Kanpai Izakaya — Restaurant in Oslo

Pros: The food was excellent! We ordered the Wagyu yaki, the Iberico yaki, the ribs, the lamb chops, and the Katsu soba. The Iberico yaki and ribs were phenomenal, they are might be even better than the Wagyu, to be honest! The charcoal does make everything taste so much better. I also really love the sweet potato puree, the pastinakk krem and the cabbage pickles that served with the dishes. The waitress who served was extremely nice (the asian girl who can't speak Norwegian). She was very friendly.

Cons: On the other hand, there was a male server (long hair) who was a bit unfriendly. He made us feel a bit unwelcomed when we first arrive at the restaurant and was not very service-minded. The Katsu soba was ok, but not very special. The truffle cream even though tasted very good on its own, it did not go well with the chicken katsu cutlet - it made the chicken taste so rich and easy to get tired off. I also would rather my veggies be cooked a bit more done. Aside from the good sides I mentioned above, some sides were not that good. The grilled padron pepper was very bitter (I expected chili peppers to be sweet and have some heat), and it did not go well with the Iberico. The Daikon pickles were unevenly cut thus there were some very thick pieces that were not properly pickled and had an unpleasant raw taste. The grilled broccolini was good, however, if you are going to serve the end stem, you should peel the outside a bit since those tend to be very fibrous and unpleasant to eat. One biggest letdown was the wooden 1-time-use chopsticks! I have expected some decent chopsticks when dining out in a fancy restaurant. I did not expect to see those cheap ones you can get at a corner/kiosk sushi store. They were very unpleasant to use as they were shorter and smaller than our usual size of home chopsticks. Also, if you are gonna serve dishes which have pieces of meat and puree, you should provide a knife and fork automatically as it is impossible to eat those kinds of food with just chopsticks (how can one eat puree and cut meat with chopsticks, this is coming from a Vietnamese who have used chopsticks forever).

Overall, it was a good night! I love the food so much so I will...

If you want the worst service in the city - that’s your place.

We were a group of 7 people. We agreed with a waiter to pay separately. Everyone paid. Then we were kept and interrogated for half an hour, because the staff did not track who ate what and who paid for what and the bill in the system did not match what we paid. No apologies for the inconvenience, nothing. On my comments that our time is wasted and it’s staff’s job to keep track of who buys what, I was told that it’s my job too (why?), again - no apologies, nothing. Moreover, the attitude of the manager (I assume she was a manager) was intimidating and hostile. At some point I was told that the missing sum is similar to my part. This was strange, because my part was below 500 nok and 1000+ was missing. I have already paid but was not given the receipt though. So, I needed to show my bank records to prove that I paid. No clue why I was singled out and accused of not paying - probably as punishment for speaking up. This whole situation was indeed something.

Also, they are absolutely negligent about gluten allergy:

1. The gluten allergy label was missing on the dish with mushrooms in crumbles - the dish was mentioned twice in the menu, once with the label and once without. When I asked whether it’s the same dish they said yes and that it had gluten. So, you basically cannot trust their menu - it is inconsistent and misses allergy labels;

2. Even after being explicit about gluten intolerance, I was still served a dish with the gluten containing sauce (there was also no gluten allergy label in the menu for that dish). When I asked whether the sauce contains gluten, the waiter said “no, probably not, but I need to ask”. After asking - he said, that yes, it has...

I found very interesting and tasty the concept of crab carbonara. The bartender is a truly one of a kind expert, it's been a long since I have tried so good cocktails. But besides that, you can not claim to be one of the finest restaurants in the city of Oslo and serve wagyu burger in premade buns similar to those that are sold in grocery stores. Also what is this thing with the lamb-chops, is this considered a proper plate for a Japanese restaurant, nothing special with it, just some wrongly cooked meat in a plate and that's all. Something definitely goes wrong with the grilling, burnt in some parts in a grade that the meat tastes bitter. Since Norway has a long trandition with fish I expected to eat some unique sushi in Oslo, but this was not the case. I tried the 8 courses plus three more plates so I have an objective image of their menu, when it comes to the menu if 8 plates, the portions are ridiculously small compared to the price, taking into consideration the fact that Oslo is an expensive city. I didn't have the chance to dinner at another Japanese of restaurant in Oslo, therefore I judge according to my experience from fine-dinning at restaurants I have been in Europe which have been probed way more...