Editorial
Oslo is expensive. A pint in a normal bar costs more than a three-course dinner in Lisbon. A cocktail will run you 180 to 240 kroner, which is 17 to 23 euros depending on the day. None of this is going to change. The first thing to accept about drinking in Oslo is that you are paying for a city built on oil money, surrounded by fjords, with the highest minimum wage of any cocktail city in the world.
What you get for that money is a drink scene that has matured very fast over the past decade. Ten years ago Oslo was beer halls and rough sports bars. Now it has cocktail rooms that compete with anywhere in Europe, microbreweries that ship to London, and a few traditional dive bars that refuse to change. The 14 bars below are the ones we send people to. Locals drink in most of them. Tourists almost never find a few of them.
Most action concentrates in three areas. Grünerløkka on the east side has the highest density of small, design-led bars. The waterfront at Tjuvholmen and Aker Brygge has the rooftop and view bars. The city centre has the heritage spots and a few standout cocktail rooms. We cover all three.
Two facts make Oslo manageable. The first is that most bars do an early-evening promotion, often called a happy hour but usually running 4pm to 6pm with a few specific drinks at half price. Show up then. You can drink for two hours at the price of one drink at 9pm.
The second is that Norwegian craft beer is excellent and far cheaper than cocktails. A 0.4 litre pour at a microbrewery taproom costs 110 to 140 kroner, against 200 plus for a cocktail. If you are spending an evening out, anchor it around a brewery and treat the cocktail bar as a single stop, not a session.
Third tip: bartenders here are openly knowledgeable. If you walk in and ask what to drink, you will be helped, not hustled. The economic model is honest. Tipping is optional and 10 percent is generous.
Routinely placed on the worlds top 50 bars list, Himkok distills its own gin, vodka, and aquavit on site and uses them in a menu that is one of the most thoughtful in Europe. The cocktail flight, around 700 kroner, is the best value here. Book a week ahead. Open Tuesday to Saturday 4pm to 1am.
Wine bar with no menu. You tell the bartender what you like and they pour. The reference list runs to 600 wines by the glass, which is more than most cellars stock by the bottle. The room is small and intimate. The crowd is mid-thirties, professional, well dressed. Open daily from 5pm.
Microbrewery and pub set inside a vaulted nineteenth century cellar. Twelve house beers on tap including a few sours and a saison that locals queue for. The food is German pub style and shockingly good. Best value drinking in central Oslo. Open daily until 1am.
Small Italian-leaning aperitivo room run by two former Himkok bartenders. The amaro selection is the deepest in the Nordics. The Negronis here are stirred for a full minute and served in proper cut glass. Standing only after 7pm. Open Wednesday to Saturday 5pm to 1am.
Craft beer bar with 30 rotating taps and a curated bottle list of around 200 beers. Norwegian breweries dominate but the bartenders know what they have. No food, no nonsense. The crowd is beer obsessed and the conversations get technical. Open daily 3pm to 1am.
Waterfront bar facing the fjord, with proper outdoor seating from May to September and a glassed terrace year round. Drink list is solid rather than exciting, but the view is what you are paying for. Sunset between July and August lasts past 10pm. Reserve a terrace seat. Open daily.
Pinball bar with 30 working machines, a long beer list, and a steady young crowd that takes the games seriously. There are tournaments every Wednesday. The cocktails are uncomplicated and well made. Stay for one drink and one game, or stay for the night. Open daily 4pm to 2am.
Brewery taproom for one of Oslo most respected microbreweries. The beer is brewed two streets away and pulled fresh. Twelve house taps and a small guest list. Industrial space with long shared tables. Crowd is mixed and friendly. Open Monday to Saturday 4pm to midnight.
Hotel bar at The Thief on the waterfront. Polished, expensive, and surprisingly serious about cocktails. The seasonal menu rotates four times a year. Best for a single immaculate drink rather than a session. The view is excellent. Open daily until 1am.
A 1900s pub that has not changed in decades. Worn wood, slow service, and reliable beer. This is where Oslo journalists drink and where you go after a wedding to argue. The food is the original cheap pub menu and still works. Open daily.
Neighbourhood bar in a part of Oslo most tourists never reach. Run by the same family for two generations. Cheap by Oslo standards, friendly, and local. If you want to see how Norwegians actually drink on a Tuesday, drink here. Open Tuesday to Sunday from 4pm.
Tiny cocktail room in a former kiosk. Twenty seats. Two bartenders. A short menu that changes weekly. This is the kind of bar Oslo is now famous for: small, exact, expensive but worth it. Reserve. Open Wednesday to Saturday from 6pm.
Converted Soviet-style canteen turned bar and Middle Eastern restaurant. Outdoor courtyard in summer is one of the best in Oslo. The cocktail list is short and the wine list interesting. Crowd is mixed and bohemian. Open daily until 1am.
Late night bar with a kitchen that runs past midnight. The cocktails are inventive without being precious and the food is far better than it needs to be. The bar fills up around 11pm. This is where bartenders go after their shifts. Open daily.
Grünerløkka is the cool neighbourhood. Independent bars, small cocktail rooms, microbreweries, vintage shops. Two streets, Markveien and Thorvald Meyers gate, contain a half dozen of the bars on this list. Walk between them. The whole area is compact.
Tjuvholmen and Aker Brygge are the waterfront. This is where the rooftop and view bars are. Prices climb noticeably. Crowds are corporate and tourist heavy in summer. Worth a sunset stop, less worth a long evening.
Tøyen and Grønland on the east side are where Oslo immigrant communities live and drink. Neighbourhood bars, dive bars, and shisha lounges. The energy is different from central Oslo and worth seeing if you have an extra night.
Vika and central Oslo around the city hall is where the heritage bars and a few of the best cocktail rooms cluster. Convenient if you are staying in a central hotel. Less interesting after midnight when most bars close.
Norwegian alcohol law shapes everything. Bars stop pouring at 1am on weekdays and 3am on weekends. Some have late licences and pour later, but the core hours are tight. Plan your evening around this.
Summer is the time to be outdoors. The sun barely sets in June and early July. Cafe Sara, Pier 42, and most rooftop bars are spectacular at 10pm with full daylight. This is one of the most underrated drinking experiences in Europe and you should plan for it.
Winter compresses everything indoors. Bars get warmer and louder. The best winter bars are the cellar spaces like Schouskjelleren and the wine bars like Territoriet. Order Norwegian aquavit. It belongs in winter and is local.
Norwegian aquavit is the local spirit. It is caraway forward, sometimes barrel aged in cherry, and traditionally served straight at room temperature with food. Linie aquavit is the famous brand and is aged on ships that cross the equator twice, which is more interesting than it sounds. Order one chilled if you have never tried it.
Norwegian craft beer is now world class. Look for Lervig, Nogne O, Aegir, and Cervisiam. IPAs are good but the lagers, sours, and barrel aged stouts are more distinctive. Most bars on this list will have at least three or four Norwegian taps.
Cocktails should lean towards the local. Spruce tip syrups, sea buckthorn, juniper, and Norwegian botanicals show up in good cocktail menus. Himkok built its reputation on this. If you are at a serious cocktail bar, ask what the bartender wants you to order. They will steer you to a Norwegian ingredient drink.
Oslo will never be a cheap drinking city. What it has instead is a small, dense, very high quality bar scene that has sharpened fast over the last decade. The 14 bars above represent the breadth of the scene, from the world ranked cocktail rooms to the dive bars that locals refuse to give up. Pick three or four for an evening. Walk between them. Pay the prices. The drinks are worth it. For more on Nordic drinking, see our Stockholm and Copenhagen guides, or browse our Oslo bar listings.
Morten covers Nordic bar culture from a base in Oslo. He has spent the last six years tracking the citys cocktail revolution and writes regularly on Scandinavian drinking traditions, microbreweries, and the economics of expensive nightlife.
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