The Golden Chimp — Restaurant in Oslo

Terrible experience. To begin with, first thing we were told was that there was no desert left as they had more people ordering ala carte had dessert that initially expected. I told them that I booked the degustation menu of 6 dishes over a week ago, like why would they sell more desserts than actually had? Let's say they had 10 people booked for the degustation menu. Then they should make sure they have at leats 10 desserts left! They said they could add an extra dumpling per person to cover up for the dessert missing but I told them I did not want an extra dumpling and after some talk we agreed to get 125,- deducted from the degustation menu as the dessert was missing. Also, important to say that the menu they had was completely different that the one they still currently have published on their website.

We ordered the drinks, and they did bring them quite fast however the first dish arrived at 20:40! We sat there at 20:00!

Then, the waitress did not inform me that the dish had chicken skin when I informed them again in the restaurant that I needed a pesco vegetarian menu and they did confirm such. Second dish arrived. Some small dumplings and when we tried them we realised straight away that they were off. The acidity of that dish was not normal. We decided to leave. As it was already 21:00 we did not manage to find a different place to eat. Terrible place, terrible food and...

Came here for a work event on the last weekend the restaurant held open - and we were overall pleased with our dinner. Great to have the set menus for larger groups, as you can just sit back as the food rolls out. They did a great job at accommodating allergies.

Overall I enjoyed the food. Good amount of variety. The winner for me were the crab dumplings (as for most guests I’ve heard rumours about) and the white fish in coconut sauce. The spicy beef dumplings were runner up. The bao buns also tasted very homemade, in a positive way. You could north definitely see and taste the effort that has gone into making the food at this place. No shortcuts.

It must be said however that we waited for quite some time in between dishes. We came at 18, and we’re not done eating our set menus until around 21.15. The set menu does also not correspond with that is presented on their webpage, and I wish we did get a bit clearer explanation of what we were eating.

To conclude I’m sad to see this place leave the Oslo restaurant scene, as the food is definitely one to recommend. The venue is perhaps not the best - so one can just hope (and perhaps assume) that they will open again in a different fashion.

EDIT: new location. Food and service good, location wise even worse inside. Loud, empty and...

Creative? Yes. Successfully so? Eh.

The set menu bounces irreverently between Chinese, Nordic, Japanese, Filipino, and perhaps a few more. When it works, it’s tasty and playful. When it doesn’t - half of the time, unfortunately - it comes off as unbalanced and unfinished.

It started off promising with a watermelon “tuna”. Followed by a spicy crab and kimchi dumpling full of flavour, then another seafood one that tasted like bland fish soup. Switching the order here might have made a difference, since the crab was so much more intense.

The fried dumplings were nice although the dough was way too thick. The ceviche was strange - out of 4 plates, none tasted the same.

The inconsistency carried on to the duck salad, where one of the “pancakes” arrived burnt to the point of being inedible. When we asked for another, we got one that was still raw and doughy. This dish was presented as the main, but was easily the biggest letdown of our meal.

The service was slow, as other reviewers have noted. We were placed by the door, despite there being other empty tables in the room. The servers were kind, but the attentiveness was nowhere near the standard you would expect at this price level.

We paid 4500 for the tasting menu for 4 people, with a few drinks. It didn’t feel...