Speilsalen

Speilsalen, the gastronomic restaurant of the historic Britannia Hotel, won its Michelin star in 2020 — barely nine months after it opened — under chef Christopher Davidsen, a former Bocuse d'Or silver medallist. The room is the most theatrical in Trondheim: the original 1897 mirror ballroom, restored to within an inch of its life during the Britannia's €70 million renovation, with chandeliers, polished marble and the largest tables in the city.

Davidsen's cooking is classical Nordic at the highest level — French technique married to Trøndelag produce, expressed in a tasting menu that reads as the most precise, controlled version of New Nordic available in the country. King crab, Norwegian halibut, reindeer from the inland herders, mountain berries — all handled with technique that tilts more European than Scandinavian.

The wine list runs to over 1,500 bins and is one of the deepest in Norway. The sommelier programme is led by Pål de Lange Strand, formerly of Maaemo, and the pairings reach into Burgundy and Champagne with confidence. The room and the wine are why Speilsalen is the senior business dinner of choice in Trondheim.

For a contract dinner, a board-level entertainment, or any moment where the room itself needs to do half the work, Speilsalen has no real competitor in central Norway.

The grand ballroom and the largest tables in the city signal exactly the right thing for a contract dinner — gravity, history, Norwegian institution. The 1,500-bottle wine list gives the table genuine depth to discuss.