Visit to the new Munch art gallery/museum including 12th floor restaurant
Yesterday the husband and I and a couple of friends decided to visit the much hyped “new” Munch museum. Well, it opened in October 21, so that still qualifies as new to me and means they should be finished with any teething problems, right?
To start with, the positives. The building itself, designed by the Spanish architect practice Estudio Herreros, is stunning. It dominates the modern Oslo skyline in a way that, while radically different, with it´s three story podium and glass and aluminium-clad tower part, somehow makes you think it´s always been there. And the views on the western side overlooking and dwarfing the nearby Operahouse and the city centre are, alone, worth the entrance fee (160kr). It also fits seamlessly in with the modernity of the nearby Barcode buildings and the imminent surroundings and access areas (public transport, no visitor parking) are open and invitingly landscaped.
Once inside and through the entrance off the foyer to the galleries themselves you embark on a well laid out journey from floor to floor, charting the many facets of the artist´s works and influences that include works by Miro, Rodin, Dali and many more. There are plenty of info texts on every gallery wall and the collections are, without doubt, stunning and informative. Munch is so much more than the Scream and I defy any, even partially interested, art lover to come away with any sense less than awe at the man´s outstanding talent and legacy.
Between the floors is also an impressive network of escalators, the views outwards and vertically from which are stunning. There are several installations directed towards children and interaction and to do the place justice you should probably give yourself a good couple of hours in there.
So why am I not totally raving about the place? Well, sorry to say, on several accounts I felt it let itself down. So super audience-friendly on the one hand, not so in other respects.
To start with, to get in, you are told rather bossily: “get your timed entrance tickets in advance” to ensure a smooth entrance passage and minimal queues. Access is not guaranteed if you can´t pre-purchase online, so not exactly encouraging if you fancy a spontaneous drop-in on the day. You also have to choose your entry time to the nearest 15 mins, tickets are non refundable, although you can change the timing if you have to, but then you can´t change individual tickets in a booking of several, you have to change the whole booking, so hard luck if a couple of your group are ill, for example.
The other downer was on the food and drink side. We tested the ground floor cafe, the 12th floor restaurant and tried, in vain, to get a drink in the rooftop bar. To me, none of these were up to scratch.
The layout of the 12th floor restaurant was baffling bad. The best views are from some sofas, presumably for those waiting for their table slots, by the lift outside the restaurant itself, there are no dining tables with the best view over Oslo and only the 5 or 6 tables facing the fjord have a direct view of any kind. The few tables looking towards Sørenga look first out onto a terrace with outside seating, which presumably is open in summer, so the majority of the tables are centred in the middle with half the guests looking back towards the bar and semi-open kitchen. You can request a table with a view when you book your slot, which I did, but you don´t get a response beforehand and when I asked politely on arrival if we had a table with a view I was abruptly told that everyone asked that and they couldn´t oblige everyone. I guess he was sick of being asked that, but really, it doesn´t cost to be pleasant and why else would one choose to dine 12 floors up?
So, on to the food and service (bear with me as I see this is turning out into a long post!). The menu was promising, about 5 or 6 to choose from – snacks, starters, mains and a couple of desserts, and tasted good with some interesting touches, but the cocktails, while interesting, were over half-filled with huge ice cubes and overall I felt this was symptomatic of the whole place, too much of a focus on profit rather than customer care. That our waiter was rather off-hand, only partially cleared the table between courses and got one of two dessert orders incorrect…twice..(how the second time was even possible..) didn´t help.
The styling of the place also missed a beat for me with the tables and seating very nondescript, two coat racks, (self-service) right outside the toilets, which in turn were more suited to a shopping mall rather than a quality restaurant. So all in all not the ambience I was expecting so I wouldn´t go again, which is a shame because I was really hoping this would be a place to want to take visiting family and friends.
So what about the rooftop bar you say? Well, within 15 mins of the bar opening at 1500 it was chock full with people queuing all down an internal staircase from the 12th floor to get in and this didn´t change the whole time we were there (we left about 1830 after a two hour early dinner from 1630) so we never got chance to see what it was like, as it was rammed the whole time.
When we couldn´t get into the bar before dinner we retreated to wait with a coffee/beer in the downstairs cafe which shut at 1600 with my husband having to queue for half an hour for the drinks there as there was only one person seeing to the orders for the takeaway side of the cafe.
All in all, we felt sorry for the staff. Downstairs they were clearly undermanned and on the 12th and 13th floors dealing with a poorly executed concept that is really missing a trick as it could be absolutely fabulous. As it is, my previous scepticism of eating in tourist traps is back. I will go back though on a weekday to see the exhibits again, hopefully with fewer heads and elbows to navigate but, if I get peckish, I will eat elsewhere.
Website: https://www.munchmuseet.no/en/
Google maps: https://bit.ly/35yf3wc
Wanderlust never fades 