Cafe Sorgenfri on a Thursday in Oslo

Cafe Sorgenfri is where you get your Danish (as Danish as you can get abroad) "smørbrød" and a mean wienerschnitzel (when it isn\t too cooked and dry). Many a "wet" lunch have I experienced there.

Thursday afternoon - plans were to go to the French Embassy´s Languedoc wine testing. Fees paid but we were not "there" mentally. In the taxi - Cafe Sorgenfri was a great place to start - see if the menu tickled any taste buds. Most spur-of-the moment evenings usually end up over all expectations.

With no reservations in hand and only 2 requests - keep warm and by a window - we got the best seat in the house. I saw that they actually listened to my requests! Since most parties on a Thursday in Oslo are company dinners, one 4 seated booth by the the window was available. Lucky us. Next to us, 2 tables with very "happy"  working men. Perfect place for two women to enjoy a wonderful bottle of champagnge, according to the outside menu - a delicious wild boar and speak freely.

As always the service was well adjusted to the atmosphere. We felt welcome. Starting out with my favorite champagne helped the feeling of welcome.

We ordered 3 out of the day´s 5 dishes. Starting with a lobster starter, wild boar for the main course and tarte tartin with ice cream for dessert/cheese plate for my girlfriend.

The lobster, citrus, salty sallad starter was exquisite! The sweet, sour, salty mixture melted together with the juicy, but extremely minut pieces of lobster. At the time I thought the lobster dish as very small, but maybe that was because the taste was so extreme that eating more may over do it...come on! This is LOBSTER - you can never have too much lobster. The starter could have been a size or two bigger. But with the champagne and the short moments the lobster mixture was on our lips, we were in heaven.

Wild boar - I have not had that since my hunting days in southern Sweden. The dish looked lovely. The potatoe puré was served inbetween a sliced warm turnip. A hint of a wonderful taste but the salt was missing - even when dipping it into the sauce served on the piece of boar. My meat was well done - really well done. My girlfiend´s was less well done, so we switched. My recollection of wild boar did not match this piece of light meat. I remember a more juicy, whole cooked boar, which had been roasting over a large fire on the hunting grounds. This was instead a peice of cooked oversized pork. But - the sauce saved the dish. It helped me chew the meat. Oh well - we still hade champagne and conversation!

Dessert and cheese - I had the tarte tatin - an upside-down apple tart in which the apples are caramelized in butter and sugar before the tart is baked with ice cream. Usually not what I order but it was one of the 5 dishes on the menu. I had probably taken my time chewing the meat since my ice cream was more of a creamy sauce. No problems - the taste is still there and eveyone knows that cooked or frozen calories do not count as calories ;-). Since I did not have the cheese I will only tell you about the cheese. The thinly sliced sweet/sour apple was delicious, a hint of caramel entered my mouth. The vanilla "sauce" was a bit hard to get on the spoon, but was amazing tot he apple.

Still champagne left! No coffee.

Service: 5/5 - appropiately attentive, patient (previous experience with a wilder croud has proven that many times before), if we had complained on the main course, we would probably have receieved an alternative, but we did not - our overall setting was too good, 2 girls, champagne and food - made for a successful dinner.
Food: 2/5 - Few things out of this world, some things not so good, all portions small, no bread prior to meal was served.
Drinks: 5/5 - The champagne had the correct temperature, tasted the way it was expected to and was served when needed.
Price: 2/5 - A 3 course meal downtown Oslo is approx 395 - 695 so Cafe Sorgenfri is on the lower end of the scale, however since the servings were very small and you had no chance to "fill up" on extra bread, I think it was a little pricy for what you got - however, not for downtown Oslo.
Environment/Atmosphere: 5/5 - Aker Brygge, the interior with all it´s trimmings is part of the experience. This time the artifacts actually looked more dusted in the ceiling - may it was the champagne that helped. You do feel that you could be in Denmark, with Norwegian/Sweedish personnel and Norweigian prices and climate.
Location: 5/5 - perfect side of Aker Brygger for dinner - walking distance to almost everything. Pricely parking if you bring your car.
Ages of guests in party: 40 - 45 but the rest of the guests this evening looked older of course.

24/30 points.

Add a little to the servings and everything gets better.