Maaemo opened in Dec. 2010 and was awarded its third Michelin star this year,  the first Norwegian restaurant to achieve this honor and one of only 2 Nordic restaurants to have 3 stars.  Its name means “Mother Earth” and they focus their tasting menu on the tastes of Norway.  It is located on the second and third floors of a modern building and has only 8 tables on the main dining floor and one larger table in the “Test Kitchen Table” (must be requested when making the reservation and your participation has to be confirmed) which is upstairs, adjacent to the kitchen. They offer every guest only one tasting menu and have optional wine pairings or a large wine list which the sommelier will help you navigate.

We ordered our own bottles of white wine and glasses of red, as the menu mostly prefers white. The tables are widely spaced in the modern room with a lovely view. Service is excellent, as friendly as you want it to be and pacing is perfect. About 2/3 of the way through the meal your table is offered a tour of the kitchen and don’t miss it. The clean, modern kitchen runs with total efficiency and it seemed like there were more service and kitchen staff than guests, but all so happy to greet you and explain anything. I was also happy to note a number of women filling some of the chef positions. It was an exceptional meal and experience, honestly I need to get out the thesaurus to find more words to use  to describe the meal we had, as delicious will get worn out in the descriptions for it.