Restaurant in Oslo, Norway
Serious wine list, French-Norwegian food, fair price.
Cru is Oslo's most wine-focused restaurant at the Michelin Plate level — a 900-selection list (strong in Burgundy, Germany, France, Italy) paired with French-Norwegian cooking under chef Erik Tufte. Relocated to Bjørvika's Barcode district in spring 2025, it suits wine-led dinners, business meals, and celebratory lunches. Food at €€€, wine at $$$, booking is easy.
Cru is the right call if you want serious wine paired with French-inflected Norwegian cooking, at a price point that sits well below Oslo's full-tasting-menu tier. With a Michelin Plate (2025), a 900-selection wine list, and a cellar inventory of 2,650 bottles weighted toward Burgundy, Germany, France, and Italy, this is the kind of place that rewards wine-focused diners who want a proper meal around the bottle rather than the other way around. It suits a date, a business lunch, or a small celebration where the wine conversation is as important as the food.
One context shift matters here: Cru relocated from its longtime address in Majorstuen, western Oslo, to Bjørvika's Barcode district in spring 2025. That move puts it in Oslo's newest concentration of dining and drinking, which changes how you should think about the evening. Bjørvika is walkable from Oslo S and has a different energy from the residential quietness of Majorstuen — more purposeful, less neighbourhood-local. If you were a regular in the old location, the room will feel different. If you're booking for the first time, the Barcode setting is worth knowing about before you arrive.
Cru serves both lunch and dinner, and the choice between them is genuinely consequential depending on what you want from the visit. At the €€€ food price tier (expect €66 or more for a typical two-course meal before drinks), this is not a casual drop-in. Lunch here makes more sense if you want to focus on the wine list without the pressure of a full evening commitment. Wine at Cru is priced at the $$$ tier, with many bottles above the $100 mark, so a midday visit where you work through two or three glasses at the bar or a smaller table is a more considered spend than arriving at dinner and feeling obliged to commit to a full bottle programme.
Dinner is where the atmosphere shifts. The Barcode district fills out in the evenings, and a restaurant with Cru's wine depth draws a crowd that knows what it's ordering. If the occasion is a celebration or a business dinner where the wine list is part of the pitch, dinner is the right frame , the room will have more energy and the full scope of the cellar is more likely to be in play. For a quieter, more focused wine experience, lunch gives you more of the list with less ambient noise competing for your attention. The Google rating sits at 4.4 across 307 reviews, which reflects consistent delivery rather than the kind of divisive-but-brilliant score you'd expect from a more experimental kitchen.
Wine Director, General Manager, and Owner James Maxwell-Stewart runs both the front of house and the cellar, which is unusual and worth noting: the person who built the list is also the person steering your evening. Chef Erik Tufte handles the kitchen's French-Norwegian output. The alignment between wine and food is tighter than at venues where these roles are separated, and that shows in how the list is structured around the cuisine rather than existing independently of it.
Nine hundred selections with 2,650 bottles in inventory is a serious programme by any Oslo standard. The strengths , Burgundy, Germany, France, Italy , point to a classical European bias rather than a natural-wine-forward or New World list. If you are coming specifically for aged Burgundy or German Riesling, this is one of the more focused places in Oslo to do it. The pricing is at the premium end: many bottles above $100, which is consistent with the overall €€€ food tier. Budget accordingly , a wine-led evening for two could move well past what the food alone suggests.
For context on Oslo's wine scene, Cru's depth puts it ahead of most neighbourhood wine bars and closer to the cellar programmes you'd find at the top-tier tasting menu restaurants. The difference is that here you are not required to commit to a multi-course format to access the list. That flexibility is part of the venue's value proposition, particularly at lunch.
The Barcode relocation gives Cru a contemporary address , Dronning Eufemias gate 6 is in the heart of the new Bjørvika development, accessible and well-connected. For a special occasion dinner, the setting now reads as a deliberate destination rather than a neighbourhood find. That suits a business meal or a celebration with guests who are visiting Oslo from elsewhere; the Barcode location is easy to explain and easy to get to from the city centre and the central station.
For a date or an anniversary dinner where atmosphere matters as much as the food, the wine-focused format works well: there is always something to talk about, the service under Maxwell-Stewart's direction is attentive, and the French-Norwegian kitchen provides enough substance to anchor the evening without overshadowing the wine. Compare this to Bar Amour, which leans more creative and looser in format, or Stallen for a different style of Oslo dining. Cru's specific strength is the combination of a credentialled wine list and a meal format that does not require you to surrender the evening to a fixed tasting menu.
Booking at Cru is rated Easy. Given the spring 2025 relocation and renewed attention from the Oslo dining community, booking a few days ahead for weekday lunch and a week or more ahead for weekend dinner is sensible, but you are not up against the multi-week booking windows of Oslo's tasting-menu tier. Phone and website details are not currently listed, so check directly with the venue or use a reservation platform. Dress is not formally specified, but the price tier and Michelin Plate recognition suggest smart casual is the right call , nothing too casual for dinner, nothing formal required.
Cru is part of a strong Norwegian restaurant landscape worth exploring beyond Oslo. If you're travelling around Norway, RE-NAA in Stavanger and FAGN in Trondheim represent the country's tasting-menu heights. For Oslo-specific guidance, see our full Oslo restaurants guide, our full Oslo bars guide, and our full Oslo hotels guide.
Quick reference: French-Norwegian cuisine, €€€ food / $$$ wine, Michelin Plate 2025, 900-selection wine list, lunch and dinner, Bjørvika/Barcode, Oslo. Booking: Easy.
The wine is the main event here — the list runs to 900 selections with particular depth in Burgundy, Germany, France, and Italy, so lean on the staff for guidance rather than defaulting to the obvious choices. Food runs French-inflected Norwegian at the €€€ price point for a two-course meal, which means it's substantive enough to hold up as a proper dinner, not just a wine-bar snack situation. Chef Erik Tufte's kitchen is the supporting act, but it's a capable one.
At €€ for the overall venue experience with €€€ food pricing per two courses, Cru sits well below Oslo's full tasting-menu tier — that's a meaningful gap in a city where serious dining gets expensive fast. The wine list carries a $$$ pricing tier, meaning expect plenty of bottles above $100, but the range means you can spend modestly if you choose carefully. For wine-focused diners who want a Michelin Plate-recognised kitchen without the Maaemo price tag, the value case is clear.
Cru's format is French-Norwegian cooking at lunch and dinner rather than a dedicated tasting menu structure — if you're specifically after a multi-course omakase-style progression, Kontrast or Maaemo are the Oslo options built around that format. Cru rewards a different visit: take your time with the wine list, eat well, and let the meal build around what you're drinking rather than the other way around. At the €€€ food price point, a two-course meal with a well-chosen bottle is the intended experience.
Booking is rated Easy, but the spring 2025 relocation to Bjørvika's Barcode district has brought renewed attention from Oslo diners, so a few days ahead is sensible for weekday bookings and a week-plus for weekends. Walk-in availability may exist at lunch, which is the lower-risk slot. The new address at Dronning Eufemias gate 6 is accessible and well-placed, which will only drive footfall higher as the neighbourhood matures.
The Barcode setting is contemporary and the clientele skews Oslo professional — think put-together rather than formal. A Michelin Plate venue in a new development district doesn't call for black tie, but you'll feel underdressed in gym kit. The tone is closer to a serious wine bar than a white-tablecloth dining room, so dress as you would for a good dinner with knowledgeable company.
Yes, if wine is central to what you're celebrating — a 2,650-bottle inventory with real Burgundy and German depth gives you the material for a memorable bottle, and the Michelin Plate kitchen adds enough occasion to the food side. It's a better fit for a wine-anniversary dinner or a birthday for someone who cares about the list than for a group looking for spectacle or a tasting-menu event. For pure occasion theatrics, Maaemo operates at a different register; Cru is the call when the wine matters as much as the room.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
