Restaurant Name: Olivia
Cusine: Italian
Location: Oslo, Norway
Company: Parents, Brandon and Jessica Yang, and Arthur! (I realize this is my first post where I ate with both of my parents!)
Overall Experience: AHHH! I love Oslo! (:
This is the "Antipasto all'Italiana"! Which as caprese, parma ham, melon, artichoke, olives, finocchiona, pesto genovese, and focaccia. The caprese was super delicious (: I think that Old Vine Cafe (in CAMP in Costa Mesa) has better caprese but Olivia's was still fresh tasting. One of the combinations that I grew to love from my Europe trip was eating melon (or cantaloupe) with ham, which is what this appetizer had. The artichokes were perfectly marinated in olive oil and herbs. The pesto was amazing! I don't know what they did. Everything about it, the combination and balance of the ingredients were flawless! So good. Notice the heart picture with it in the middle (:
Wee! Another appetizer dish that we had! Notice the pesto oozing down the sides?! AWESOME! This is the "Bruschetta con Pesto"! Typical bruschetta with the bread and tomatoes. But this one was special with Olivia's amazing pesto as well as "mozzarella di bufala" which made it unforgetable!
I want to say that this is a plate of Olivia's Pappardelle alla Tabernacolo, which is a pappardelle (noodle) dish with chicken, tomato, chili, onion, garlic, bacon, parmesan and herbs. Their pappardelle noodles were amazing! Whether they make it in-house or get their noodles imported from Italy (at least these are the two options that I'm hoping for!), the chew factor of there noodles worked exceedingly well for this dish. Especially in a pasta dish, I am very particular of my noodles. If the noodles are too soft, everything in your mouth is just all mushy. If the noodles are too hard, then you're working way harder than you should. The noodles in this dish were perfect. Especially pappardelle, which is a broad fettuccine, it could easily be off-balanced. Olivia prepared these noodles amazingly well. The sauce that accompanied it also paired fittingly to the noodles. It was saucy which allowed the pappardelle to act as a dish! Ingenious! Oh so delicious.
We ordered two pizzas. The one on the left is the Proscuitto di Parma. It is topped with tomato, mozzarella, parma ham, pine nuts, rocket (which is known as arugula in the States), and parmesan cheese. The other pizza that we ordered was the Pizza con Funghi, with mozzarella, an assortment of mushrooms, parmesan, parsley, and garlic oil. The pizzas in general were not bad. The toppings where pleasant. If Olivia was striving for a thin crust pizza, I think that they mastered the crispy crust, but failed to deliver on the body of the pizza. The crust was stunning! Extremely crunchy and matched Olivia's scrumptious pesto sauce beautifully. The body was a bit more on the soggy size, at least in comparison to Pizzeria Mozza's crispy and delectable pizza body. The pizza was good and I would definitely order more to try a variety of their yummy toppings, but their pastas, I felt, were much better.
This is Olivia's Panna Cotta. It's a vanilla panna cotta with marinated blackberry and raspberry coulis, which is a thick sauce made of pureed blackberries and raspberries. The panna cotta was delicious, but it didn't quite trump Cafe Hiro's amazing panna cotta. The texture was more jello-like and had a tougher bite to it in relation to Cafe Hiro's which just melts magically in your mouth. The panna cotta slightly disappointed, yet I did arrive with great expectations.
The other dessert that we ordered was their Sufflet al Ciocoolato, or chocolate souffle. It is a chocolate fondant with raspberry coulis and vanilla ice cream. While the panna cotta disappointed, this "sufflet" was extremely impressive! We just kept digging at this mystical delicious chocolate bundle of ooey-goodness! The ice cream was delectable and accompanied the rich chocolate souffle tastly. It was not too creamy but enough to experience a shock in your mouth! The chocolate cake part of the souffle was extremely tender and moist. Oh so good!
