Hrimnir Ramen — Restaurant in Oslo

Wow. I'm sorry to say that Hrimnir was a major disappointment after all the glowing reviews in the dailies.

I had a bad feeling right from the start when our waiter was more or less clueless about both the food and the beverages, he seemed disinterested and fed up, but had a big smile plastered on his face at all times. A weird combination.

When we asked why their online menu was more extensive than the menu we got in the restaurant, he just said flatly that the menu we were holding was the whole menu. They lacked the langoustine appetiser and their seafood ramen which my girlfriend was looking forward to eating, and when we told him this, he hurriedly told us they were doing changes to their menu and experimenting with a new ramen dish. We would have accepted this if he just told us up-front. Oh, and my beer was almost lukewarm. Not a good start.

We ordered their umami potato salad, grilled mushrooms and scallops with beurre noisette as appetisers, and for main course, the veggie ramen and the hen paitan ramen. The scallops with brown butter were just a weird combination for me, and not good weird. The flavours didn't go well together and the scallops were too well done for my taste. The potato salad with chicken skin was okay, I guess, nothing special, neither were the grilled mushrooms, some were even singed a tad too much.

The ramen portions were small, a third or maybe even half that of what you'd get at Koie or Sapporo Ramen. The eggs were too well done and the soup stock a bit bland and boring on both the ramen dishes. They also did not have enough greens, especially in the veggie ramen. The hen filets, although nice, were not a good fit for the hen ramen dish and the same could be said about the celeriac in the veggie ramen. It seems Hrimnir tries to fuse nordic ingredients with japanese cuisine to make something unique, just because fusion food has been trendy for a while, but their mix of the nordic and the japanese simply didn't work for me. Instead of complementing each other, the flavours and ingredients clashed with each other, at least to my taste buds.

We also got our ramen before we finished our appetisers. I guess they didn't know you're supposed to eat your ramen within seven minutes, at least before the noodles get soggy and the broth starchy. So we had to wait with the remainder of our appetisers until we finished our main course. Bummer.

I really hoped this would be a better experience, since ramen is one of my favourite comfort foods. I would recommend people to eat at either Koie or Sapporo Ramen, both are much better than Hrimnir. Oh, and...

The food was excellent, however the service from our first waiter was the worst we've ever had, our table had to essentially beg to be properly serviced by other staff.

If you're looking for high-quality ramen in Oslo, I would absolutely recommend this restaurant for the food, but the poor service experience made for an overall unenjoyable meal.

The male waiter who was supposed to service our table competely abandonded us after taking our order, which took over 30 minutes after being seated, yet the table right beside us (who came in 10 minutes later) was able to order right away after being sitted. After receiving our food by a different waiter, we were never checked on afterward and waited another 30+ minutes to get checked out/to-go boxes, which we had to go get up and request.

We came in 13:06, so it wasn't busy yet (as they just opened), and finally managed to leave around 14:47, so it took over 1 hour just to order our food+wait to checkout/receive to-go boxes. Throughout this time the table beside us left 20 minutes earlier than we did, ordered/received their meal before us, ordered/received dessert, were able to get drink refills and were checked on consistently despite our table being literally right beside them.

Not sure why the difference in treatment but it was me and my partner (table of 2 on Valentines Day), but I'm assuming the male waiter wanted to focus on the all female table celebrating Galentines or knew that group outside of work, which explains why they ended up receiving such special treatment in comparison to us. In fact, he was doing such a poor job with other tables that one other couple had to seat themselves and get their own water.

Thankfully, the female waitress who ended up taking over for our original waiter was able to provide much better service. Overall, I would recommend this place for the food and the food alone, but the poor service experience was...

Food: We ordered the spicy miso ramen, tantanmen as well as a side of edamame. The spicy miso one's broth was kinda weak for my taste buds. The chashu eggs and noodles themselves were incredible! As for the meat, it is not my cup of tea. If you like Norwegian "ribbe" you'll like it however I'd prefer they would use normal chashu instead.

The same applies pros apply to the tantanmen, which I preferred over the spicy miso one simply because there was a stronger flavour to it. We chose "svineribbe" chashu for this dish too but I wish we would've picked mushrooms. They looked really tasty.

I was pleasantly surprised with the edamame. I had the expectation that the sides would be tiny however it was a decently large portion. It also had a perfect level of spice, which is hard to find in a non-spice tolerant country like Norway.

Service: We didn't receive the menu when being seated. Ended up having to call over the waiter to take our order as they thought we already had done it due to our menus being gone. Not a big deal at all but worth mentioning. Besides the service didn't stand out in any way. It was not the best, but not bad either.

Atmosphere: If you don't book a table you can sit at the bar counter, just like in Japan. I actually prefer this seating arrangement. There's also an open kitchen so you can see what's going on. Great for people who like "people watching".

Final thoughts: A good spot to get ramen in Oslo! It isn't the cheapest option nor does it not taste any better than say "Koie Ramen" in my opinion however it has a lively atmosphere...