Kickoff Sportsbar sits on Thorvald Meyers gate in the middle of Oslo's Grünerløkka, a dedicated sports bar built around eight screens and room for about 160 people. The format is simple: every major match, a wide beer list, and a young, walk-in crowd that fills the place on game nights.
Who would love it: anyone who wants to watch Premier League, Champions League or a big international fixture in a room full of people who came for the same reason. Who would not: a drinker after a quiet cocktail or a date, because this is a loud sports room first and a bar second.
The room runs on screens. Eight of them line the walls so the match is visible from almost any seat, and the layout is set up for groups rather than couples. Per the bar's own listing, capacity tops out near 160, and on a marquee fixture the place reaches it well before kickoff. Walk-ins only, no table bookings, so the strategy on a big night is to arrive early and claim a sightline.
Grünerløkka is the right neighbourhood for this. Thorvald Meyers gate is the district's main artery, lined with bars and a short walk from the Olaf Ryes plass tram stop, which makes Kickoff one of the easier sports rooms to reach on the east side. The crowd skews young, helped by a student discount the bar advertises, and the energy is closer to a match-going terrace than a hotel lounge.
The drinks list does the job a sports bar needs it to. Expect a broad selection of draught and bottled beer at Oslo prices, which means a pint runs steep by international standards but normal for the city. This is not a place built around a cocktail programme, and ordering one on a packed match night is swimming against the current. Beer in hand, eyes on the screen, is the move.
Listings such as Avspark, Oslo's match-finder guide, and Restaurant Guru rank Kickoff among the city's go-to rooms for watching football, alongside the bigger names. Its edge is the screen count relative to its size: eight screens for 160 seats is a denser ratio than most, so there is no bad seat for the game even when the room is full.
The crowd shifts with the schedule rather than the clock. On a quiet midweek evening it reads as a relaxed local bar; on a weekend with a noon Premier League slot, it is full and loud from the first whistle. Friday and Saturday run latest, toward 3am, which makes it a post-match drinking room as well as a viewing one.
It works best as a group plan around a fixture, not a solo nightcap. For the biggest matches, arrive a clear half hour early. See where it sits among the best sports bars in Oslo and the wider Oslo bar guide, and compare it across the sports bars roundup.
What Kickoff is not is a kitchen-led venue or a craft-beer specialist; the offer is screens, a fair pour and a crowd, and it sticks to that. Reviewers on Google Maps return to the same points: the screen coverage is the selling line, the staff keep the taps moving when the room is full, and the place lives or dies on the fixture list. For a derby or a knockout tie the read is to treat it like a match ticket and turn up on time, because once the seats go the standing room fills behind them.
Pair this bar with
For a central football pub, compare Bohemen Sportspub Oslo. By the station, Perrongen Sportspub Oslo covers the same brief, and O'Learys Oslo rounds out the match-day options.
Sources
Restaurant Guru: Oslo sports bars · Avspark: football venues in Oslo · Kickoff Sportsbar on Facebook · Google Maps reviews (accessed 2026-06)
Reviewed by Marcus Webb, barsforKings. Published Oct 15, 2025 · Last reviewed Oct 24, 2025.
