Izakaya Skostredet

My friends and I went for dinner on Thursday and had the chance to try the chef’s tasting menu. The price was lower than the regular menu, which was a big plus and a great way to try new things. We came in with high expectations due to the buzz around the restaurant — the atmosphere, the location, and the standard it claims to offer. The food was decent and fresh, but it wasn’t a culinary experience I would want to repeat. The final meat course was honestly quite disappointing. When you come to a place like this, you want to taste something new, exciting, something memorable. Unfortunately, I felt like the deep-fried chicken and bacon served were just not good enough. I truly hope Bergen will one day have a top-tier restaurant, because I really like the concept of this place. I’m visiting again next week with friends to try the ramen. Reading some of the reviews here gives me mixed feelings, but I truly hope you take customer feedback seriously — and that our ramen dinner will be an unforgettable culinary experience. Best regards, and I’m looking forward to a delicious bowl of ramen!

Overall we were disappointed, the restaurant was recently included in the michelin guide so we expected more from our experience. The restaurant is located in a hotel lobby which can be distracting of the whole experience. First of all, the music playlist was terrible - it felt like we were in a cheap beach club and some songs repeated themselves, this kind of ruined the mood. The food was just okay, but nothing more than okay. We felt that the general ingredients used didn’t seem fresh. The sushi was slightly worse than any other sushi restaurant in Bergen. The quality didn’t seem to be up there, the fish tasted too fishy, and not fresh. We ordered an assortment of the nigiris - which was supposed to include a flambéed salmon belly, but we were served a prawn nigiri instead, at no moment did our waitress let us know that the flambéed salmon was sold out, would’ve been nice to know in advance! We also don’t agree with being charged the same for an ebi nigiri than a flambéed salmon belly. We ordered a pork skewer - which was served raw inside, we talked about this with our waitress and she told us that the pork is served purposely raw to ensure it’s juicy, looking out for our own health safety we did not eat this - we also refused to pay for it when the bill arrived. The ramen was lacking flavour, seemed rushed and basic - not much different to your basic. instant ramen noodles. They were sold out of the of the white chocolate matcha cake - apparently they were sold out of many things - so we ordered the only other dessert to share - a yuzu ice cream, the ice cream itself was good but the decoration with just 2 slices of green apple and 2 slices of oranges just seemed off-character to a Michelin guide restaurant. We paid around 2700 for 2 pax - we feel this was way too much for the quality and experience provided.

Izakaya is a nice break from European flavours in Bergen. The vibe is very nice and the service is amazing. The ramen was great, the only critique is that the broth was lacking a bit of umami and flavour, but the egg and noodles were perfect. The gyoza is only served fried which is a shame because if they were steamed they would also be perfect. The dipping sauce for the gyoza was authentic and accompanied them nicely. Overall I would definitely recommend this restaurant!

Food: 4/5 Service: 2/5 Wow factor: 2/5 Tourist trap: 3/5 Would comeback: No Note: While the food was pretty good, the service unfortunately was very subpar. First we waited to get seated for 10 despite having a reservation and restaurant being almost empty. Same dishes were combined onto the same plate without telling us and so on. Considering pretty high end prices we expected a much more attentive service.

The restaurant has a very cozy backyard with nice sitting area together with several restaurants. We took a drop-in visit because we liked the outdoor area. We order some wine and coctail. The kids had ramen bowls and gyoza. The food looks quite ok. Kids liked the ramen and gyoza. What I am not very happy with was the service. It started with what I say bad start were I stood there watching the waiter went back and forth and didnt react that I want a table to sit down. One of them even stood in the bar and had a sip of her drink/juice and didnt care. And the restaurant was not even crowded. Finally the head butler noticed and came and gave us the vacant table. The head butler was great and even gave a free Apple juice due to food was a bit delayed. So thumb up for this gesture and service. During our 60 min stay, the waiters who didnt care to notice us in the start came several time to our table with wrong orders. Asking if we have order this and that. Which we kindly said no, it is not for our table. I even order a beer at the end which never came. So, food is nice and quite ok presented and I want to dig more into their menu if we visit again, but some of the waiters are really bad and had no idea what they were doing. It was only a dozen of tables and almost 4 people including the head butler but failing to service are not good. Therefor only 2 stars for this.

We definitely advise not going here! Unfortunately, we did not see the recent comments and were duped by the mention in the Michelin guide. The overall experience was just horrible. The staff was not only overwhelmed with their tasks, which is sad to see, but also extremely rude. On arrival with a reservation, we were told to “just grab a table”. After almost 30 minutes, somebody finally came over to only ask us in an aggressive tone if we “just seated ourselves”. The drinks then took another 20 minutes to arrive. On every single table, you could see people being disappointed and/or annoyed. After more than an hour wait, the food arrived, but chopsticks and napkins were not provided, even though we of course asked for them. As a result we just simply had to take napkins and chopsticks by ourselves from the inside. The food was not horrible, but at this price-point, simply far from great. When asking to see the check before paying, the waitress responded with a “professional” “ah, you are suspicious?”. Five minutes before that, they made a mistake in the bill of the table next to us, which was the reason why we wanted to double-check. Overall, a horrible experience. If you want to have a nice time in Bergen, we recommend spending it elsewhere.

Surprised by the quality of food. Japanese/sushi themed restaurant. We ate there two nights in a row. Salmon nigiri melted in your mouth. Karaage, pork ramen, and maki rolls were very good. Definitely recommend if you like this lane of food.

My first time to this restaurant. Always try not to be biased by other comments and feedback. We got a really good waiter and was seated immediately, we had reserved inside, and as the weather was amazing, we asked for a table outside. We knew what we wanted and ordered Ramen for both my wife and myself. She ordered the Kimchi version, and I ordered the Tonkotsu Waiter was “on” and less than a glass of wine we got the ramen. The base could have been warmer and more tasty. Eggs coked to perfection and the meat was amazing. My wife’s Kimshi version was much better in my opinion. It’s a new hidden pearl and I hope many guests will enjoy this place.