Review: Vingen Bar The Astrup Fearnley Museum Has a New Café (Closed Permanently)

This weekend I visited the revamped Vingen Bar at the Astrup Fearnley Museum in Oslo. The contemporary building designed by Renzo Piano has the most stunning location by the sea. The huge glass windows at Vingen Bar gives you a great view of the Oslo fjord, as well as the sculpture park outside from the same designer. Imagine drinking wine and sipping cocktails with the sun in your eyes, while you enjoy simple lunch creations like Eggs Benedicte or Clam Chowder. Fuglen coffee & cocktail bar has teamed up with the new restaurant group Lava. These are the guys who run Smalhans, Hitchhiker, Strand, and the organic sourdough bakery Handwerk. That means you also get excellent espresso-based drinks all day long, and sandwiches and sweet baked goods. Anders Braathen, Even Ramsvik, and the rest of the guys have a lot of new projects this year, and this was the first one they launched. Next up is the completely new Sentralen.

Note: This restaurant has closed permanently.

We went to the Astrup Fearnley Museum on a sunny Saturday morning to catch the new Matthew Barney exhibition. Before we entered the gallery we had to get something to eat at Vingen Bar. I ordered almost the entire menu to share: the Eggs Benedicte, the Clam Chowder, and the Katz Deli Tribute. The latter is a sandwich in tribute of the famous New York Katz’s Delicatessen. The sun filled the room with rays of light and it felt like summer had arrived early. There was nothing else to do but to order a bottle of one of my favorite proseccos: Colfondo by Casa Belfi. Cheers!

Have you been to Vingen Bar at the Astrup Fearnley Museum or the new Matthew Barney exhibition? Feel free to share your experience in a comment below.