Festningen – dinner inside Akershus Fortress's old prison walls

On the ramparts of Akershus Fortress, with the Oslofjord stretching away past Aker Brygge, Festningen Restaurant occupies a building that once held prisoners rather than diners. The house was raised as a prison in 1836 and reopened as a restaurant in 2013, after Forsvarsbygg, the Norwegian government agency that manages the country's defence estate, led the renovation and decided the building should become a restaurant. Guests now sit under a panorama of the fjord, Aker Brygge and the area around Oslo City Hall, in a rustic brasserie room that holds 150 people around a single grand kitchen. It is run today by the Fursetgruppen, the Oslo restaurant group founded by the chef Bjørn Tore Furset in 1997 and now one of Norway's leading restaurant and catering operators, with more than 500 staff across 22 concepts. Festningen is listed as a Selected restaurant in the MICHELIN Guide, its cooking filed under Modern Cuisine, with the bill landing as a moderate spend.

01The room and the setting

The building itself carries the restaurant's real story. It was raised as a prison in 1836 and stood empty through various uses before Forsvarsbygg decided the house should become a restaurant, leading the renovation project that turned cells into dining rooms. The result, which opened in the autumn of 2013, is what the restaurant itself calls a rustic brasserie in charming, historic surroundings, with room for 150 guests and one grand kitchen. From the tables, the view runs across the Oslofjord, Aker Brygge and the stretch around Oslo City Hall, reckoned among the best outlooks any restaurant in the city can offer.

Outdoors, Festningen opened its terrace on 17 May 2014 and has served lunch there every day through summer ever since. A fire in February 2023 forced a rebuild; tens of millions of kroner went into a new restaurant and a far larger terrace, which in summer now seats 300 people across two levels, each with its own sweep of water and fortress stone. Set on the old ramparts themselves, the terrace looks straight over the harbour to Aker Brygge, with the Oslofjord opening out beyond.

02The kitchen

Festningen belongs to the Fursetgruppen, founded by the chef Bjørn Tore Furset in 1997 and grown since into one of Norway's leading restaurant and catering companies, with over 500 staff working across 22 restaurant concepts in and around Oslo. The group's other addresses include the two-starred Maaemo, the Grand Café and Gamle Logen, giving Festningen's kitchen brigade a deep bench of experience to draw on. On site, the cooks run à la carte and daily menus for both lunch and dinner, built around seasonal Norwegian ingredients rather than a fixed, unchanging carte.

Insider tip

Reached on foot along Myntgata from the fortress's mounted police stables; taxis can drive up to the door.

03What to order

Dinner's chef's menu runs to three, four or five courses at NOK 895, 995 and 1,095 respectively, opening with a crab toast of dill mayonnaise, vendace roe, apple and dill, moving through grilled beef sirloin with pommes Anna, autumn vegetables, porcini and a red wine sauce lifted with redcurrants, a cheese course with rye bread and jam, and closing on a dark chocolate ganache with seabuckthorn sorbet, white chocolate and hazelnuts. Among the à la carte snacks, Fine de Claire oysters come either natural or dressed with pickled plums and Szechuan pepper, and a truffle-and-porcini arancini makes a good start before the mains.

At lunch the kitchen runs a shorter two-course chef's menu at NOK 545, alongside à la carte dishes such as trout tartare with egg cream, soya tapioca and a lemon-thyme dressing, beef tartare with mushroom mayonnaise, Jerusalem artichoke and pickled chanterelles, and heartier plates like bouillabaisse, duck confit and a mushroom-and-truffle risotto.

04The neighbourhood

Akershus Fortress has stood over Oslo's harbour for roughly 700 years, its first stonework begun around 1290 under King Håkon V, who made it a royal residence when Oslo took over from Bergen as Norway's capital. Within the walls today sit the medieval castle, a church, the Norwegian Armed Forces Museum and the mausoleum where members of the Norwegian royal family are buried. From Festningen's terrace it is a short walk down through the fortress grounds to the quays of Aker Brygge or across to Oslo City Hall.

05When to go and booking

The indoor restaurant currently runs Monday to Saturday from 12:00 to 21:30, last seating, with Sundays reserved for private events and larger parties; the terrace is seasonal and was closed for the season when checked in October 2026. The main restaurant also closes for a summer holiday between early July and early August. Festningen is a member of De Historiske, the association of Norway's historic hotels and restaurants. Dinner groups larger than ten, and lunch groups larger than eight, are asked to contact the restaurant directly by email before booking rather than reserving online.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.