Good restaurants in Oslo

Earlier in the month we visited Oslo for a few days and came home with two happy but slightly portly tummies! We’ve been to two cities in Norway now, Oslo and Bergen. In Bergen we ate a lot of Norwegian food; most restaurants served food of this type. However in Oslo Norwegian restaurants were harder to find and pretty expensive. There was a much greater variety of food from around the world and overall it was a cheaper place to eat compared to Bergen. Thankfully every restaurant on our trip was great and we didn’t have any to add to the ‘avoid’ list.

Oslo restaurants

Rust

Rust serves tapas as well as a small selection of other dishes. Neither of us are normally big fans of tapas but when we saw the menu we couldn’t resist giving it a try. We ate:

• Crab claw with garlic butter — a large claw filled with melt in the mouth meat
• Cod with a pistachio crust
• Vegetable gratin (beetroot)
• Miniature burger
• Asparagus beans with lemon (green beans)
• Bread and aioli

All were superb! I could have easily eaten another round. Go here if you like tapas, and if you don’t, it might just change your mind. The dishes are far removed from over sauced meat and greasy morsels many restaurants of this type serve.

Sadly the camera battery ran out just as I was taking the photo above so I couldn’t take any more! 🙁

Villa Paradiso

Villa Paradiso is an Italian restaurant serving rustic homemade pizzas. They have a cosy bar at the back, decorated with wood and dimly lit — the perfect place to wait for a table while drinking cold Norwegian beers. I had the Primavera pizza with mozzarella, roasted vegetables and herby garlic rub under the cheese. The dessert we had was okay but nothing amazing so I’d say sacrifice all tummy room on the starters and mains.

Cafe Sara

Cafe Sara is a pub style restaurant with friendly staff and plentiful portions. We both opted for burritos which were served with corn, salad and sour cream. Although it was a good meal, it was similar to pub food in the UK, so for this reason it wasn’t our favourite restaurant. If you want a big meal and good vegetarian options (can be hard to find in Oslo) you won’t be disappointed.

Restaurant Mother India

Restaurant Mother India is a small, cosy Indian restaurant. It gets very busy and there are few tables so get there early or book. Our waiter was very helpful and talked us through his favourite dishes on the menu – which led us to try the mouth wateringly good onion and coriander naan. I’m not sure why I didn’t take any photos of the food here, I think I just got caught up with eating 🙂

Monsum Noodlebar

Monsun Noodlebar is a very popular Japanese restaurant. It gets busy with both in-house and takeaway orders so if you visit, don’t be surprised if you have a few extra minutes to be served. It’s worth the wait though and the food is reasonably priced. I can highly recommend the Soba Satay Vegan noodles, the Vegan Bun and the Shar Sui Pork Noodles. They have an English menu too!

Grünerløkka district

The Grunerlokka district of Oslo has lots of nice looking cafes and restaurants. If you find yourself stuck for lunch or dinner head to this area because there is a lot of choice. We liked the look of Freddy Fuego Burrito Bar and there a couple of nice looking French restaurants (there are lots of them in Oslo). Our Airbnb host recommended this area too.

Oslo Cafe’s

Focacceria

Focacceria is a tiny bakery serving topped focaccia. It’s all handmade in the shop; you can watch them work while you eat. With only six window seats, places to sit are limited but they can box things up for takeaway. After we’d eaten lunch here we went across the road to a cafe called Retrolyyke (below) for some cake.

Retrolykke kaffebar

Retrolykke kaffebar and vintage store serve drinks (hot and cold) and a selection of homemade cakes. Every nook and cranny is filled with vintage homewares – if you like this sort of thing you have to visit this cafe! Everything was delicious, especially the hot chocolate with cream and the chocolate milkshake.

If you are planning to visit Oslo I hope you find this list helpful! If you just came here to eyeball nice food, are your tastebuds tingling?