The Little Pickle, a Michelin-guide restaurant located on the edge between Grünerløkka and Tøyen, opened its own bakery and café.
The newly opened bakery and café has assembled a talented Japanese team, who have been active in Oslo’s food and coffee industry in recent years. Among them are the restaurant’s baker and pastry chef Nozomi Miyawaki (宮脇のぞみ) and her husband Tsukasa Miyawaki (宮脇司)—the couple used to work at Ille Brød, one of Oslo’s best known sourdough bakeries, and Ayae Maki Fredheim (真木彩衣), who used to roast at Lille Oslo Kaffebrenneri and now running her own independent roastery Hibi Kaffe. Even though Hibi is still in its early stages, the roastery has already attracted attention in the industry, and is today the coffee provider to the bakery Farine, restaurant Panu, as well as Michelin 3-star restaurant Maaemo.
Menu The sourdough bakers are busy making fresh batches of pastry The café was so busy even the café manager was wounded in the battle. Food from the kitchen is served out this cute window, and allows the chef to interact with the guests
We came to the shop around 1 pm on the day of opening and the whole place was overflowing with people. The bakery and café occupies the front part of the restaurant, separated from the dining area by a set of thick, dark green curtains. One can find cinnamon rolls, cardamom rolls, pain au chocolat, croissants, sourdough bread, baguettes and buns, among other things, available on the display counter.
Coffee drinks served here are all brewed with beans roasted by Hibi Kaffe. If one is in the mood for tea, here they also offer Hojicha (焙じ茶) latte with Hojicha powder sourced from Oslo’s independent tea supplier Spill the Tea.
Café latte Cinnamon roll Cardamom roll Pain au chocolat
We tried 3 kinds of pastries (50 NOK each), in addition to a plate of sourdough bread and butter (50 NOK). Both the cinnamon roll and the cardamom roll are a bit on the dry side (one can even see the centre of the roll is about to get so dry that a pale layer runs across it like a thin piece of paper), but both were very fresh and tasty.
When it came to the pain au chocolat, however, this little extra dose of dryness seemed to have made it more airy, lending more space for one to experience the collision of the butter flavour in the dough and the chocolate. This was one of the most flavourful pain au chocolat we have had so far in Oslo.
Sourdough bread and butter
The sourdough bread was the absolute star of the day. Chewy on the outside yet moist and soft in the centre, the bread boasted a mild yet mellow sourdough flavour, leaving a long lingering aftertaste. It certainly reminded us of the signature sourdough bread from Ille Brød, only that the acidic taste seems more subtle and subdued. Mind you, a loaf of bread costs 76 NOK at The Little Pickle compared with 135 NOK at Ille Brød.
Both the filter and latte from Hibi beans were both impressive. The batch-brew filter (45 NOK) tasted very fresh and the latte (62 NOK + 8 NOK for oat milk) is probably one of the best we have had in Oslo. We also bought a bag of beans (190 NOK) to take home.
The restaurant was so crowded with people eager to try their pastries, that we could not find chairs to sit on—even though we somehow managed to get hold of a table. Service staff scurried through the crowd trying to establish some order. The whole situation reminded me of the title of the book I’m currently reading: Picnic in the Storm (嵐のピクニック) by Yukiko Motoya(本谷有希子).
Given the set-up of the team, there is reason to believe they will very soon offer more varieties of pastries in the future. We look forward to coming back for a second visit.