After an early 4 hour boat ride, we arrived in our final destination of Bergen. It's a quaint town that's actually Norway's 2nd largest city after Oslo. Luckily, it has a bit more character and charm than Oslo. One of the big things to do in Bergen is to take the funicular up to the top of the city to get a spectacular view of the whole town. But before we did that, we needed to grab a quick bite to eat.
I had read about Bar Barista in a few blogs and it was 2 blocks from the funicular, so we headed there. So it turns out that it really is more of a bar/coffee shop than a cafe or restaurant. It has a very limited food menu (some panini, waffles and crepes) but quite an extensive beer and beverage menu. The big draw here is the super fun an funky decor - it's loud, colorful and fun. It's got a very hippie, artist vibe which was a nice change from the grey rainy backdrop (apparently it rains 4 or 5 days a week in Bergen). I ended up getting a ham and cheese panini and a Belgian lager (175 krone = $20). It was a pretty basic but filling panini - I liked the fresh cut tomato salsa it came with as well as the garlic mayo that came on the side. The guy next to me got a waffle (which is almost like a national dish in Norway) which looked delicious and sweet.
I can't really say this is a great place to go to if you're hungry and really need to eat. But if you're looking for a cool place to chill, relax and get something to drink, this is definitely a place to check out.
Escalon Vetrlidsallmenningen 21, 5014 Bergen, Norway 4 Forks
Lav and I had spotted this cute Spanish tapas place while we were walking around town and filed it away in our head as a place to eat for dinner. While I never really had a terrible meal in Norway, I was ready for some more flavor and something besides fish and sandwiches. Tapas seemed like a nice change up to our usual meals.
The menu here has your usual line-up of traditional tapas dishes - we decided on manchego (80 krone), shisto peppers (78 krone), potatoes bravas (69 krone), eggplant with goat cheese (72 krone), fried cheese balls (44 krone) and the meatballs (80 krone). The manchego was simply cubes of cheese, so while it was good, it wasn't anything innovative or creative (although I did end up using it as a vehicle to sop up the tomato sauce that went with the meatballs and the garlic mayo in the potatoes). The shisto peppers were a nice dish - it's what you would expect of these types of peppers: salty outside with a hint of heat on the inside. The potatoes bravas were delicious but it was really because they were drenched in a super garlic-y mayo (who doesn't love that?). The eggplant wrapped and filled with goat cheese was also great - the goat cheese wasn't overpowering and the eggplant had a nice soft but not too mushy texture. The best dish of the nice was the fried cheese balls - gooey on the inside and crunchy on the outside - I could have eaten another order of it. The only disappointing dish was the meatballs which is surprising since it's Norway and you'd think they would excel at meat. They weren't super juicy or moist and seemed pretty one dimensional.
We got suckered into a chocolate cake dessert (98 krone) that in all honesty wasn't chocolate cake at all but some dry cookie with super sweet chocolate sauce dripped all over it - very unimpressive, especially for the price.
Overall, it was a nice reprieve from the slightly mediocre food we had been having in the small fjord towns. It was a nice change of pace from Balestrand where there weren't a lot of options but there are most definitely lots of restaurants to choose from in Bergen - however, the prices definitely reflect it. Bergen is a cute town, especially the Bryggen area and the suburbs beyond that, but I wouldn't really spend more than 1-2 days here. Most people use it as a jumping off place to the fjords, so we kind of did it backwards but I actually preferred it this way - it was nice to end of a quiet and relaxing note. Total bill: 800 Krone = $93 USD with tax, tip and drinks
Photo Credit: TripAdvisor
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