Feniqia — Restaurant in Oslo

This was my second attempt to eat at this restaurant (the first i was told they had decided to close their kitchen early that day, without any notice or explanation)

When i did finally get a table a few days later, the food was decent - nothing to complain about on that front. But it is the first middle eastern restaurant i have been to in the world where they charge you for bread. Never in lebanon, london, dubai etc. has a restaurant had bread that you need to specifically order (unless you want something more fancy than their regular offering, in which it is only reasonable that you pay for that). It is an integral part of Arab culture - you order & pay for the mezzes & they give you the bread to eat with it complimentarily. Anything else is considered inhospitable & miserly by cultural norms.

This in itself was not the entire problem. I ordered a portion of bread - got two small pieces of flatbread. I ate that pretty quickly & ordered some more. 10 minutes passed & it had not arrived, so i thought i’d double check with a member of staff. That staff member told me point blank ‘the kitchen is very busy & you need to be more patient.’ Wow. I ended up waiting 20 minutes for the extra bread to arrive, & seeing as that i could not enjoy my mezze without it, i just sat there & stared into space.

I’d recommend the owners of this restaurant be less greedy & generously serve their patrons with bread complimentarily, like every other Arab restaurant in the world - after all, their prices are already high, even for Oslo standards - they can certainly absorb the cost of flour & water. & if they insist on customers ordering bread separately, then atleast make sure it comes out promptly so that they are not forced to take long intervals in their meal waiting for it to arrive. & perhaps not talk to your patrons so rudely when they follow up on delays too. It’s a very short sighted & stingy way to run an establishment. I...

Ok, First I want to say the food is really amazing especially the Grill mat. My third time to try a Lebanese food and 5 stars for the food! The bread I always hope it would be warm and soft. The location is great and the atmosphere is also classy. But then as a Chef, I recognized that the kinda old lady who served us has a bad behavior. She was arrogant, bossy and rude. She was explaining the food with a very angry face and not even smiling. She also smells nicotine. In front of our table she was acting rude to one of her coworker (Asian) who don't do anything bad. I thought she was the Manager to act that way. I was so embarrassed! If she's having a bad day she should not shown or bring it at work or even to her coworkers. Hence, this Asian girl came back on our table smiling as if nothing bad happened to her from this old waitress and humbly asked us if we are good and if we need something else. That's professionalism. These young server/waitress women's (Asian and I think from Lebanon girls) are always smiling and making the ambience friendly. They are good team driven which is good. I don't know but this makes me think that sometimes people who has this long experience as a waitress or etc. forget where they came from. Being arrogant and bossy is a no no. I am not being bias here I work in this industry for so long. As a restaurantchef, I truly recommend that everyone should be service minded and be professional whatever happens. I suggest that you should not forget the SOFT SKILLS in the restaurant staff esp. the one who served us because interpersonal interactions are essential.

I hope when we come back we could see...

Nice lebanese restaurant that were a little cramped but had nice atmosphere.

Meze with grill Meze with grill consisted of 3 cold dishes, 4 warm dishes and a mix grill plate. Would recommend ordering this set as the menu can feel very complicated for newcomers.

Pita bread The pitas were freshly made and tasted like they just came out of the oven.

Falafel 🧆 Falafel had good flavor and was crispy on the outerior, paired nicely with tarator dip. It did not taste flourly at all.

Hummus tahini Chickpea puree topped with some toasted chickpeas. One of the best hummus we had.

Baba ghanouj Nice and tasty dip made of aubergine and some pomegranate for color.

Tabbolisalad 🥗 The salad tasted mostly of just herbs and some bulgur.

Raqaqat jebne Pastry filled with mozarella, feta cheese. Pretty good about what you expect.

Sambosik Pastry filled with minced meat, tased as a fried dumpling with some lebanese spice.

Batata harra Roasted sweet potato, one of the booring sides as its just roasted veggies.

Mix grill Meats on the mix grill was alright, but the spice taste of the shish kefta was not to our liking. And the lebanese bread was to burnt on some pieces as you can see on the picture. Other than that a well made mix of diffrent meats.

Osmanlieh cheesecake Lebanese cheesecake, the filling was excellent and had a round sweet flavor. But the button and top was very loose and to overly sweet for our taste.

Lemonade and pomegranate juice. Lemonade was good and tasted homemade, but the pomegranate juice tasted just like the store boght version. The negative is its very little liquid compared to the huge amount of ice cubes taking...