Basso Social - Bergen — Restaurant in Bergen

When we arrived at our table the first thing I noticed was 2 giant pots of salt and pepper. Little did I know this was an indication of the food we were going to be served.

Me and my partner ordered the 13 course tasting menu. The dishes were well presented and ranged from bland to pretty good. The first snack course included a fried polenta cake topped with what was described as prawn tartare and fermented red chilli cream. The polenta had clearly been fried earlier in the day so was cold and not crispy. There was no evidence of shrimp or chilli on top but was a smear of tasteless mayonnaise.

The 'mix it yourself' steak tartare is a gimmick that some people might find fun but there was no option to add any acidity so it ended up being bland. Plus as the tartare has warmed to room temperature by the time it arrives at the table, the act of mixing it yourself turns it into a paste. Just a poorly thought out concept.

The worst course of the evening was a risotto which had no flavour at all. We did not finish it.

The gnocci was was not soft and fluffy and appeared to be the prepackaged potato gnocci you can buy at the store.

The rest of the dishes were fine but I will mention the chicken main course which was delicious and perfectly cooked.

Overall the experience was ok. In terms of value for money I believe we probably got what we paid for but that's not quite enough for me to come back. The service was good enough, we had a lot of servers, some were friendlier than others and the wait times between course were wildy inconsistent. Wine list was ok with a good variation of prices.

Finally, I have to mention the incredibly inflated reviews for this place. Over 30 posted in the the 24 hours prior to me posting this, all 5 stars and invariably mentioning a server by name. I had 5+ servers during the evening and not one told...

We were a group of four and opted for the full 13-course tasting menu. Two of us also went for the 5-cocktail pairing. Overall, the food was delicious – well-balanced flavors and beautifully presented dishes. Naturally, not every course was a hit for everyone; the tartare, for example, wasn’t to any of our tastes. Still, we thoroughly enjoyed the rest, and surprisingly, the highlight turned out to be a sweet corn soup – absolutely amazing!

The cocktail pairing felt a bit much by the end. Next time, we’d probably order drinks at our own pace rather than go for the full pairing.

The venue is stylish and had a more polished feel than the Basso in Oslo, which I’ve also visited. Service was excellent – our waiter was very friendly and attentive throughout the evening. He spoke only English, but that was no issue for us.

The total came to around 5,000 NOK for the four of us (excluding tip), which we found very reasonable considering the number of dishes and the cocktails included.

This isn’t the kind of place you just pop into – you’re there for the full experience, which lasts close to three hours (same as in Oslo). But that’s the point – it’s meant to be social.

Only downside: the chair I had felt quite unstable, to the point where I thought I might fall off. I even swapped it with another, and it had the same issue. Not a dealbreaker, but worth noting. Also, a small minus for not accepting...

The food was good but service disappointed.

We had a Christmas dinner with the company - the food serving was slow from the beginning and the waiter even apologized to us “thank you for being patient, we have a lot of orders…”. This was not a problem for us because we were enjoying ourselves and great Christmas mood until they started to say that we had to leave soon because of another reservation. At that point they have only served about half of the dishes! And after that they just started to throw on the table all the dishes at the same time very quickly and then came to clean so fast without even giving us time to finish. At the end the waiter just came and said that we had max 7 minutes left… but they have not even served us desert yet!!! It was not our fault that the kitchen was slow and the planning so poor, but our dinner, mood and “experience” was affected. We were just kicked out from the table without being able to finish food and drinks. It was the second time we had our company event in Basso. And the last one. Do...