Pao - Thai Bar & Barbecue — Restaurant in Oslo

Where to start?

I deeply regret coming here to eat. I feel misled by some of the reviews, which were the reason we chose this place. The food was neither cheap nor reasonable—quite expensive considering the quality and portion sizes. To make matters worse, it took a long time to get our food despite the restaurant being nearly empty.

Three words to describe the food: dry, sour/acidic, tough.

Som Tam salad: Drenched in lime, overly acidic, and lacking any sweetness. They used a large green tomato that was completely tasteless. I suspect they don’t taste the food before serving it.

Slow grilled Hovelsrud chicken: Little flavor, barely any meat, and the dipping sauce was nothing special. Thai sauces are usually some of the best, but this was a complete miss.

Butterfly grilled mackerel: The fish had little flavor and wasn’t even salted. The dipping sauce didn’t help much, as it was quite sour.

Spicy pork stir-fry: Overcooked to death. The meat was dry.

Coal grilled entrecôte: The meat was tough, though it had decent flavor. The dipping sauce was okay.

Sticky rice: Very dry.

When the waiter suggests mixing dry meat and overly acidic Som Tam salad with sticky rice to make it less dry and sour, it’s just absurdly unhelpful. It doesn’t help when the sticky rice is dry too.

I recommend going to Nam Fah at Vulkan for better Thai or Thai-inspired food (which this restaurant claims to serve).

I want...

There’s a moment at Pao, a new Thai restaurant in Oslo, when you think it might just deliver. It comes with the chicken wings. Fried and battered to a golden crunch, they’re glazed in something sticky and clever. Sweet, spicy, salty. You make a mess. You think about another round.

The ceviche builds on that promise. Sharp with lime, loud with fish sauce, it zings with confidence. You’re ready to be impressed.

And then it all starts to fade.

The tasting menu, while attractively priced, plays it safe. Mild curries, polite salads, nothing particularly wrong, but not much to remember either. Oddly, the langoustine dish – delicate, sweet, properly lovely – is not part of the menu at all. You have to order it à la carte. A strange and sad omission, like the kitchen forgot where it put its best idea.

Pictures on Instagram look fabulous, but were not representative of what we experienced at Pao.

The drinks list doesn’t help. No local beer on tap, which in Oslo feels like an oversight. Stranger still is the presence of Thai beer at a high price. Not just expensive, but pointedly so. It feels like style over substance.

There’s clear talent behind the pass. You can taste it in moments. But Pao holds back just when it should push forward. You leave full, but not thrilled. The wings are great. The ceviche hits. The rest plays it too safe. A place with real potential. Still waiting for...

I go out to eat a lot, but few places leave me as happy as this. Full stars for everything.

First off, the food. Everything is hot, fresh and spicy. A red thread of fish sauce tying it all together. Bangkok meets Oslo. Street food meets established Grunerløkka. Perfect harmony between Asia and Norway. I loved all the food, and had the pork skewers as a clear winner. Portion sizes aren’t huge, but the flavours are bold. Be aware that they do like their spice levels high (but luckily, so do I).

Secondly, the service. Top tier. The waiters give you recommendations, suggest changes to your orders based on balance and eating experience, and follow you up. They also seemed genuinely interesting in your opinion about the food, coming back after our meal to collect feedback.

Place itself is charming and modern. Small - so definitely book a table in advance.

I will without a doubt come back. Highly recommend. A very welcome addition to the Oslo food scene, serving food with thought and love at a higher...