Eero – dinner on Saarinen's rooftop above Oslo's Palace Park

Five floors above Henrik Ibsens gate, inside the triangular building that once housed the United States Embassy in Oslo, Eero occupies the rooftop under the open sky of Slottsparken. The restaurant takes its name from the architect who built the embassy in the 1950s and who also designed the Gateway Arch and the TWA Flight Center at JFK International Airport. Up here a wood-fired oven does most of the work: shellfish, venison, cod and Norwegian vegetables are cooked over open flame and embers, in full view of the room. Eero is Selected in the MICHELIN Guide, recognised for a kitchen built around what fire does to a piece of fish or a haunch of venison, and for a terrace that looks straight onto the Royal Palace gardens and the fjord beyond. From September to April the whole rooftop — terrace, bar and dining room — is reserved for private hire; from May it opens again for anyone who simply wants a table.

01The room and the setting

The building itself is reason enough to climb the stairs. Eero sits above the southwest corner of the Palace Park and surrounded by other embassies and historic buildings, on the stretch of Henrik Ibsens gate that Oslo diners place between Nationaltheatret and Solli plass. The same restored building now holds offices and a wine bar called Frances and Vinland Brasserie, with Eero, the rooftop bar named after the building's architect, on top.

Up on the fifth floor, the room opens onto a 360-degree roof terrace with a wonderful view of Slottsparken and the Oslo fjord. The entrance is easy to miss: guests arrive not through the grand Henrik Ibsens gate façade but from Løkkeveien, round the side of the building.

02The chef

The three restaurant concepts inside the old embassy — Frances, Vinland Brasserie and Eero — come from the star chef Andreas Viestad, while the building's new owner, Fredensborg AS, oversaw the restoration and the interior design. Day to day, the rooftop kitchen itself is run by head chef Charles Taylor, who composes every menu around the wood-fired oven at its centre, using shellfish, venison, cod and Norwegian vegetables only when they are at their best.

Insider tip

Open to the public from May; September–April the rooftop is reserved for private hire and Christmas dinners.

03The cooking

The register here is fish and seafood, cooked almost entirely over fire. Bread and butter, shellfish, a main built around cod or venison, and the vegetables that come with it all pass through the same wood-fired oven before they reach the table — open flame, embers and smoke standing in for most of the kitchen's equipment.

04What to order

Through the private-hire season, Eero serves its own winter menu rather than an open à la carte: three, four or five courses for 795, 995 or 1,095 NOK. It opens with wood-fired bread and seasonal butter and a grilled scallop with pumpkin and citrus, moves in the five-course version through mushroom, celeriac and truffle, and reaches its main course as cod — or skrei, as Norwegians call the mature Atlantic cod that migrates to the coast in winter — with kale and potato, or venison with blackberry and onion. It closes with Eero's almond cake, finished with yuzu and chocolate. An oyster reception, a cheese course or ten grams of N25 caviar can be added to any version of the menu.

05Wine and drinks

The cellar below Eero is the same one that supplies the whole building, curated by Francesco Marzola, who has composed a list of over 3,500 selections at Ambassaden. At table, wine pairings run from 725 NOK for three courses up to 995 NOK for five, with a Connoisseur supplement of 200 NOK that opens the bigger bottles in the cellar — Burgundy, Rioja Gran Reserva and vintage champagne. The bar itself works in signature cocktails and classics, and can have two or three drinks waiting before a reception even begins.

06When to go and booking

From September to April, Eero takes no ordinary table bookings: the entire rooftop, including the terrace, dining room and bar, is reserved for private hire, from company dinners and weddings to daytime seminars and launches. Seven Christmas Nights dinners run on selected dates between late November and mid-December, each with an aperitif at seven, a three-course Christmas menu at eight, and a DJ taking the room on from ten.

Come May, the rooftop reopens to anyone who wants a table, with cocktails, wine from the same cellar, and small and large plates from the wood-fired oven served as usual on one of the city's more spectacular terraces.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.