“The dessert trolley is pure theatre”, at this “real 1970’s”-style “time warp”, at the foot of a Regent’s Park apartment block – the preferred birthday-party venue locally for those of a certain age; its “hilarious” (but highly professional) staff serve up an “amazingly large” menu that delivers surprisingly “excellent” results – “you simply have to love it!”
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“This isn't just a restaurant, it's an experience.” “The huge laminated menu is an international round-up of forgotten treasures from an era when nouvelle cuisine was just an absurd rumour”, she notes, “and eating out meant beef, chicken, lamb or fish, preferably in some kind of cream-based sauce”. There’s “something very relaxing“ about this St John’s Wood institution too. The atmosphere is “truly extraordinary”, with “much table-hopping and general air of back-slapping enjoyment is seldom seen outside The Wolseley”.
Fay Maschler (23rd October 2007)
3.5/5 stars
The “literal role of restaurants”, the critic notes, is “to restore”. The long-established St John’s Wood restaurant she reviews today “understands this particularly well” and “consequently does enviable business”. The review is worth reading for the history alone.
It had to be tried. Oslo Court is a genuine oddity, a restaurant tucked away inside a residential mansion block in St Johns Wood. The dining room was originally intended to serve the residents of the block; it was originally frequented by Norwegian World War II veterans; hence the name; accounts differ as to whether the Norwegians came because of the name or the name was because of the Norwegians. After various changes over the years the place has been under the ownership of the Spanish Sanchez family since 1982 (various family members both cook and run front of house). A nod to the largely Jewish clientele of the area can be seen in the latkes on the menu, yet bacon and lobster can also be found, so this is certainly not a kosher restaurant.
Tracey MacLeod (4th March 2008)
Fay Maschler (23rd October 2007)
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