Akershus Royal Banquet Hall

FOOD

Akershus serves a set family-style selection, with lunch and dinner sharing a Norwegian-inspired supper and breakfast offering its own spread. The food is all-you-can-eat, brought to the table for sharing and replenishment. Selections can change, including the dessert assortment, but the later meal gives particular attention to meatballs, lingonberry accompaniments and seafood alongside familiar American sides.

Lefse with cinnamon butter deserves attention at the start. The thin, potato-based Norwegian flatbread can be folded around that sweet-spiced accompaniment, with bread rolls and a selection of cheeses alongside. Caramel cheese, also called brunost, adds a brown, caramelized Norwegian cheese to the opening plate. Its sweetness gives the bread-and-cheese course a different character from the meat and gravy to follow.

The chilled Nordic shrimp salad combines shrimp with a creamy dressing, dill and chopped cucumber. Princess Garden Greens offer a separate vegetable start, with cucumbers, tomatoes and radishes among the greens and lingonberry vinaigrette over the salad. Those two starters give seafood people and salad people something specific to explore before the communal main platter reaches the table.

Kjøttkaker, the Norwegian meatballs, are the defining savory choice, served with lingonberry jam. Mashed potatoes and brown gravy make a natural plate companion, with the berry accompaniment bringing a sweet-tart element to the meat. The potatoes sit beneath the meatballs on the sharing platter, letting the gravy become part of that forkful. Very sensible company for a meatball.

Salmon and chicken broaden the main course beyond the meatballs. Seasonal vegetables accompany the proteins, with squash and asparagus among the possible selections. Macaroni and cheese supplies the familiar pasta side, useful for anyone whose preferred royal banquet involves cheese sauce. The salmon gives seafood enthusiasts a main-course fish as well as the chilled shrimp starter.

Breakfast gathers scrambled eggs, smoked bacon and sausage links with cheesy potato casserole. Norwegian waffles come with maple syrup, giving sweet-breakfast devotees a place beside the savory platter. Pastries and fresh fruit fill out the morning meal. The casserole gives potatoes their breakfast turn, while the waffles make the Norwegian theme part of a spread built largely around recognizable morning comforts.

The plant-based meals have distinct rosters. Lunch and dinner offer plant-based meatballs and bratwurst, olive-oil mashed potatoes, seasonal vegetables, greens and bread, finishing with apple cake and vanilla gelato. Morning alternatives include plant-based scrambled eggs, home-fry potatoes, Norwegian plant-based waffles with maple syrup, fruit and applecake. It is worth choosing the meal period with those actual dishes in mind.

The Royal Chef’s Dessert Plate carries the storybook theme into the sweets. An Ariel cake pop encloses dark chocolate cake in white chocolate, with a mermaid-tail presentation. The Belle dome combines a spiced Norwegian cookie base with vanilla-flavored mousse. Rice cream with strawberry sauce supplies a spoonable Norwegian dessert beside those character-inspired pieces. Even dessert gets dressed for the occasion. Specialty drinks are separate, including a Royal Berry Spritzer of blackberry, pomegranate and lime with blueberry-hibiscus sparkling water.