Weekend grub: Norwegian restaurant Bryggen offers continental hi-tea

What’s a fitting option to eat out when you’ve skipped lunch for some odd reason, are starving enough to gulp down an elephant and have planned to catch up with friends or loved ones?

Many restaurants don’t offer lunch after a particular hour and serve dinner before the evening sets in. There are places that offer food all day long but are few and far between.

This where hi-tea comes in. Whoever came up with the idea needs to be awarded a medal. The best part about hi-tea is it offers an assortment – as a platter or buffet – of starters/salads/soups, light main courses and desserts, and you top it all off with tea, green tea or coffee.

Lahore has several options to choose from for a delectable, hearty hi-tea. A relatively new addition to the ever-burgeoning food business is Bryggen that claims to offer Norwegian cuisine. However, their hi-tea spread is continental in order to “cater to a wider range of customers, who aren’t very experimental with food”, according to Manager Richard Munir.

Where to go

Bryggen is located in an old white building on main M.M. Alam Road, right before the massive Khaadi outlet, if you’re coming from Hussain Chowk.

As soon as you step inside, you’re welcomed by staff wearing what looks like the traditional Norwegian dress, bunad. The interior boasts an old European feel with wooden floors and walls, slightly dim lights and elegant black chairs.

Owned by Chaudhry Basit, who doubles as the executive chef, Bryggen was launched in September last year, and recently started offering hi-tea in December. Manager Munir told us Mr Basit has been running a restaurant by the same name in Norway for 20 years.

When to go

The hi-tea, which costs Rs 775+tax, is offered between 3:30 pm and 6 pm. It's advisable to visit Bryggen early to relish the food while it's fresh. If the weather permits, you can grab a seat in the quaint outdoor setting but it's usually reserved for BBQ.

What to eat

We're first served chilled mint margarita as a welcome drink to cleanse our palates.

For starters, we had the capsicum, spicy chicken, sweet corn and apple cabbage salads from an impressive selection of eight fresh salads. The salad selection is updated every three to four days.

The creamy mushroom soup with bits of mushroom was our favourite part of the entire meal. The consistency of the fresh soup was just right, and the mushroom and cream flavours complemented each other well. Other soups on offer included the hot and sour soup, which was nothing to write home about.

Next up, we had small portions of herb rice topped with sweet and sour fish, buffalo chicken wings, chicken in chilli sauce and fried fish.

The rice were soft and fresh (evident from the aroma of the herbs); the fish was doused in a sweet and sour gravy with the right amount of flavours neither overpowering the other; the wings tasted great, but were smothered in a buffalo sauce that was surprisingly sweet to the taste. Buffalo wings are usually very spicy, but Byrrgen's version is sweetened by the surprising addition of ketchup in the sauce - an improvisation of the chef, we were told.

The chicken was worth the try with cubes cooked to perfection in a gravy of red and green chillies; the fried fish thankfully wasn’t oily or too dry and its crust had just the right crunch. The tartar sauce though was slightly runny and tasted different, which again we were told was the result of the chefs’ addition of eggs and gherkin pickle instead of the usual cucumber and carrot.

The pepper steak was quite the disappointment: It was served dry and the sauce bland. The chowmein was at best average. They also have a live pasta station, but not being fans of this Italian offering, we gave it a miss, and instead had second helpings of the food we first sampled.

Their dessert corner was quite colourful: a non-edible tree-like structure sat in the top-mid of the table surrounded by fruit truffle, chocolate fudge pastry, chocolate mousse, strawberry mousse, cream of rice, tea cake and fruit jelly. Like the salad bar, the contents of the desserts table also also changes every few days.

The chocolate mousse was delectable, the truffle light and fruity, the strawberry mousse in little glass cups soft and fluffy.

Overall, it was a fulfilling, economical hi-tea buffet. However, the food presentation was lacking and Bryggen really needs to up its game with tough competition in the hi-tea department on Lahore's 'mini food street’.