Little Wolf — Restaurant in Oslo

This place has all the right ingredients to build the hype: picturesque location 2 steps from St Hanshaugen Park, its cozy minimalist industrial style interior with small row of tables tightly spead around the open kitchen, and of course a menu full of colourful Instagram-ready small dishes.

Unfortunately, they forgot to put some thoughts in making a difference in the food and the dining experience.

Apart from the chaotic booking experience, the vibes were off since the moment we stepped in, no smile and rushed orders. The servers and floor manager all look stressed and in a rush, which I don't understand because they don't seem understaffed. The people from kitchen seemed nice as they greeted us.

But thing has just gotten worse and worse and chaotic as we sat down. After reading menu for a while and we decided to go with the set menu, we were told we could not order from set menu because we should have booked it days in advance to get the ingredients (which is not stated anywhere on the menu nor the website), but then by asking kitchen all sudden it was actually possible. Shouldn't you know what is available on the day and inform the customer as soon as we sat down about what we can and cannot order so we can make an informed choice? It felt like an after thought and just came across pushy and unprofessional.

The service for the rest of evening also felt disorganised and messy, we were attended by 4 different waiters with no clear roles, who all had different information about our orders and had to go ask each other every time we had a question.

Finally food: it was a random sequence of tiny portions that looked very good but didn't deliver. There was no story, inspiration or any clear connection nor concept, it was a mix of generic Mediterranean cuisine reduced to its essence (which is normally not a problem if developed properly), because when you have to split one piece of scallop to be shared among 2 people, I am sorry but you are not serving me food, but trying to sell me a concept that personally I find a bit offensive. Most flavours were bland, sometimes the textures were very off (for example the 'focaccia crumble' were hard shards so sharp they cut my teeth gum, which made absolutely no sense on a soft slice of tuna), even when they are right they are far off from being memorable (the pasta tasted good, but a little overcooked, the pork neck was cooked very well but tasted bland). For this price point, we left wanting more.

It has been a true disappointment, what a pity, it could have had...

Cozy, exciting and a tad bit elusive. The menu brings a feeling of novelty. It both over-performs and under-delivers. We chose the set menu and LOVED the grain focaccia, wild halibut and rigatoni. The lasagna fritta on the other hand; disappointing. By the looks of it, one would expect a «bomb» of flavour. Although it had a nice crunch, the taste of it was bland. Also, be aware that the dessert (brownie-miso) is a supplement to the set menu. Our understanding was that it was part of the set menu (as starters, main courses and desserts completes a set), so when the waiter asked if we wanted one to share or one each (without clarifying it was a supplement) we naturally asked for one each and were billed for dessert, hence the elusive experience. An unwelcome surprise to end our meal. The overall experience was good! Although, we hope to experience great when we visit again for the next menu iteration. Welcome to the neighborhood,...

Tldr: bad vibes, expect more at this pricepoint

We booked for friday evening, showed up at the reservationtime to hear there was a “glitch” in the system and there was no table for us, and we were sent away without an apology.

We got a reservation for the later that weekend instead, at 20:00. The set menu was not available because ‘we really should have booked that in advance’, but after checking with the kitchen we could still get it. The service was very rushed, every dish was thrown on the table without proper explanation, and dishes didn’t come out on the same time. Drink orders were taken only once during the whole dinner. While we were finishing our main course, we were told that they were going to close soon so we had to order dessert while some of us were still eating.

Some of the foos was really tasty but overall it felt more like small bites than...