Europe will soon be graced with its first underwater restaurant putting Norway’s south coast on foodies’ maps. The restaurant will join a slew of underwater venues nestled in destinations usually reserved for paradise such as the Maldives, Florida and Dubai.

Brainchild of Norwegian architecture firm, Snohetta, the restaurant will boast three levels, a 36-foot wide panoramic window view below the surface and hold up to 100 people underwater, reports CNN.

Soundly named ‘Under’, the venue will be half-submerged on a seabed five metres below the surface, resembling both a sunken ship and periscope.

Don’t book your flights yet though. It’s set to open in early 2019, with construction beginning in February in the small coastal village of Båly, three hours from Kristiansand, Norway’s fifth largest city.

As all underwater restaurants should, the venue will don a Champagne bar marking the transition between the shoreline and ocean. Diners can place their coats in the cloakroom above water and wander down to dine below the surface, grabbing a glass of bubbly in between.

Lead architect Rune Grasdal is not only conscious about Champagne placement, but easing diners into the venue without feeling claustrophobic. Leaning on natural materials like oak and good lighting, every detail is designed with intent.

“One of the benefits of this building is how it links nature and land, and how you can come safe from the land and in a very dramatic way go down through this concrete tube to the nature at sea level, and experience what normally is not experienced,” Grasdal told CNN.

“It should be an exciting experience, but people should also feel secure and well sitting down there.”

The greatest feature, however, lies in the venue’s dual purpose. Designed to become part of the marine environment as well, the restaurant will double as a marine biology research centre.

The course, concrete walls are designed to attract mussels and consequently evolve into a natural reef attracting more marine life. Planned studies will examine marine life behaviour through shifting seasons.

Whether local fish will be harvested for chefs as well as biologists remains unclear, but if so, it wouldn’t get much more ‘sea to plate’ than that.