A baguette, a roll, or a slice? White bread, wholemeal, or sunflower seed? Butter, garlic dressing, or guacamole? All the vegetables? Ham, salami, white cheese, blue cheese? Eat in or take out? Something to drink? If you expected your old-fashioned kind of bakery where you can take your time picking out one of the ready-made sandwiches, you're in for a surprise. Godt Brød at lunch hour has the pace of a McDonald's but is its culinary nemesis.
One day some friends decided that what Bergen needed was a good, no-nonsense ecological bakery. Now, some years later, Godt Brød ("good bread" in Norwegian) has several other branches in Bergen and has expanded to Oslo, and deals primarily in what the country lacked 10 years ago: fresh, made-to-order sandwiches with a wide range of things to put in them. Everybody in Norway knows what Godt Brød stands for: a fresh, tasty, healthy (and somewhat pricey) alternative to all that other, less fresh, less tasty, and less healthy food which you can pick up on the go. And their most valuable asset is still exactly what the name suggests: good, old-fashioned bread – which you can of course still buy just as it is. In addition to that, and the made-to-order sandwiches, there are vegetarian mini-pizzas, buns, and Bergen’s famous cinnamon rolls – all made from ecological ingredients and baked on the premises, too. To go with the food, I usually have the locally produced freshly squeezed orange juice, which tastes like all the oranges in the world and is well worth its admittedly steep price.
This particular branch of Godt Brød is located just by Bergen’s famous fish market and right next door to the YMCA, with a view of a bumpy, cobble-stoned street. There are few places for sitting down, and they are all facing the big windows (very Scandinavian coffee bar-style and excellent for people-spotting), making this a better option for solo travellers or couples than for a group – at least if you want to eat on the premises.