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Maaemo Oslo Book a table

The restaurant

Maaemo means mother earth

The name comes from Finnish. Maaemo opened in Oslo in December 2010 under chef and co-owner Esben Holmboe Bang, and belongs to the New Nordic movement: everything served is organic, biodynamic or wild, and almost all of it is Norwegian.

A dining room with a long table and tall windows

Illustration — replace with the restaurant’s own photography

The record

Two stars on the first listing, three by 2016

In 2012, about fifteen months after opening, Maaemo became the first restaurant in Scandinavia to enter the MICHELIN Guide with two stars. The third followed in 2016 — the first ever awarded to a restaurant in Norway.

The restaurant moved to Dronning Eufemias gate in Bjørvika in 2021, beside the Opera House, and won all three stars back at the new address. It also holds a Michelin Green Star for its approach to sourcing and waste.

Read the press

Small red berries growing close to the ground
Illustration — Norwegian wild berries

How the kitchen buys

Organic, biodynamic or wild — no third option

Wild Foraged and farmed produce only
Local Small Norwegian growers, most near Oslo
Zero Food waste returned to the farms
Season One surprise menu, never published ahead

“All our produce is either biodynamic, organic or wild.” — the restaurant, quoted in the MICHELIN Guide.

A person in a dark coat sitting in a quiet room
Illustration — replace with a portrait of the kitchen

The chef

Esben Holmboe Bang

Born in Denmark, at home in Oslo, and behind the pass since the first service in 2010. He co-owns the restaurant with Bjørn Tore Furset.

Asked what he is after, he has described his focus as the relationship between raw nature, produce and Norway’s own culinary history — which is roughly what the menu spells out, course by course.

One room, one menu, one season

Open Tuesday to Saturday in Bjørvika, five minutes on foot from Oslo Central Station.

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