Restaurant Caspar Brambani in Sandvika: Better than Expected

Yesterday we went to Sandvika Storsenter for a shopping day. For lunch we decided to go away a bit and eat at the Caspar Brambani restaurant. It is only 5-10 minutes away and it is a nice walk (over a river and so on).

Also, the restaurant has a very nice terrace outside at the back, where children can play (sandbox, tree house, big chess board, table tennis...). Yesterday, there was even a live concert!

Live concert

Thr restaurant was full and we couldn't find a table. So we just sat somewhere and ordered some pizzas.

Barnepizza, 95 NOK

The children pizza was better than expected. Not sweetened to please children, just the "authentic" pizza taste. It was also pretty big.

Scampi Pizza, 165 NOK

My wife and I shared a "scampi pizza" and here too, I was pleasantly suprised. It wasn't with small shrimps bug big king prawns! It also had some tomatoes with garlic that went well with the pizza and with the prawns.

Example of what children can play with

The restaurant was named the best Sandvika's restaurant 2014, something I didn't know yesterday. It is a shame we only ordered pizza (pasta looked good, fish and ships was popular, ...) but well, that gives us a reason to go there again :)

Official Website: http://restaurantbrambani.no/

Olivia Hedgehaugsveien: a Cosy Place for Italian Food

I have already reviewed Olivia Tjuvholmen on this blog but thought I would write a few rods about Olivia Hedgehaugsveien too as we were there a few days ago. My son wanted a pizza and as we were in Bogstadveien, we decided to go to Olivia. The weather was really nice and we knew they had a nice terrace.

We started with a plate of cheese and ham:

Salumi e Formaggio, 155 NOK

I really liked it. It came really fast, the cheese was good, the ham was good, the toast/bread was good... Perfect while waiting for the main dishes. There were 3 types of cheese and 2 types of ham. I am not sure if this is intended for 2 or 3 persons as there were 3 slices of ham of each type but only 2 toasts. But well, it was nice for us 3 (2 adults and 1 child).

When it comes to the main dish, my wife ordered pasta with seafood:

Frutti di Mare, 179 NOK

She didn't say much about it but liked it.

I went myself for a classic:

Pasta Carbonara, 175 NOK

But actually this version was a bit original because they made their pasta carbonara with... squash! I actually liked it because it was giving a little "healthy" touch to an otherwise quite heavy dish. But well, if you don't expect it, it may surprise you.

My son wanted a pizza with corn and... sausage?! Not sure where this idea came to him (probably TV or something) but they didn't have corn and the only "sausages" they had were spicy ones (kind of salami type). So we ended up ordering a normal "barnapizza" with ham:

Barna Pizza, 100 NOK

And well, he was happy with it, so it was a good choice. The fish shape is made in other Olivia restaurants.

The service was fine and it was great to be out in the shadow (under the sun would have been too hot). All in all, as I said in the title, Olivia in Hedgehaugsveien (near Bogstadveien) is a cosy place to have Italian food.

Eataly in Aker Brygge: Winner of the Norwegian Pizza Championship

Eataly is a pizzeria in Aker Brygge. Elio Corsi who works there won the Norwegian Pizza Championship this year (first and third place) and we were therefore quite excited to try this pizzeria.

The restaurant offers (of course) a "commercial" variation of the pizza which finished first and also the pizza which finished third. Somehow we decided to go for other pizza that time.

My wife went for a pizza with the same name as the restaurant: pizza Eataly. It was with tomato sauce, meatballs and a bit of blue cheese.

I am not a big fan of blue cheese on pizza but this time it worked quite well because it was put in small quantity. Also the dough and the tomato sauce were good.

I went myself for a pizza Finocchiona with cream, mozarella and ... fennel salami. Hadn't hørt about fennel salami before but it tasted great and fit well with the pizza.

Finally, our son got a children version of the Prosciutto pizza with ham and mushrooms.

It had a cute fish shape and wasn't bad but I was surprised that the tomato sauce wasn't the same as the one used for adults pizza. Sweeter (better for children?) but less Italy-"authentic".

To conclude, we liked:
- the pizza which tasted good
- the fact that the toppings were original
- the fact that children could choose any pizza from the main menu (just with reduce size and price)

What we liked less:
- the service wasn't top-notch. For example, we had to wait 5-10 minutes to get water, even though we had hailed to several waiters. If you check other reviews on the net you may find horrible ones where one had to complain to the supervisor or something. It wasn't that bad for us. Just not awesome.
- strollers are not allowed inside. Common practice in the area but not a good one in my opinion.

A bit about the price: the pizza Finocchiona was at 169 NOK, the pizza Eataly at 189 NOK and the pizza for our son 85 NOK. Correct for the area.

Olivia: a Nice Place for Pizza!

There are  3 Olivia restaurants in Oslo and we have been to two of them. They offer different Italian dishes but what we like best there are their pizzas.

Yesterday, we went to the Olivia restaurant located on the back side of Aker Brygge, in Tjuvholmen. There is also an Olivia restaurant in Aker Brygge, next to the sea (at the beginning of the walking area) but we were afraid there would be too many people there.

There was actually quite some customers in Tjuvholmen too, but we didn't have to wait to be seated.

We ordered 3 pizzas:

• children pizza with ham
• White pizza with chicken
• pizza alla diavola

Pizza for children with ham, 100 NOK

Same pizza, another angle

Pizza alla diavola, 172 NOK

Pollo Bianco (white chicken), 172 NOK

The pizza alla diavola was actually quite spicy because of the salami (a spicy type). But "diavola" in the name of the pizza was indeed warning the pizza would be... diabolic.

I am generally not a big fan of white pizzas (I like tomato sauce) but I must admit that this "white chicken" pizza tasted very good and had me reconsider my views about white pizzas in general.

The service was good but I recommend you to avoid rush hours like Saturday night if possible.

The official website of Olivia: http://oliviarestauranter.no/

Casa del Maggiore: an Underrated Italian Restaurant in Majorstuen

*** Update July 2013: this restaurant has unfortunately closed. A new place will open 1st August ***

Some restaurants deserve more customers and Casa Del Maggiore is one of them. A good Italian place with an Italian chef and a very sweet waitress but very few customers.

Casa Del Maggiore has maybe the disadvantage of being on the quiet side of Majorstuen (Sørkedalsveien 3) where people are not used to go for dinner.

Costolette d'Agnello: lamb ribs with vegetables 267 NOK

When we went there, we were the only customers so I cannot say how efficient the service is but the waitress was really warm and welcoming.

Calzone Paradiso: closed pizza with ham and mushrooms 149 NOK

My lamb ribs were really good and the pizza of my wife (calzone) was also pretty good. It was nice to hear some Italian in the background (when the chef was speaking with the waitress for example).

Tiramisu, 89 NOK

I ordered a Tiramisu for dessert and it was quite nice but I found it a bit expensive.

All in all, as said in the introduction, Casa del Maggiore deserves more customers as the food is good the service is nice and the prices are correct (just the dessert may be a bit expensive). 

Trivia: do you know what Casa del Maggiore means? Actually, it is quite funny because literally it could be translated by "House of the Major" which is also the meaning of Majorstuen. A kind of Italian Majorstuen at Majorstuen.