Statholderens Mat og Vinkjeller – dinner in a 1640 Oslo cellar

Six steps below Rådhusgate, in a quarter Christian IV laid out in straight lines after the great fire of 1623, lie the whitewashed brick vaults built in 1640 for Peter Gruner, the king's Master of the Mint. Today they house Statholderens Mat og Vinkjeller, the informal, three-roomed cellar sibling of the one-Michelin-starred Statholdergaarden above, run by the same kitchen under Bocuse d'Or champion Bent Stiansen. Where the townhouse's ground floor carries the full-dress tasting menu the kitchen has defended since 1998, the cellar works at a different pace: a ten-course menu that changes theme every six weeks, a Scandinavian-European à la carte, and, at midday, a table of Danish smørrebrød. It is Selected in the MICHELIN Guide, its own entry, separate from the starred restaurant upstairs, for cooking built on classic technique and served without ceremony, in rooms that have held guests, in one form or another, for close to four centuries.

01A house with four centuries of guests

Statholdergaarden was built for the Master of the Mint, Peter Gruner, in 1640, in the newly laid-out Kvadraturen district that Christian IV established after the great fire of 1623. He had little time to enjoy it: Gruner died two years after moving in. In 1680 Ulrik Fredrik Gyldenløve rented the property and moved in with his court as Governor-General of Norway, living there until the end of the century. The building later also served as the Oslo lodgings of the naval hero Tordenskjold, and two of its smaller rooms, converted for his bedroom and bathroom, are now used as private dining rooms. In 1914 the house turned from private residence to restaurant, and took the name Statholdergaarden in the 1950s. Bent Stiansen, the first Norwegian to win the Bocuse d'Or, in 1993, opened the gourmet restaurant here in 1994 and has held a Michelin star ever since 1998.

02The cellar and its rooms

The informal restaurant keeps to the original white-washed 1600s vaults, one level below the stucco salons where Statholdergaarden serves its tasting menu, and is split into three bookable rooms: a small wine-cellar room for sixteen to twenty guests, a middle hall for twenty to thirty, and a larger room for up to forty, with the whole space seating around ninety at full stretch. It is a house style built for company rather than quiet two-tops, favoured for office dinners and groups of friends, with a cellar wine list priced roughly a quarter below the same bottles one floor up.

Insider tip

Closed Sun–Mon; summer break 12 July–4 Aug 2026; booking via statholdergaarden.no.

03What to order

The current ten-course menu opens with a carpaccio in parmesan emulsion, capers, shallot, rocket and pine nuts, moves through a fennel-and-chive spaghetti in mussel sauce, Arctic char with cucumber, radish, potato crisps and a horseradish-mustard beurre blanc, and a coconut-lime sorbet with raspberry granité, before pork neck with corn, turnip, tomato and sugar snap peas, a cheese course, and a milk chocolate "bonnet" with almond-redcurrant cake and a redcurrant-shiso sorbet. A shorter five-course version keeps a crab salad in lemon emulsion with toast and smoked apple broth, and a turbot tom kha gai with bok choy, chilli and rice crisps, alongside the same char course and chocolate dessert. The ten courses are priced at NOK 1,150 and the five at NOK 1,045, read on the restaurant's own site in October 2026; both menus change theme roughly every six weeks.

At midday, when lunch service runs, the kitchen turns Danish, laying out tall open sandwiches of herring, cured salmon, prawns, fried plaice and roast pork, alongside the Danish classic Dyrlegens natmat (the vet's midnight snack), a tradition the restaurant says its Danish head waiter brought with him. Lunch is served Tuesday to Friday from 11.30 to 15.00 and Saturdays from 12.30 to 16.00, though it pauses through the spring and summer season.

04Wine and drinks

The cellar's own wine list runs to around 500 labels, with a separate corner for craft beer and for Danish and Norwegian aquavits, priced about a quarter below the list served upstairs. Statholdergaarden's wine selection has been rated "Best of Award of Excellence" by Wine Spectator, a standard the cellar's own sommeliers draw on when building pairings: a standard wine menu and an upgraded wine menu accompany each tasting menu, alongside a non-alcoholic juice pairing for those who prefer it.

05When to go and booking

Dinner runs Tuesday to Saturday from 17.00; the restaurant is closed on Sundays and Mondays. It also closes for its summer break between 12 July and 4 August 2026, with the last sitting on Saturday 11 July and service resuming on Wednesday 5 August, so it is worth checking the calendar before booking in high summer. Reservations run through the restaurant's own site, by phone on +47 22 41 88 00, or at the door at Rådhusgate 11, the same entrance shared with the starred restaurant above.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.