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Statholdergaarden is a fine old building at the crossroads of Rådhusgate/Kirkegate in Kvadraturen, the heart of Oslo. The house dates from 1640 and was built for Peter Gruner, Master of the Mint.

At the end of the 1600s, the governor Ulrik Fredrik Gyldenløve moved into the house and lived there for 20 years. It was at this time that the foundations were laid for all the festivities that are still held in Statholdergaarden today.

The restaurant now comprises five rooms of different sizes. The largest and grandest is the Cleopatra Room. This is a corner room, and the ceiling is decorated with Northern Europe's most impressive plasterwork ceiling. This depicts Cleopatra's dramatic death as she allows a poisonous snake to bite her breast, whilst her handmaidens look on as shocked witnesses. Old Egyptian figures worked in the style of the time (1760), late baroque to early rococco, surround the ceiling.