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Albertine
One of the oldest waterfront eateries, Albertine offers bistro-style food and a front-row seat to watch the world go by.
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Åpent Bakeri
For stellar breads and pastries, stop by this bakery, easily one of Norway's best. An attached café makes for an elegant spot to eat giant, grainy rolls that you can load up with berry jam and butter for one of the cheapest breakfasts around. In nice weather, enjoy pavement seating on a quiet, tree-lined street.
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Baltazar
Located in the bazaar halls of the cathedral, Baltazar serves up Italian classics, homemade pasta and good wine. During the summer (when the owners are in Lucca, Italy), the main restaurant is closed and lunch is served at Trattoria Cappuccino in the leafy courtyard behind the cathedral.
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Beach Club
Great for a sunny afternoon, it serves a full American breakfast.
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Bistro Brocante
Next door to Fru Hagen, this informal French-inspired café serves fantastic salads, quiche and even Coq a Vin. The outdoor tables are at a premium in summer.
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Blitz
Inside a barricaded, graffiti-covered building is an activist institution with 25 years of squatting history. Friendly, tattooed volunteers run a cafe serving unbelievably cheap vegetarian and vegan food.
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Bocata
Come here for take away meals of Malaysian-style chicken, sweet and sour pork, spaghetti pesto, and ham sandwiches. Business types pack the counters at lunchtime.
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Brugata Kebab Gatekjokken
Brugata Kebab Gatekjokken is a fluorescent-lit hole that bucks the kebab-joint trend and turns out excellent falafel and properly cooked lamb on freshly made pita.
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Curry & Ketchup
Waiters wearing black rush through an intimate room to serve quality specials (coconut duck) kormas and curries (mostly chicken and lamb with a few vegetarian dishes). There is no ketchup to be seen.
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Delicatessen
One of Grünerløkka's numerous cool-kid cafes, it features sturdy wooden tables and big windows that fold away in the summer to overlook a riverside park across the street. Good Italian sandwiches.
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Dolly Dimples
Reliable Norwegian pizza chain, with a number of locations around the city on Kirkeveien 64 and Storgata 2.
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Ekeberg Restaurant
An early example of functionalist architecture, the 1929 Ekeberg Restaurant once attracted long lines of curious spectators eager to be seen enjoying a beer outside this curiously angular, painfully white and utterly nonconformist building. After falling into disrepair in the 1980s, the restaurant was renovated and reopened with a classy menu and slick bar. If nothing else, go for the view.
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Fisherman's Coop
If the weather is nice, the local meal-of-choice is peal-and-eat shrimp, eaten dockside with a fresh baguette, mayonnaise and just a touch of lemon. In the summer, you can buy shrimp from the Fisherman's Coop. Or, on Thursdays, keep an eye out for one of Norway's richest men, Kjell Inge Røkkes, who can be found selling shrimp from his boat Trygg.
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Fru Hagen
The low-key and always full Fru Hagen, 'Mrs. Garden', serves sandwiches and burgers, all with a healthy side portion of vegetables. The location facing Olaf Ryes plass makes it good for people watching.
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Grand Café
The cafe at the Grand Hotel has been serving Oslo's cognoscenti for more than a century. As a reminder, a wall mural depicts the restaurant in the 1890s, bustling with the likes of Munch and Ibsen. The best deal is the traditional daily special.
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Hotel Havana
A Grünerløkka delicatessen serving great takeaway food, enjoy substantial fish burgers with homemade aioli, or try Brie sandwiches and fish and chips.
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Japo Sushi
Given that Norwegians cheerfully down pickled herring for breakfast, it shouldn't be too surprising that Oslo has some good sushi. Japo is one fast option of many.
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Kaffistova
This cafeteria serves traditional Norwegian food, including reindeer or elk carbonades (locally defined as meat cakes), meatballs and fish cakes; salad is always included.
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Kampen Bistro
Off the beaten track, this former working-class eatery has been transformed into a slightly stodgy neighbourhood bistro. The good-looking room pleases a local crowd. How about some chicken confit and antipasto?
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Krishna's Cuisine
Near the Majorstuen T-bane station, Krishna's politely serves a daily vegetarian meal where you might eat corn soup, cucumber salad and a pile of broccoli in yellow curry. Portions are so huge that most just buy a plate of the hot dish.
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Lofotstua
Run by a family from the Lofoten islands, this restaurant turns out a changing menu of fantastic fish dishes, in a room that looks sort of like a brown bar.
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Markveien Mat & Vinhus and Dr Kneipp's Vinbar
With a hint of truffle oil or a dash of dill, the cooks at Markveien make Norwegian cooking unforgettable. The restaurant focuses on using local seafood and meat, as well as organic produce, to create their delectable dishes. If you're not in the mood for the formal dining room, slide into one of the dark wooden booths at Dr Kneipp's next door for finger food or a sumptuous desert, not to mention an amazing wine list.
Read more about Markveien Mat & Vinhus and Dr Kneipp's Vinbar
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Mucho Mas
What it lacks in authenticity, Much Mas makes up for in cheese and portion size. The full Mexican repertoire is on offer, including tacos, nachos and burritos (which are enormous); all dishes are offered in meat or vegetarian versions. Well-priced beer helps put out the fire.
