Rest

The name Rest refers to leftovers, those remains/rejects that most often get tossed. The restaurant Rest is not in the business of throwing out want-nots, on the contrary, it  turns food waste into fine dining. Unloved crooked carrots, obscure meat- and fish offcuts and damaged fruits, repudiated by the less savvy mainstream, are transformed into creative, luxurious, and most importantly, appetizing dishes by Head Chef Jimmy Øien, previously of Palace Grill and the national culinary team, while the wine pairings are competently handled by the experienced Sommelier and GM Inghild Stien Thorvaldsen.

As if to emphasize the leitmotif, Rest is tucked inside a secluded courtyard, its sumptuous dining room is bathed in soft lighting and rock and roll, a large window allows you to spy on the young kitchen brigade.

Pacific oysters are an invasive and unwelcome species in these parts, yet they’re perfectly delectable, we should probably get paid for eating them as we’re decimating their population. Rest serves those that are normally cast aside as too big and/or too small; the runt is a cold, tart little sphere, the obese a rich and creamy voluptuousness, poached in smoked buttermilk. Swimming along, from the intrusive and non-indigenous to the local and endangered is Øien’s eel, sourced from a sustainable research project. Glazed with soy and presented on a hot stone, it’s rich, luscious, umami-smarmy and followed by king crab tails dressed in a spicy Thai-style red curry with textural kohlrabi. After this scuttle of seafood comes a dehydrated tomato creation that thrillingly brings to mind the concentrated aromas of powdered soup. Florets of “ugly broccoli” with quinoa and sourdough crumbs, suspended in a web of barbed wire (!) are a crispy-scrumptious, albeit tad salty, tangle that paves the way for the meal’s meat dishes. Puffy cocks comb with chicken liver mousse and confit gizzard continue the theme of undesirables made into that same word’s antonym. An ice cream pop of sour goat curds and chocolate is both refreshing and satisfying, while a dessert of elderflower and preserved rhubarb with white chocolate brings sunny summer reveries in December.  We can’t guarantee anything, but we’re willing to bet you won’t be leaving any rests on your plates.   

Published January 2020