Bedehuset — Restaurant in Larvik

I discovered this restaurant a couple of months ago, and it's now by far my favourite restaurant in the area.

The building itself is an old converted church, which is obvious from the high ceilings and enormous, curved windows. Very impressive.

The service was excellent, from the moment we arrived to paying the bill. They had some smart precautions in place to prevent infection, and they were being mindful of seating people carefully to avoid crowding.

Now the food. I have eaten here three times since I first discovered it, and I would like to be able to tell you about the variety of different dishes they serve. But I can't, because the first dish I tried was so delicious, I couldn't bring myself to order anything else from the menu on my following visits.

The bacon-wrapped beef fillet. It tastes incredible. Served with mixed vegetables (which actually have flavour), and a potato, but not just any potato. It has a mysterious yet delicious crunchy coating I didn't recognise. I forgot to ask what this was, so all I can tell you is that you want it in your mouth. Even if the service had been terrible, I probably wouldn't have been able to convince myself to give this restaurant fewer than 5 stars, based on this dish alone.

For dessert, the pavlova. Another triumph. Crunchy and chewy meringue, ripe, flavourful strawberries and a selection of other berries. Great to share if you can't manage a whole one (the portions are rather large).

Take a trip here - you won't regret it. Just be sure to book ahead, as they are understandably very busy...

Visiting from the UK, with Norwegian family but despite not speaking Norwegian we didn't have a problem at all. All the table staff were friendly and helpful and very accommodating especially as 2 of our group of 8 were vegan. My partner asked for a vegan wine and after a short wait the head chef appeared with the perfect wine and even a story on how it's made to give it a more personal touch.

When he learnt we were vegan he double checked our food preferences and asked 'So can I make you something cool?' and boy did he make something cool.

3 courses of delicious vegan food to which he personally came to explain what each course was.

The rest of our party absolutely loved their sharing platters too. But it was the chef's ability to think on his feet for a couple vegans that really impressed us all.

Very accommodating to all needs, lovely service and a genuinly great...

Been here quite a few times over the years, and while the food has never been extraordinary, it has been good enough. However the quality has gone gradually downhill, and the food is now almost inedible. My chicken burger was the worst I have ever had. Seemed like it had been brined and was slick and way too salty. The beef burgers are compact and of poor quality. Their pizzas used to be good, but recently they have made changes and the pizzas are now 50 percent crust and the filling is undercooked. The chocolate fondant was cooked all the way through, and the raspberry was moldy.

Menu has also been pretty much unchanged for years. Bedehuset has great potential, but needs to renew itself in terms of food quality and...