Vaaghals — Restaurant in Oslo

A very good restaurant with lots of positives and lots of potential. You get a lot food for the 8 course tasting menu and you won’t leave hungry at all. The open plan kitchen/ dining area is a nice touch and the environment is calm and professional. I would say the Michelin Star is just about justified but I wouldn’t be surprised if one year it lost it. I assume it’s given because of the restaurants commitment to local ingredients, using all of the animal parts. They need to refine the menu and focus on cooking the key elements better instead of over complicating the plate.

1st course - Soup and Bread Soup, nice and sharp with good flavour and warmth. On reflection it was the best part of the meal. The brioche bread was a little too crispy and burnt. The butter was hard and could have been slightly melted to help with spreading. The crisp bread was unnecessary, a dry accompaniment. The wholemeal roll was slightly better but nothing of note. The dill spread was very lost in the bread course.

2nd Course - Ham, Pate & Herring Home salted and smoked ham was pleasant. The salting was the best part and it really came through but as for the flavour of the ham itself, once again very absent. Herring was good, well seasoned and with a good herb accompaniment. The pate was strange. Quite a lot of it with the overall course. With a better bread selection, it could have been better served.

3rd - Reindeer Tartar on Sweet Potato Waffle with Hazlenuts & Roe The waffle was merely a serving platter to the reindeer, which was the star of this dish. Not sure why there was roe and hazelnuts on this dish. Saltiness came across quite strongly. Definitely a theme of this restaurant so far. It’s a confused dish. Not unpleasant at all as the reindeer saves it.

4th Course - Halibut & Celeriac The chicken stock immersion sauce was probably the best part, creamy flavour came through really well. The halibut was slightly overcooked and chewy. The outside was perfect but it had fed through to the middle and this toughened it a little too much. I prefer an internal texture that melts like butter. The shredded strands on top of the celeriac brought a texture that was welcome. The flavour of the crust arranged on top of the celeriac itself was very good indeed.

5th - Broth & Nuts I’m not even sure what to call this dish. A rich gravy with nuts. An apple flavour that was there before I poured on extremely overpowering rich gravy. Onion strands were raw and added little. There’s a real obsession with nuts in this menu and the reason isn’t entirely clear.

6th - Duck, Confit duck, cabbage, sprouts, cherries The duck really was perfect, the sauce was sharp and spot on as well. The plate was very busy with the sprouts and cherries adding very little. The cabbage itself was perfect but it was overloaded by cream, dressing and soy. The duck confit was very dry, an unfortunate part to an otherwise good dish. This could be a great wish with some refinement.

7th - Desert Gingercake with toffee sauce, very pleasant cake with a good fiery flavour coming through. Well-balanced.

Blackcurrent Sorbet, foam and chocolate crumb. The sorbet was perfect, the crumb was non-existent hidden and overpowered by the tartness of the foam. Just too much.

Chocolate mousse with cherry drops. The mousse was very good indeed but spoilt by the darkness of the cherry. I understand the flavour they’re trying to go for but it just doesn’t balance well. There needs to be more chocolate to balance that cherry.

8th - Petit Fours Broadly forgettable at the end. Delicate, yes. But very...

Me and my family visited the Vaaghals tonight - we are staying in Oslo for a short trip and wanted to “dine fine” in a nice resturant because we were celebrating a birthday. We always use the Michelin Guide to enjoy nice restaurants. Unfortunately the Michelin Guide didn’t keep their promises when it comes to the Vaaghals.

On the first sight the resturant looks quite nice and cosy. After a look on the Menue, we decided to go for the Vaaghals Gilde Set Menu (wich should be a “tribute to the Norwegian ingredients”) the Menu contains four servings. First serving was a bit of bread, brioche and cooked ham which was quite nice but not very special. Also there was a very small soup, wich for our taste, was way to salty and viscous. The second serving was a salty, cold waffle with a bit of cabbage pumpkin seeds etc. The waffle was too salty and the filling unfortunately was to blend. The next serving was a blend fish, very small pieces, chewie and not special at all. Anyone could have cooked that fish more special. It doesn’t help that the servings comes on fancy plates and the - I really have to say - friendly staff is doing fancy, extravagant explanations. Also a very small portion for four people (and the price) We had to wait another 40 minutes for the last Serving (we came at 7 PM - the last dish was served at 10.30 PM). The pre heated plates were cold and as the food came, it also was very cold.

The last serving was the worst of them all. The fish was way to over salted and chewie. The lamb was ice cold. The sauces and the cavatelli were blend, cold, smellly and the cavetelli had a very strange consistency. We told the waiters that we are disappointed and they were very nice and offered us a small discount.

Even if the Ambiente and the staff is nice, I have to say that the Vaaghals feels like a “blender”. Nice staff and surroundings are also a criteria to enjoy a good restaurant - But it’s always about the food. And our experience at the Vaaghals didn’t catch up with our love for good food, cooked with love. They make you think that their food is special but unfortunately it isn’t. And it’s is way to expensive. We can’t recommend this resturant and unfortunately we won’t come back. Good luck and all the best for the friendly waiters but this is definitely not a resturant which should be recommended by the Michelin...

Price not in context with the food. Conclusion: The restaurant is missing professionality in many ways, serves food with too much variety for way to high price. This restaurant serves a simple and all right food for extreme high price. We bought a 4-dish menu + wine and got it served in three portions: A small dish of delicious soup with very nice homemade bread and a butter straight from the refrigerator (very unprofessional). Along with this this a nice ham (nothing better that you get in a supermarket in Spain), but for Norwegian; not to salty. The wine with the starter was very good and was a great match to the food as well. As a main dish we got wheal with simple root vegetable. The meet was not warm enough, the fat was even stiff. On my dish the fat was about 40% of the food and was, my partner was much luckier and got almost no fat. To serve a bad dish like this is another example of lack of professionality. With the main dish got served a Spanish wine, a low mid-range wine (3,6/5), but did not fit with the dish from my point of view, too much tannin and missing the softness the weal need. As a desert we got two types of mixture of chocolate and pepper, plus a sorbet. The desert was quite good an gave a nice twist to the dinner. With this we were served a lower mid-range desert-wine. For the whole meal, include wines we...