Smalhans — Restaurant in Oslo

I visited Oslo last weekend with my 2 sons.

We had dinner at your restaurant on Saturday 19th August, 2023.

Before arriving at your restaurant, we had high expectations for our evening at your restaurant. The reality was very different and extremely negative.

Ignored We were seated at a 4 person table immediately to the right just inside the main door. My sons sat down with their backs to the wall. I was due to sit down opposite them but was still standing with my jacket on, holding my walking stick. (I have a walking issue due to MS (Multiple Sclerosis)). Suddenly, a waiter appeared with the menus and immediately started to speak to my sons about the details of the menu (short and long menus). He asked them which menu they would prefer to order, completely ignoring my situation (still standing, jacket on and holding walking stick). I was made to feel completely invisible. I asked him to leave and let me get settled in, and then we would call him back once ready. No sooner had I sat down and he was back, eager to 'perform' from his script.

Is this how you train your waiting staff? Just completely ignore customers in front of you and even more so when they are disabled? Shame on your restaurant.

Pressure to order and move along Throughout the meal, we predominantly dealt with a young waitress. We were 'pushed' to order the long menu but decided against this. Several times, this waitress approached us to order more alcohol which felt like pressure was being applied.

Over the course of our weekend in Oslo, we found food and drink extremely expensive. We spent a lot of money in your restaurant and this constant pressure to order was completely unnecessary

Request to close door After entering the restaurant, the main door was left completely wide open by the staff. At one point, it rained very heavily and a cold draught blew in through the door which made me feel cold. I asked the waiter in #1 to close the door because of feeling cold. He agreed to this and was partway through closing it when a senior waitress aggressively shouted at him to stop closing it. The door then remained partially open for the rest of the evening.

Your restaurant seems to maintain an attitude of 'we don't care about your comfort as a paying customer; this is how it is, tough'

Uninterested waiter We dealt with the waiter in #1 several times over the course of the evening. His style of communication and body language spoke volumes; 'I do not want to be here and I am not at all interested in helping these customers have an enjoyable evening'.

This waiter should not be working in a customer-facing role, plain and simple.

Chair As we were sitting at a 4 person table and there were 3 of us, 1 chair was unused. At one stage, I was speaking to the waitress in #2 when I sensed a man hovering beside us. He then took the vacant chair without saying a word to us. I later asked the waitress who he was and was told that he was one of the management team.

This was a clear demonstration of complete arrogance on the part of this manager. All he had to do was speak to us and and ask if the chair was free and if he could take it. Had he done this, there would not have been a problem and no offence would have been caused.

Coffee After the meal, we were asked if we wanted coffees. I ordered an Americano with hot milk on the side, and was told that only filter coffee was available. The waiter (#1) explained that he would have to speak to the kitchen chef re. the hot milk! Shortly afterwards, he arrived back to explain that because the kitchen had closed for the evening, hot milk was not available. Our filter coffees arrived, accompanied by ice cold milk. I personally found the coffee disgusting and thus undrinkable. A real low point to the end of a good quality meal.

Our meals were all fine and the food served was delicious. However, your restaurant completely let itself down due to points 1-6 above. Due to this experience, I would rate your restaurant 1 out of 5. Would I recommend your resturant to others;...

This restaurant offers a fixed menu for the brunch. My 8 friends and me booked a table one month in advance to try it, and we asked to have 1 out of 8 menu completely vegan (mine). They accepted our request. Briefly, the vegan alternative to salmon, poached eggs and sauce was some sort of salad made out of 1 roasted carrot and two tomatoes served on a coffee plate. Again, the vegan alternative to the meat, served with veggies and potatoes was just the veggies. When I asked for some potatoes they just told me that all the potatoes they had were cooked with butter and cream. Only positive note: the raspberry sorbet was nice. The price for this menu was 450nok. When it came to pay I really had to struggle to let them understand that “adjusting the menu for vegans” doesn’t mean to give vegans only veggies, and that I did not want to pay 450nok, because I was still hungry. At the end, they lowered the price of my menu. But still, I felt very much left behind, especially considering that this restaurant is on the Michelin guide. They should have high standards not only related to the quality of the food, but also to the care they take of all their customers (not just Norwegian omnivores). I want to specify that the waitress who took care of us did a good job, she is not to be blamed at all.

I will not talk longer about the bad service we experienced, which was not just related to the vegan options (see previous reviews). What I want to say is that it is very unprofessional to accept a vegan person just because you don’t wanna lose the other 8 customers. I could tell that they did not care at all about me, since they couldn’t even serve me more than a salad and roasted veggies. They did not even spend their time to cook two potatoes without butter or sauce. Especially since they had ONE MONTH to plan my meal. Such approach is embarrassing for a restaurant which should be on a Michelin guide. Moreover, it’s 2023, it’s time to be...

We booked here our last dinner in Oslo. We chose long tasting menu + wine pairing. After we arrived to the restaurant and sat at the table, it took several minutes until the service stopped by and brought us the menu. It just felt a bit too long until we got any attention, which isn´t a good start. The food was average. Also, if you serve fish that looks like a fillet, but contains a lot of bones, the service should warn the guests to eat carefuly! One of us had a vegetarian menu, it was okay, but one dish was totally burnt and smelled of nothing but burnt veg, so we returned it. The wine pairing for regular menu was nice, the wine list is very good. The wine pairing for vegetarian menu was the same as for regular, so obviously it wasn´t great. I bet many people order veggie alternative, so there should be wines paired also specifically for the veggie dishes. Otherwise it doesn´t make sense to have wine pairing. The service in general was not very professional, bit cold, didn´t know much about the wine. However, there was one girl, probably a sommelier, who had enthusiasm, energy and we had a nice chat about the wines. We were happy that she took charge of our table in about the middle of our dinner. Before the final meals, she went to change clothes, sat at the bar and started to write something. She didn´t care about our table anymore, and other waitress took charge. It didn´t make a good impression. Maybe her shift finished earlier or she had some other work to do, but this wasn´t a way how to do it. So our last evening in Oslo was a little fiasko, after visiting so many great places. Guys, wishing you good luck, please take the feedabck from your customers seriously and it...