Lorry- – supposedly “the” place to eat your lutefisk… more like the mecca of nonchalant attitude and service.

This is a well established place bragging their 100 beer labels. It is situated where Hegdehaugsveien meets Parkveien, in the center of Oslo – next to the Royal Castle.

Simple lunch menu, daily dishes (not on Saturdays), large outside seating area (right in the middle if a very busy intersection…). Our visit this evening was a casual, after work meal.

It must really being going well for Lorry – the service was lousy and very nonchalant. The first impression of the bartender/waiter/host upstairs was “if you don’t like the table I point at – f__k off”… “Well excuse me for wanting to spend my money here” I thought.

I asked for a dry white wine – not chardonnay! Of course the waiter said (a notch better attitude compared to the bartender/waiter/host). Well the house wine is cool at least, no other comment needed. Ordered Caesars, fish soup and a hamburger – we were hungry! The food was served a little too quickly – it had to have been waiting under the heating lamp. I was amazed to be so obviously overseen by the waiter several times. It really felt like we were in his way.
After looking around I started to understand! We were sober and we were a private party – not a company…meaning we would not spend a humongous amount of money on booze and tips – therefore the service level. Lousy and very nonchalant.

Fish soup was not hot – more like having been out waiting for someone to order it. But the taste was OK and it actually had some canned shrimp and crawfish tails! The hamburger meat was moist but the French fries cold and raw inside and the salad was probably cut up a few days earlier – all the ends were brown and having seen this after half was eaten – YUCK! The Caesars salad was OK.

Another friend joined us after approx 1 hour – this time the waiter shone up and was smiling! Hmmm maybe he thought this was the man with the money. And this was a man! After our friend's meal, the waiter actually moved my friend's arm with a flick, to get at his napkin and utensils - the only thing missing was for the waiter to dry my friend's mouth and say “good boy – you ate your veggies”. Amazing – Lorry must really be doing well to be able to handle their customers in this fashion.

Of course we gave no tip – and the reaction from the waiter was very apparent ;-)
Let us hope that this was the second floor staff – not a fair insight in the true Lorry attitude.

Service: 0/5 –Making the customer feel stupid, apologetic for stepping inside – this they have mastered!
Food: 2/5 – 1 for the salad and 1 for the soup.
Drink: 0/5 – They have over 100 beer labels, but the house wine stinks and the glasses are chipped. When serving water the "Lorry" way – the majority lands in our lap.
Price: 1/5 – If the soup actually was served at soup temperature – then the soups was OK priced even though the fish was very shy.
Environment/Atmosphere: 2/5 – Typical “brown” interior. Plastic fantastic on the benches/booths and some of them actually try and push you downwards due to lack of stuffing. The stuffing in the booths was probably from the date of establishment. Good way to make the customer feel very small compared to the waiters.
Location: 3/5 – Very centrally located however, the outside eating area is actually right in the middle of a very busy intersection.
Age of guests in party: 40 - 45.

8/30 – at least they have room for improvement, but as long as the customers are drunk and the companies pay – why try.