Oslo, Norway

StatholdergaardenA restaurant on the ground floor of a 1640s house

The ground floor is a run of rooms that open into one another, white cloth falling to the floor, and overhead the stucco the Calmeyer family had made.

The address is Rådhusgate 11 in central Oslo, but the door opens on the Kirkegata side, so the entrance is not the one the number suggests.

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PlaceOslo, Norway

BuildingBuilt in 1640

RoomsGround floor, linked

FamilyStiansen, since 1994

The house and its rooms

Oslo, Norway — A restaurant inside a 1640s house.

The house went up in 1640 for Peter Gruner, who ran the mint. A century later the Calmeyer family took it on and had stucco ceilings made in several rooms, flowers running round the edge and pale blue panels kept in the middle. The restaurant holds the ground floor, and the ceilings are still overhead.

The rooms have changed use more than once. Tordenskjold, the naval hero, did not want to climb stairs and asked to sleep on the ground floor, so two small halls became his bedroom and bathroom. Both serve as small private rooms today.

Two businesses share the building. The gourmet room is upstairs; downstairs is another, in a white vaulted cellar from the 1600s, with different opening days and different weeks off. The Stiansen family took over on 1 September 1994 and it is still a family business.

Another dining room with a dark portrait in a vertical frame on the wall, two small tables under white cloths, pale grey chair seats, a large window with beige curtains and a pair of wall lamps giving off warm light — A dark painting and two set tables

A long oval table under a white cloth that falls to the floor, surrounded by chairs in grey fabric, a pendant light above, and two pale abstract paintings on the wall — An oval table ringed with grey chairs

Three paintings with white grounds hanging in a row on a pale blue-grey wall, a low wooden cabinet standing beneath them, a table to either side with cloths falling to the floor and pale grey chair seats

Three paintings on a pale wall

Three paintings hang side by side on a pale blue-grey wall, white grounds carrying marks of blue, ochre and dark red. Below them stands a low cabinet in dark wood, and to either side a table is laid, its white cloth falling to the floor.

A round table by the window with chairs in pale grey arranged around it, the white window frame divided into small panes, green trees outside with pale houses and a parked car beyond

What the window looks onto

The window is large, its white frame divided into small panes. Across the street a car is parked; beyond it stand pale buildings with a belt of green trees in front of them.

A white porcelain plate ringed with small dimples, a folded napkin resting on the rim, a silver knife, fork and spoon laid on the right, two stemmed glasses beside them

The dimples in the plate

The surface of the white plate is covered in small dimples, and a folded white napkin rests against the rim. On the right a silver fork and spoon lie side by side on a small porcelain rest, with two stemmed glasses beyond.

A view through a doorway into the next room, a round table with a white cloth in the foreground, a wall lamp on the wall and a herringbone wooden floor

Route

An evening that ends late

Dinner starts at six and takes the evening; by the time it ends the night is well along. The next day is better planned with some slack in it.

Cleopatra's ceiling

The largest room in the house is called Cleopatrasalen. Stucco covers its corners and its ceiling, and the scene worked into it is her death: the snake at her breast, a maid standing by, watching.

On 26 December 1986 a fire started in that room and part of the stucco was damaged. When it was repaired, the workers scraped away twenty-seven layers of paint, one after another, until the original surface came back.

The name has changed hands

In 1914 Axel Paulsen, the speed skater, opened Café Anglais on the ground floor, on the spot the restaurant now occupies.

The name went to Excelent first, and only in the fifties did it become Statholdergaarden, which it has been ever since.

Also worth knowing

Tables, wine, and a few hours that matter.

When it is full

If the online booking shows no tables, write to [email protected]. The telephone number is 22 41 88 00.

Eight in the evening

For the tasting menu, everyone at the table must order the menu before 20:00.

Eight thousand bottles

The cellar holds 8,000 bottles across more than 500 labels, weighted towards France, Italy, Spain, Germany and Austria, with New Zealand, Australia and the United States added in recent years.

The pairing

The sommelier sets out a sequence of wines to run with the whole meal, so nobody has to choose from the list.

Allergies

Say it when ordering. Most things can be adjusted to fit.

The people in the room

The kitchen is credited to Torbjørn Forster and Joachim Lindgren, listed side by side on the contact page, and Edvard Skramstad, the restaurant manager, runs the floor with the waiters.

Putting a dinner here into a trip

Seasonal menus, a tasting-menu order before eight, and a house worth arriving early for.

Cuisine

Seasonal European cooking. The official site lists a tasting menu, a daily menu and à la carte choices; check the current menu when booking.

Booking

Online booking on the official site. When it shows nothing free, write to the restaurant and ask.

Hours

Monday to Saturday from 18:00. Closed Sunday, public holidays, the Christmas week, Easter and three weeks in summer.

Dress and diet

No dress code is written anywhere on the official site. Allergies raised when ordering can usually be worked around.

Plan this into a journey

Tell us the dates and who is travelling, and we can talk through how a long dinner here fits a few days in Oslo.

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