they were topped up, a lovely touch. Actually, before that I was sold by the lovely man at the front desk who took my car keys for it to be valet parked, for not more than it would have cost to park elsewhere, even if we had been able to find somewhere else nearby. But back to our table. The food was just delicious, my friends choosing open “sandwiches” (the word not really doing the dishes justice) with prawns and a fishy eggy delight on a brioche, while I went for the breaded plaice on what seemed like toasted rye bread with accoutrements, all of which went down well.
It wouldn´t have been right not to taste their hot chocolate, which is supposedly the best in Oslo. I´m not sure where it was crowned as such but I don´t really care, it was divine, not too sweet, served in their eponymous pale green tea cups with a pot of cream on the side. My friends also tasted the non alcoholic pink tea fizz which also went down well and top marks for including that on the menu!
On to desserts, not because we were hungry by this time, but because it would have been rude not to. Between us we had scones, with the works – clotted cream, lemon curd and a red jam that got ignored because, well, who doesn´t like lemon curd?! – and I had a swissroll cake delight filled with mango mousse and topped with tiny cubes of mango jelly, cream and some tiny white chocolate crunchy orbs which complimented it beautifully.
Here again, Jalal was on hand to inform us that the scones would take about 15 mins – which immediately sparked three mouth-watered exclamations of “ah, fresh scones”.
With our two hour lunch spot almost up, the only thing left to do was to ask at the desk for the car to be brought round and follow the red carpet out the door to step into it. Thank you Hotel Bristol, you restored my faith in hotel restaurant lunches and you have three happy customers today who are already coming back to test your afternoon teas!
Website: https://hotelbristol.no/en/
Google Maps: https://bit.ly/3JBAhs4
Wanderlust never fades 