Norway National Gallery
Universitetsgata 13, Oslo
Phone: (+47) 21 98 22 70
Website
Timetable:
Mon - Closed
Tue-Fri: 11am-5pm.
Thu: 11am-6pm.
Sat-Sun: 11.30am-4pm.
Located beside the National Gallery's gift shop and inside the building of the National Gallery of Norway, the French Salon is a lovely café that surprises for its intimate elegant ambience and its simple but tasty menu.
The premises are very French neoclassic decorated in green marble and white marble busts inserted in walled niches. The tables are simply but elegantly set and the place is very cozy and comfortable.
Sometimes you are hungry and want to eat wherever the closest place is. This was the case for me when visiting The French Salon. We wanted to continue our visit of the gallery and needed a break, so going outside was a bit pointless and a waste of time. Art Galleries cafés are rarely cheap, so I checked the menu and pricing in advance, and to my surprise it was average price in the city, nothing really overpriced or expensive.
Their menu was small, but the dishes on offer were yummy, Norwegian inspired, generous in size and nicely plated. They also have a small selection of cakes and slices displayed in the cabinet, which looked fabulous but we didn't try.
Their coffee was also good, and they have cortado on offer, something I always appreciate when I am overseas.
Although I loved this café, there was some issues with the service that would need to be fixed. The main one was that the café was understaffed. The staff were extremely friendly, welcoming and apologetic with some customers who complained about a mishap. Despite the speed and diligence of the waitresses, they couldn't cope with the constant flow of customers, even though they wasn't any group visiting or too many visitors. Two waitresses had to clean the tables, get the orders, usher the people in, serve food, and get the payments. The result was chaos in the service and stressed waitresses. You cannot enter and sit at will but have to wait to be ushered in and seated, and I had to wait over 5 minutes at the door waiting for that to happen. The cafe needed at least another waiter at the time I visited and perhaps two or three more at rush hour.
Having said this, I really love this place. It has something special that is difficult to explain. The patina of history, perhaps. Pity the chaos in the service. The rest was lovely and I would love to go back.
