Words Josh Sims

Photography Inger Marie Grini Bo Bedre Norge/ Ivar Kvaal

You perhaps need a stronger stomach than usual to eat at a restaurant called Under. That’s not because of its menu – even if that does encompass Danish chef Nicolai Ellitsgaard’s offbeat seafood, the likes of unusual crustaceans, truffle kelp or the throat and roe of ling, those parts that other chefs might throw away. It’s surely a strange experience eating Under’s aptly named 18-course ‘immersion’ menu, separated from the abyss from whence much of it came only by a huge sheet of transparent toughened acrylic.

The restaurant, sloping into the waters off a rocky pier in Baly – right down at Norway’s southernmost tip and just down the way from the Lindesnes lighthouse, a building more obviously prepared for the often heavyweight storms in these parts – is an architectural tour-de-force, the perfect lair for a Bond villain who had a thing for marine life. Designed by Snøhetta, the architects behind the Bibliotheca Alexandrina and Oslo Opera House, among other landmarks, it’s also an engineering marvel, built with advice from specialists in oil rig design.

The building largely comprises a 1600 tonne concrete box, built on a barge, towed to Baly and then lowered into the sea by floating crane, with the lower end bolted to the seabed 16 feet down, and set at a 20-degree angle. As for those worries about actually being underwater, the walls of that concrete box are 1.6 feet thick and slightly convex – which means they can withstand the worst waves, winds and water pressure too; the foot-thick, 430 sqaure foot ‘glass’ wall, through which diners can see their dinners go by, is, they say, just as strong. That won’t, however, necessarily stop diners getting a soaking from the North Atlantic Ocean: getting into the building means crossing a steel gangway, exposed to all weathers.

The whole thing is a wonder. Indeed, Under also means ‘wonder’ in Norwegian. It’s a clever pun but aptly reflects the vision of the brothers who came up with the idea for this place, currently the world’s largest underwater restaurant and certainly the most arresting. Stig and Gate Ubostad may be the fourth generation of their family in the hospitality industry, but this £6m project was a leap even for them. Having bought a hotel that went bankrupt in Baly back in 2014, the Ubostad Bros didn’t want to end up with the same trouble down the line – so devised an underwater restaurant as a way of drawing customers all year round.

‘Our parents, and a lot of other people, initially thought the idea was crazy’, admits Stig Ubostad. ‘There hadn’t been an underwater restaurant in Arctic waters before and the sea here in the winter is challenging. The restaurant seemed impossible to build. We didn’t know if we’d be able to attract enough marine life to see. Then there was the matter of convincing the locals, the banks. Put it this way – I don’t want to open another restaurant like this.’

While there is a touch of the novelty to Under, its 40 or so covers are booked up six months in advance – so anyone looking to dine there needs to take a long-range forecast. But there’s also more to the venture than an unusual eating experience. Since Under plans to also function as a marine research centre, the Ubostads hope that it will help diners have a better understanding of our aquatic surroundings as they change through the seasons, and from year to year. The seabed around the window has been illuminated – with occasional scraps thrown in to further attract local sea-life – and the concrete structure should, over time, become an artificial reef. Maybe that will even help make catching dinner that much easier.