Omakase by Sergey Pak

Pak cuts for texture before seasoning

A knife meets the garnish at Omakase by Sergey Pak in Bergen, where each slice has to carry its own weight. The room gives the chef little cover: a 10-seat counter, the hands in view, the rice close enough for the guest to read the pace of service. Sergey Pak leads the kitchen as executive chef and mastermind. He opened the restaurant in July 2024 inside Skostredet Hotel, under the De Bergenske group, after earning the Nordic Sushi Master Chef title. That method is direct: Norwegian fish, exact cuts, subtle seasoning, and a tasting sequence that trusts the ingredient before it reaches for ornament. The Michelin star arrived in 2025, within the restaurant’s first year, for this house in Bergen. Pak’s own public line is plain enough to serve as a working thesis: “Norwegian fish is truly world class, and we make it shine.”

Norwegian seafood through a sushi discipline

The program runs as omakase, not as a menu of choices. Pak and his small team build the meal around Western Norway’s fish and shellfish, then move those materials through Japanese technique: vinegared rice, aged soy, yuzu kosho, careful curing, and knife work that changes how fat, salt, and temperature register. The known signatures say much about the range. Norwegian uni nigiri places briny sea urchin over rice brushed with aged soy. Reindeer sashimi arrives paper-thin and lightly cured, a local animal carried through a Japanese cutting discipline. Wagyu with caviar and gold leaf sits later in the progression, richer and more declarative, with saline weight against beef fat. The structure has been described in 14-course and 20-course versions, with nigiri, sashimi, small plates, and warm seasonal courses used as resets rather than interruptions. The restaurant’s craft rests on restraint. Sauces do not lead. The cut does.

A quiet counter in black and grey

The room is built for watching. Black and grey surfaces pull the attention toward the pass, the bench-side exchange, the setting down of a piece of nigiri, the short explanation of provenance before the next bite. It is dimly lit, quiet, and close, with the calm pressure that belongs to counter dining when there are few seats and no back room to hide the rhythm. Pak speaks through the course when it needs speaking, answering questions without turning the meal into performance. The wine program is curated around seafood umami rather than cellar display, with Champagne, Chablis, and Riesling appearing as natural companions to the fish. The house is modern, but the pace is old-fashioned in one respect: the guest waits for the hand.

The Bergen argument

Omakase by Sergey Pak matters most when it stays local. The argument is not that Bergen can imitate Tokyo, but that Western Norway’s catch can withstand the discipline of sushi without losing its place. De Bergenske chief executive Kjetil Smørås has spoken publicly about Bergen becoming a city people travel to for dining, and this counter gives that claim a precise form. Pak’s next strongest sentence is a slice of Norwegian uni nigiri.