What Norwegians Eat for Lunch
Where it came from
The Oslofrokosten was a free school meal given to Oslo schoolchildren from 1932, designed by the physician Carl Schiøtz: wholemeal bread with margarine, cheese, milk, half an apple and half an orange. The scheme ran until the late 1950s. When it stopped, parents kept packing the same thing, and three generations later the matpakke is what a Norwegian lunch looks like. Oslo, not Bergen — which matters if you have come here expecting it to be a local custom. What is actually local.
What goes on it
Cheese, cold cuts, sometimes brown cheese, sometimes a fish spread. The bread does the work. It is not a meal designed to be photographed and nobody here pretends otherwise. Brown cheese, explained.
What this means for a visitor
Lunch trade in Norway is thinner than you are used to, because the national habit is to bring it. A sit-down lunch is a choice rather than a default, and the cheapest honest midday meal in Bergen is the same thing everyone else is eating: bakery bread, a counter, something on top of it. How to do that well. Where people here actually go.
The other thing the matpakke explains: lunch is early. The working day often ends mid-afternoon, so midday eating happens sooner than most visitors expect and dinner does too.
The lunch you can book
There is exactly one listing in Bergen that is not a restaurant, and what it sells is the conversation as much as the meal.
Somebody’s kitchenBergen: Home-Hosted Lunch with a Local
The only real food walkBergen: A Taste of Bergen Food Tour with Fløibanen Funicular
Lunch in somebody’s house
Two and a half hours, maximum four guests and not private. Home-cooked Norwegian food and conversation about life in Norway, with pickup and drop-off at the Hurtigruten Terminal, Loddefjord Terminal or Deli de Luca Jernbanestasjon — roughly ten minutes each way, about 105 minutes at the table. There is a small dog in the house and the listing asks that participants are not allergic to dogs. Accessibility: the listing says nothing, which is not the same as yes.
Frequently asked questions
What do Norwegians have for lunch?
A matpakke — open sandwiches packed at home, usually bread with cheese, cold cuts or a fish spread, eaten early at work or school. Buying lunch out is the exception rather than the rule.
Where does the matpakke come from?
From the Oslo breakfast, a free school meal designed by the physician Carl Schiøtz and given to Oslo schoolchildren from 1932: wholemeal bread with margarine, cheese, milk, half an apple and half an orange. The scheme ended in the late 1950s and parents carried on packing the same thing at home.
Can I eat a home-cooked Norwegian lunch as a visitor?
Yes, there is one listing in Bergen for exactly that: a home-hosted lunch with a local, two and a half hours, with a maximum of four guests and not private. It includes pickup and drop-off at one of three points and about 105 minutes at the table. There is a small dog in the house, so it is unsuitable for anyone allergic to dogs.