Culinary Experiences on Ulriken: From Café to Fine Dining

Two kitchens, one view

Mount Ulriken has two places to eat, and they are genuinely different — not a restaurant and its overflow, but a fine dining room and a café that serve different occasions, budgets and moods. Both sit at 643 metres with the same panorama, and both build their food around what the Vestland region actually produces at that point in the year.

Skyskraperen Restaurant

The kitchen works with seafood from Bergen’s fishing grounds — crab, langoustine, cod, halibut — alongside lamb from mountain pastures, wild herbs picked locally, and foraged berries including cloudberries and lingonberries. The cooking is modern Norwegian rather than traditional: the ingredients are regional, the treatment is not nostalgic.

The dining room seats around 80 behind panoramic windows. Dinner is the main service, with lunch on selected days. Because the menu follows the season, what you eat in March and what you eat in September have little in common — spring brings asparagus and early greens, summer the berries and fish, autumn game and heartier dishes.

The summit café

Walk in, find a table, no reservation. The café serves sandwiches, soups, waffles, hot and cold drinks — and the Ulriken bun, a sweet pastry with vanilla cream and berries that has become the mountain’s signature food.

We are aware that “famous local pastry” is a claim every attraction makes. This one earns it: the bun is more substantial than most, and people come back for it specifically. Indoor seating shelters you from the wind behind panoramic windows; the outdoor terrace is the place to be on a still summer day.

Practical information

Skyskraperen: reservations essential, booked online or by phone. Smart casual — neat clothing, no athletic wear. Dietary requirements including vegetarian, vegan and allergies are handled with advance notice. Typically open 17:00–22:00 in summer, with reduced hours in other seasons.

Summit café: no reservation, walk-in only. Open with the cable car in the morning and closes when it does in the evening. No dress code — hiking boots are the norm.

Both take card payment; cash is rarely used anywhere in Norway. Remember that the last cable car down sets your dinner timetable, so check the departure times when you book.