Oslo is the perfect East London find. With a superb location, great music for dancing in the evening and wonderful food for eating, we couldn’t help but get slightly excited when we heard about their new brunch menu. So we went down to this well-known haunt to check out the deal.
The Venue
Most people know the venue. If you don’t you’ve probably been hiding under a live music rock. Oslo hosts some of the best DJ’s and bands this side of town (that’s the East London side of town). Upstairs plays host to some of the big names and downstairs is a restaurant and cocktail bar. Busy almost every night of the week without fail, Oslo is the perfect place to meet friends for dinner, drinks, dancing or all three. Oslo’s convenience to the tube station (it sits right next to Hackney Central station) makes it a perfect place for all of those East London outsiders. With good food and music already being a known fact of this venue, when we heard there was a new brunch menu, we knew we couldn’t miss it. Who says rolling out of bed in your pyjamas having danced in Oslo the night before and then going in to the same venue for brunch the next day is wrong? Not us!
Oslo is cool and casual in the day, but roaring come the night.
The Food
The new brunch menu is all you can expect from a brunch menu and more. With the classics on the menu such as Eggs Benedict, Eggs Florentine and Avocados on Rye – Oslo delivers well on these no-fail staples. As well as that, they deliver options that you wouldn’t get on the average brunch menu. With their speciality being their homemade waffle, you shouldn’t miss the Nutella Split, their original homemade waffle topped with Nutella, bananas, butterscotch sauce and candied walnuts (we swooned when this baby came out).
We went all out and ordered the Vege Cure – two Clarence Court eggs with avocado, haloumi, grilled peer, Portobello mushrooms, cherry tomatoes and homemade chilli beans on one of Oslo’s homemade waffles. All absolutely superb – just with a hangover we wish the beans had only a touch more chilli (that’s a personal preference). We also indulged in the Royal – smoked Norwegian salmon on an English muffin topped with eggs and spinach and a very excellent hollandaise sauce. Being the totally overindulgent American I am, I had to get the Nutella split too. I didn’t regret it, though my waist did. Come hungry!
Oslo deny you the right to a hangover with amazing brunch options such as the above.
Summary
When you think of Oslo, you think of hustling, bustling live music venue with Sambuca sticky floors upstairs and cocktails downstairs. That was a Friday night Oslo. The Saturday and Sunday morning version of this is a relaxing, calm venue to drown your hangover woes in Bloody Mary’s, French orange juice and enough pressed coffee to your heart’s content. We arrived at 12pm and didn’t leave until almost four. The ambience was just perfect – a place you wouldn’t mind killing a few hours in. A great retreat from the outside hustle and bustle of Hackney central.
