37 Best Restaurants in Norway

This restaurant, one of the best seafood restaurants in town, is named after the unicorn that adorns the doorway of the old wooden building in which it is housed. It may look old-fashioned, but there's nothing medieval about Enhjørningen's menu—it's contemporary Norwegian and it changes according to the day's catch.

This waterfront restaurant, café, and bar in a pretty white clapboard house is a good bet for consistently well-prepared dishes and high-quality dining. The cozy restaurant focuses on a more sophisticated cuisine, and the offerings may include crayfish gazpacho and veal entrecôte on its prix-fixe menu. The café on the lower level is great for food that is less formal but equally good: imaginative salads and sandwiches, and their famous hamburgers. A waterfront view can be had from the lovely outdoor terrace.

With an artful location in the KODE 4 museum and next to the Grieghallen concert hall, Lysverket offers New Nordic cuisine that makes clever use of seasonal, local ingredients in dishes like roasted redfish with grilled lettuce or king crab with nasturtium puree. The restaurant only offers a 10-course tasting menu, and has one Michelin star. The spare dining room is the best of Scandinavian design, making a meal here a pleasure for both the eyes and the mouth.

Europe's first underwater restaurant, Under sits well below sea level, with a massive wall of glass that gives you a look into the icy waters of the North Sea. It's an architectural and engineering marvel, looking like a modern building tipping gently into the ocean and connected to onshore rocks by a bridge. The seafood here is among the best that Norway has to offer. The price is for an 18-course set menu focusing on seafood.

For all the hyped natural wine bar-cum-bistros that now characterize casual-elegant, fun modern boozy dining in all major cities, there's one that sets the benchmark. In Trondheim (world-class chefs now flock/return to set up kitchens that feast on the land's fruits), Spontan is that one. Now in a much larger space, housing provocative art, open kitchen and visible wine cellar, this restaurant serves beguilingly fresh small plates that burst with color and character: char, scallop, chicken liver mousse, king crab.

Most dishes (note the cute, bric-a-brac pantry-like glass and earthenware) are served as melt-in-the-mouth bites, with radical accents and meticulously paired pours to compliment. Summer-in-a-bowl raspberries with milk ice cream and Comtè-filled petit-fours will leave you sounding off to fellow winer-diners around the world about this spontaneous find on a cobbled old street near the water.

A significant but worth it NKr 1,100 for the full tasting menu, NKr 875 for the generous wine pairing---with a smaller but just as robust and beautiful menu available for NKr 600/NKr 585 and bar snacks if you're just here for drinks.

In a 300-year-old building on the wharf, it's no surprise that the charming To Kokker has crooked floors and off-kilter molding. Ranked among Bergen's best restaurants, it serves excellent seafood and game prepared the traditional way with a contemporary twist. The menu---think fillet of venison with blackberry sauce---changes with the season and is always based on seasonal produce.

If you're a meat lover, there's no place better to sample a perfectly grilled steak in Trondheim. The three-course tasting menus let you start with inventive seafood dishes (smoked halibut tartare, perhaps, or black pepper crab) before moving onto the main event. Vegetarians can choose among a variety of expertly prepared side dishes. With long banquettes lining the wall, the interior has an old New York vibe.

The elegant but spare mirrored dining room at this local favorite puts all the emphasis where it should be: on the creative dishes coming out of the kitchen. And you'll get to sample quite a few of them, depending on whether you opt for the "half menu" consisting of 7 courses or go all the way with an 11-course extravaganza. These traditional recipes are works of art, thoughtfully conceived and brilliantly presented. Bare has one Michelin star!

Today's catch is all over the menu---crayfish, klippfisk (fish salted and dried in the sun on slabs of rock), and grilled monkfish, to name a few---at this casual eatery. The seemingly mismatched, umbrella-shape roof atop this rectangular blue waterfront restaurant offers a lesson in Norwegian history, culture, and cuisine: it's where locals of yesteryear dried fish by night. It's the modern day preparation, though, that's earned the restaurant a status as one of the best in town.

This place makes its own cider and expertly pairs it with creative Norwegian and Mediterranean dishes. Dry cider and herbs from the garden fill the soups, while fruit from the garden finds its way into the desserts. Join a cider tasting and learn how they make sparkling cider using traditional methods. They also offer a four-course dinner.

One of the most sustainable restaurants in Scandinavia, indeed in the world, with its no-waste policy and creative fervor. Credo serves Noma-level brilliance in its glass and iron structured dining room, on ceramics and with glassware from Røros studio Wathne. The Michelin-starred menu is super pricey, great for a one-off special occasion.

One of the most famous restaurants in Trondheim, Fagn has won international awards for its inventive cuisine that harks back to the dishes that many Norwegians ate during their childhoods, then takes them in new and unexpected directions. No need to decide among the many interesting flavor combinations: you'll have a front-row seat as the chefs in the open kitchen prepare 10- or 20-course tasting menus. No one will rush you through your meal---in fact, they urge you to spend the whole evening in the ground-floor dining room. There's also a more casual bistro on the second floor, also offering multicourse curated menus.

Above the Holmenkollen ski jump, Finstua is a great spot to take in sweeping mountain views. With chefs well versed in traditional Norwegian fare, this rustic and elegant spot serves salted and smoked fish, game, and more. Downstairs is the more casual Kafe Seterstua.

This mountaintop restaurant covered with a dramatic glass canopy has tremendous views over the surrounding peaks, islands, and fjords. It serves a mix of national and international dishes, and on the menu might be Norwegian salt cod or baked salmon. A wraparound terrace opens when the weather allows, and it's a popular spot for lunch after climbing the steps to the Kniven scenic overlook.

A favorite of many locals since the 1950s, Huset once served as an airport terminal, a school, and even a hospital, so the rough exterior can't compare to the elegant interior of dimmed lights, textured wallpaper, and a polar bear skin on the wall. You can sample Nordic cuisine in two different settings: a less-formal (and much more affordable) bistro serving such modern Norwegian staples as reindeer burgers and fish soup, and a more sophisticated dining room with an innovative New Nordic nine-course tasting menu featuring game from local hunters and trappers. Expect the likes of seal tartar, reindeer steak, and a smorgasbord of cheeses and aquavits to wash it all down.

Hiking aficionados, history lovers, and garden fanatics rub elbows at this palatial villa for simple, traditional meals by day (think open-faced sandwiches) and more filling fare by night (whole grilled fish is a favorite). The garden is very pleasant on a warm day.

An award-winning eatery in the heart of Bodø, LystPå takes pride in presenting beautifully prepared dishes in an atmosphere that feels anything but pretentious. The signature dish is stockfish, but the wide-ranging menu features everything from scallops to monkfish. They are renowned for having one of Norway's best wine lists, and the staff is extremely knowledgeable about pairings. There is a large terrace out front, and cooking classes if you want to eat this food for the rest of your life.

Special in-house all-day dining at a high level, and attached to a known guesthouse on the island Manhausen, you can expect copious shellfish, lamb, reindeer, and moose. It's a 1½-hour express ferry ride from Bodø. If you're taking the trip out here for lunch or dinner, take the full menu and enjoy the stunning display of the landscape around you, and on your plate.