Xuan Truong HA

Geist is the restaurant from iconic chef Bo Bech. The restaurant is offering trendy cuisine in a modern and relax athmosphere with music and a bar. The dishes are focusing on a main product with 2 or 3 other ingredients to support in a simple way but in a modern presentation. In a city where many restaurants are closed at lunch, on Sunday and Monday, Geist could be an option as it is open everyday lunch and dinner. We had:
•Wafers of avocado with lightly salt caviar
•Tartare of Norway lobster with yuzu and hibiscus
•Steamed leek with creamy oysters and jalapeño
•Ricotta gnocchi with black truffle
•Baked celeriac with condensed buttermilk
•West coast turbot with fennel ravioli on gruyère
•Grilled squid with black trumpet mushrooms
•Sweetbread BBQ with Jerusalem artichokes and mustard
•Cotton candy with coffee
•Brown butter ice cream with salted almonds
•Salt baked pineapple with pineapple sorbet Less

Kontrast is a Modern Scandinavian restaurant focusing on local ingredients in an open and modern kitchen design. We walked from our hotel in the snow to the restaurant. At 20:00 the restaurant was full and we were suggested after the snacks to move to a table just in front of the open kitchen. We had the 10 courses menu and did not regret. We liked most of the dishes and the relax atmosphere. Less

After about 20h travel, we arrived in Oslo for the begining of our trip and Maaemo was the first stop. Maaemo is one of the two 3 Michelin stars restaurant in the Nordics and run by chef Esben Holmboe Bang. Maaemo means « mother earth » and focused on local produce and revisited traditional dishes. The beloved ingredient showcased here is butter. Butter is used in nearly all the dishes and even the star of the incredibly good signature dessert available since the opening « Brown butter ice cream, molasses and roasted hazelnuts ». One of the best ice cream I ever had with incredible silky texture, richness and sweetness of the brown butter. The « queen scallops from Nordskott, aquivit and burnt onion », Langoustine and arctic cod are all great and tasty dishes as well I enjoyed. At first sight the dishes seems simple but the technics behind are actually more complex and most of the dishes are built to highlight the main product. Less

1 year after René Redzepi closed Noma at Strandgade 108, we were glad to be in the new Noma 2.0 for the second day of the reopening. I rarely felt that much excitement and energy in a restaurant from the staff and all the lucky guests. The new restaurant is much bigger than the previous one with different sections for the kitchen, lab, vegetables and herbs, oven, etc...
The menu is about seafood and ALL the menu from the very beginning to the end is related to seafood done in a new way, the Noma way! Everything is designed to turn your meal into an a special experience and not only a simple lunch or dinner. My favorite dish of the day was the head of the cod barbecued. It was only the second day after the opening and René told me he was already exited about the vegetable menu that will be available from early summer and that will be amazing. Less