A culinary journey through the icy water of the Norwegian Sea
July 2022
July 2022
This late summer we indulged ourselves with a fine dining experience at Under, the world’s largest underwater restaurant, five and a half meters below the ocean surface in Southern Norway, with gourmet local delicacies and striking architecture, beautiful interior, and breathtaking light design.
Kristiansand
Lindesnes • Havhotell • Under
Under, located in the icy water of the North Atlantic Ocean in Lindesnes, Norway, a restaurant 5.5 meters below the surface, exposing you to the wonders beneath the sea.
Under aims to provide a journey into the unknown, a unique opportunity to immerse in the Norwegian marine ecosystem, experience a submerged universe, and explore marine life in ways otherwise may never be seen.
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Tweek had a birthday in July, and we were looking for a way to celebrate the occasion. One of the options was Speilsalen, a Michelin restaurant located inside the beautiful Britannia hotel in Trondheim. I will come back to this in another post ( •̀ᴗ•́ )و ̑̑. We decided to do it differently this year, and Under was his final choice.
The restaurant opened up for bookings exactly at 12 pm on the first day of each month, 5 months ahead of the chosen month, so we had to wait 6 months since we booked the second last day of July. I was able to secure our table 5 min after the opening. When I checked back about 30 min later, most of the weekend tables were gone! Since we could not make it home right after dinner, a hotel room close by was booked. It was the only hotel in the area.
Finally, the day had come. We left home around 9 am that day. It was a beautiful sunny Saturday morning. We drove through Oslo center, then Drammen, Larvik, Arendal, and Kristiansand before Lindesnes. The road bent outwards towards Norway's southernmost point, and suddenly Under was there. It was a long road trip, approximately 6 hours. We were quite exhausted after arriving, but the view of Under from the distance and the area around cheered us up quite a bit. The check-in was fast, and we had some time to rest.
After a short break, we made ourselves ready for the long-awaited activity this evening. Leaving our hotel room around 6 pm so we would have enough time to discover the area around. After a short walk along the shore adoring the cool ocean breeze and the tranquil yet spectacular scenery, we were warmly welcomed at the restaurant's entrance.
The receptionist then showed us to the bar area where starters were served with an aperitif of our choice. We were amazed by the detail of decorations on the plates and layers of savory flavors. Couldn't wait any longer, the hostess escorted us to our table in the depth of the blue ocean. Everything was in great sync. The next courses were served in a semi-slow tempo, just slow enough for us to enjoy the freshness of the ingredients and the umami flavor. Each dish was paired with a glass of wine selected by the Head Sommelier in a way that they complemented each other. The culinary journey was concluded with delightful confections paired with a glass of port wine and an "applicious" cocktail, followed by a great tea selection.
Thanks to everyone at Under who nursed us through the meal. The experience of fine dining under the ocean while observing the vivid lives of real nature through a 23-meter-wide window was somehow magical and indescribable. The restaurant has 1 Michelin star at the moment. After what I have experienced, they should be awarded 2 Michelin stars for their effort. Under's team truly understands how to make the grade and compensate for unexpected circumstances. Is it worth NOK 11,000 for two people? Certainly it's a Yes for the entire experience at Under, but unfortunately a big No for the hotel (way overpriced yet poor facilities). Is it worth a detour to a tiny settlement in Southern Norway's rugged archipelago? Absolutely!
As the last who left the restaurant last night, we really enjoyed our time at Under as long as it lasted. However, the amount of alcohol consumed during the dinner was much more than expected, and we both woke up with a hangover. Starting the day slowly with a simple breakfast, we managed to have another walk discovering the area behind the restaurant before heading home. Today was a somber day with a cloudy sky and drizzling rain. After 8 hours of jam-packed traffic, we called it a day with a delicious Thai meal and boba ٩(^ᴗ^)۶
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Under was only a few minutes from the hotel by foot. Walking down the small path, we noticed a small tree house close by, the Info House, or Informasjonssenter. Inside the house, interesting facts about Under were presented on large LED screens around the room: today's info @Under (what to expect from the 23 meter wide window), design concept, how Under was built, sea creatures around the area and "The Blue Forest" project.
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The restaurant left a deep impression at first sight. The architecture and handmade furniture are beyond beautiful with breathtaking light design. The room was constantly changing depending on where we were sitting and the time of the day while the sound of the ocean breeze was playing softly in the background. It's the cool Nordic minimalism at its warmest. All together made Under look like a raw yet soft concrete piece of art.
We were warmly welcomed at the main entrance after crossing a metal bridge. The entrance area, just right above sea level, is clad in local oak with a minimalist yet modernist feel. After a brief intro, we took the steps down to the Gallery, the bar area, where the culinary journey got started.
Photos credit: Under
The Head Sommelier offered us a glass of aperitif apple cider and a glass of champagne blended from 9 different champagnes, together with warm cloths before we got served the "Small living things". The shore was included all the way on the table when sea sand covered the plate, and a stone rounded by the waves at the beach's edge was the base for an artificial elbow shell, edible, followed by crayfish on flatbread presented on a moss mound mimicking the mound outside the restaurant, then lumpfish roe in brown algae biscuit on sedimentary rocks before my favorite torched marsupial (brown) crab, balls with red linseed cheese. There were small mouthfuls of the sea with distinctive characters.
Aperitif Cider & Champagne
Dish 1 : Elbow shell
Dish 2 : Bjørke Flatbread - crayfish and fin loin
Dish 3 : Brown algae - lumpfish roe and cured pork fat
Dish 4 : Marsupial crab - fermented buckwheat and red linseed cheese
The bar was in the water crust and now we proceeded further down to the restaurant's main dining hall in the depth of the blue water. We got the table in the middle of the second row where we had a great view of the whole 23-meter-wide window to the open sea. Spectacular! It's like sitting at a restaurant inside gigantic underwater binoculars, enjoying a symphony of rocks, seaweeds, and submerged living individuals. The table was nicely set before the Sommelier started presenting our first wine.
We selected the Immersion, a set menu that plunges into the water showcasing each season with its unique produce and the vast diversity of species in the area Under is located in this remote corner of the world, together with the Submerged, a wine pairing where we dive into a world of playful experiences designed to perfectly complement Under's cuisine.
We were served 17 courses and 11 wine glasses altogether, followed by a great selection of tea. The menu was prepared with a focus on the sea and local ingredients, including something as unexpected yet exciting as seaweed. Most of the dishes were fantastic, and so was the wine pairing. The flavors challenged and complemented each other to perfection.
The next course is silky pullet carpet shell filled with aged Jerusalem artichoke foam, toasted yeast and fermented carrot, inspired by the foam in the waves hitting the beach. It's the fresh sweetness from the garnish against the sea-salted scallop muscle. And then, an eye-opener: 120-year-old ocean quahog minimally processed and served in clear tomato and elderflower water in the Japanese way with a "crunchy" texture that elaborated the ocean umami. Ocean quahog, the world's longest-living organism, could live up to 500 years, and the one we got served was approximately 120 years old, when they were at their finest. Wonderful.
Dish 5 : Pullet carpet shell - yeast and Jerusalem artichokes
Wine 1 : Sauvignac, Pfalz, Germany 2021
Dish 6 : Ocean quahog - fermented tomato and elderflower
Wine 2 : Flora, Weinviertel, Austria 2020
Dish 7 : Fish pudding - fermented flour and matured herring caviar
Wine 3 : Melancholia, Moravia, Czechia 2019
Dish 8 : Crayfish - fermented honey and plum with salted chive flower
Wine 4 : La Lune, Anjou, Loire, France 2020
The underwater journey went further with fish pudding hidden under an artificial yet edible blue shell, an overwhelmingly silky fish pudding in a creamy sauce with onion oil and matured herring caviar, followed up with torch burnt crayfish and salted chive flower, brushed with fermented honey and plum, filled with mussel broth to pour over. Delicious. Then came my big favorite of the night, Sea 'salat' with citrus flavored "shaved ice" in a shell, an incredible combination of decoration, texture and flavor. A spoonful of different types of sea snails and seaweeds blended with creamy salted sauce and citrus crushed ice. For me, this was an incredible way to illustrate the icy water and small living creatures of the Norwegian sea through culinary art. Absolutely amazing. In a second, I wished Nicolai, Under's head chef, would use yuzu, Japanese citrus, in the shaved ice ｡^‿^｡
Dish 9 : Sea 'Salad' - sea snails and seaweed
Wine 5 : Bel-Arme, Cassis, Provence, France 2014
Dish 10 : Mackerel - potato and sea salad
Wine 6 : Naisu No Omoide, Kyoto, Japan
Dish 11 : Oysters - porridge with peas and wild herbs
Wine 7 : Branco Vulcânico, Azores, Portugal 2020
The waiter told us it was mackerel season, and Nicolai created our first main course to appreciate the ingredient in season. The mackerel was a bit raw and wrapped in seaweed, in a Japanese fashion like a generous bite of sashimi inside maki without the rice, served with a creamy potato sauce and sea salad. The fish was savory, and the salad was refreshing. Then came oysters in a creamy sauce of melted fennel fat and fermented rhubarb, like a porridge, brushed with BBQ sauce, served with peas, wild herbs and edible flowers. The oysters were delicately and nicely done. After a short break, the waiter presented the ingredient for our next main course. Surprisingly, it was duck, something we didn't expect here at Under. Honestly, we were not impressed with this main course. The dish alone was simple: a piece of nicely cooked duck with crispy skin on top, browny sauce, and a small amount of aged Jerusalem artichokes and pine. However, it came with three side dishes: a bowl of salad (not seaweed), a small bread in the form of an egg on a bird nest, and two lefses to share (the "picker" was interesting since it looked like a duck's foot).
Dish 12 : Duck - aged Jerusalem artichokes and pine
Wine 8 : Vagabond, Valais, Switzerland 2017
Our fine dining at Under came to an end with 3 desserts. The first dessert was quite unusual in a pleasing way: yoghurt with young rowan leaves and ants. Yes, real ants with a sour taste. Interesting! (FYI: they didn't move around) The second dessert was an aged apple cream topped with a caramel layer, like a crème brûlée, served with glazed stick bread. The third dessert included Maria bowls filled with brown cheese and aged rhubarb, macaron with pine and hazelnut flavor, and sea buckthorn with bee pollen. This dish was original. If there is anything to criticize, it would be the combination of the last 2 desserts and the port wine. It gave me an overwhelming taste of sweetness. Maybe it's just how Norwegian like their desserts to be. No offense (-‿◦)
Dish 13 : Yoghurt - young rowan leaves and ants
Wine 9 : Late Harvest, Tokaj, Hungary 2018
Dish 14 : Aged apple - caramel and spill
Wine 10 : Applelicious (Japanese sake & apple juice)
Dish 15 : Maria bowls - brown cheese and aged rhubarb
Dish 16 : Macaron - pine and hazelnut • Dish 17 : Sea buckthorn - bee pollen
Tea selection : Gyokuro, Kyoto, Japan • Pu-erh, China • Lapsang souchong, Taiwan
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Photos credit: Under
