Oslo has so much to give, yet most tours barely scratch the surface. So in 2019 OsloWay was born to do it properly: through food and the stories behind it. Seven years, thousands of guests, and countless cardamom buns later, that idea still shapes everything we do.
OsloWay began the way many good things do: by falling for a city slowly, then completely. And the more we got to know Oslo, the more one thing puzzled us. Look at what this city actually offers — a thousand years of history, a food scene that punches far above its size, traditions Norwegians have kept alive for generations — and then look at what most tours were serving up. A bus, a checklist, three facts about a fountain. It felt like showing someone a postcard of a dinner instead of inviting them to eat.
Because here is what we believe: if you truly want to immerse yourself in a culture, you do it through two things — food and (hi)stories. What people eat, when, with whom, and why. What the city looked like before, and what happened between then and now. That is where a country actually lives. You cannot get that from a bus window, and you will not get it from a script someone memorised last season.
Grünerløkka is where it all started. We loved everything about it: the cafés, the old workers' houses, the small shops, and above all the warmth of the people. Oslo can seem reserved at first, but on the Løkka someone always had time for a chat. And that feeling was too good to keep to ourselves, because a city this good should not be experienced alone.
So OsloWay started exploring Oslo the only way that made sense: from the food perspective. Market by market, bakery by bakery, beer cellar by beer cellar, collecting the stories behind every plate. And somewhere along the way, something better happened than any plan: we kept meeting people with the same hobby. Curious, hungry, chatty people who loved this city just as much.
That is what OsloWay really is today: an amazing team of foodies, Oslo lovers, and passionate storytellers. We are not all locals by birth, but we are all locals by choice. And we would love to show you the city the way we see it.
Seven years later, we have walked thousands of guests through Grünerløkka, Oslo's beer cellars and Christmas markets, and up into the forests where the Viking stories live. But the original idea has not moved an inch. We still book fewer people per tour than almost anyone in the city, on purpose. We would rather turn someone away than have them feel like part of a crowd.
Because in the end, it was never really about the tours. What matters is people being together. And there is no better place for that than across a table: over a tasty hot coffee, a warm waffle, or a dinner that refuses to end. Oslo did not need another checklist. It needed more tables with an empty chair. That is the whole philosophy. Come as a guest. Leave as a friend. It is even written on the wall of our office — mostly to remind us.
Never more than 15 guests (and often fewer). No crowds, no shouting, no waiting.
Not every guide was born here, but every guide lives and loves Oslo. You get the stories we tell our own friends, not a script.
The bakery, the tavern, the viewpoint. Places we go on our days off, not staged sets.
The best way to understand what we do is to taste it. We would love to show you around.
