The claim
A restaurant on Bankplassen in a house of about 1760, founded by Engebret Christophersen in Rådhusgata in 1857 and at this address since 1863. Actors from the Christiania Theatre across the square made it their own, and a network of women journalists took its name. Fire gutted it in 1921 and it was rebuilt as it had been. The kitchen shuts at half past nine, the house at eleven.
What the records show
Store norske leksikon, the Norwegian national encyclopedia, dates the founding to 1857 and names the restaurateur Engebret Christophersen, puts the house first in Rådhusgata and at Bankplassen from 1863, dates the building to about 1760 with an addition in the 1850s, and records the fire of 1921, the reopening in 1922 in the old shape and a restoration finished in 1986 during the building of the new Norges Bank. It calls the house possibly the oldest surviving restaurant in Oslo rather than the oldest, and this page says no more than that. Norwegian Wikipedia gives the same dates and cites the printed Oslo byleksikon of 2010 and a 1904 magazine article. Because the trade moved, the record at these premises begins in 1863 rather than 1857, which is why the house is published outside the ranking. Whether a drink is served without a meal is answered by the hours the house publishes: open until eleven from Monday to Friday, with the kitchen closing at half past nine. Norwegian Wikipedia links a national heritage record numbered 162813 for the building, which could not be read from here, so nothing is said on this page about its protection. The most recent dated record of trading traced is an OpenStreetMap survey of 14 September 2023; the house publishes current hours and a party menu for September and October but prints no year on them, so the trading is recorded as believed rather than confirmed.
| Year | What | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1857 | Claimed founding | The pub |
| c.1760 | Present building | Store norske leksikon, which dates the building to about 1760 |
| 1863 | First record of a drinking house here | Wikipedia |
What to look for inside
- Founded by Engebret Christophersen in 1857; at Bankplassen since 1863
- A house of about 1760, rebuilt in its old shape after the fire of 1921
- The haunt of the Christiania Theatre's actors, across the square
Visiting
Engebret Café is in Oslo, Norway, at Bankplassen 1, Oslo. We do not list opening times, because they change; the pub’s own site is the place to check before you set out.
Sources
Know something we don’t?Suggest a correctionLast checked Sept 2026
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