We bought an apartment in Oslo without me having visited it in real life. My husband saw it twice before deciding to make an offer, I only saw it online. Then he quickly moved in and for a whole month I had to wait before seeing it for myself.

As a teaser, my husband mentioned an Entrecote restaurant just next door with very reasonable prices compared to 40 to 60 CHF for a rib-eye steak in Zürich. The website looked as nice with close up shots of delicious tender pieces of beef. It’s called Trancher, Entrecote and their tagline is “slow food served fast”.

So when I landed in Oslo, we decided to go. Unfortunately we soon discovered that most businesses are closed in July, including this one, but we found another restaurant of the same chain in the city center and went with Manu’s work colleagues.

Decor at Trancher

This is probably what was even more appealing to me with chandeliers, Louis chairs and gilted mirrors. The restaurant was full inside as it was raining so we decided to stay outside, under the awning and kept warm by heaters.

Service at Trancher

It was slow. The waiter was never outside so it took forever to get a refill of water and we probably waited more than half an hour for our first dish to be served. We also soon discovered that, to put it nicely, Norwegian service is not particularly focused on speed… The locals don’t seem to be bothered though, they look like the patient type with that “no worries” attitude we witnessed in Australia.

Food at Trancher

The entrees were not bad, tasty and refined even: we got seared scallops in a mango salsa, cured ocean trout and foie gras terrine.

However the disappointment came at the main and signature dish. See for yourself, the below is NOT what we, French people, call Entrecôte.

Where is the sizzling, the criss cross and the chargrilled smell and taste of a good old rib eye with some fat melting in the meat?

This is not grilled, this is sliced oven roasted beef.

Bottom line:

• it is Trancher because of the sliced beef
• it is NOT Entrecôte
• it is indeed slow food as it’s been oven roasted
• it is NOT served fast.

Next day I rushed to my local supermarket and got some rib eye to pan fry at home and eat with bearnaise sauce!!!

Next time we’ll try a good old american steak house or a place with hot stone. Recommendations anyone?