BAALY, Norway — Europe's first underwater restaurant opens in Norway on Wednesday with more than 7,000 customers booked in to eat among the fish.

Situated on the southern tip of Norway, the restaurant looks like a large concrete tube partly submerged in the North Sea. It is called Under, which also means "wonder" in Norwegian.

It was designed by Norwegian architecture firm Snoehetta, which also created the Opera house in Oslo and the National September 11 Memorial Museum in New York.

"The fascination is just this movement from above water to underwater through the building ... The big window exposes the underwater not like an aquarium, it's the real thing," Snoehetta's founder Kjetil Traedal Thorsen told Reuters.

Entering Under initially feels like going into a sauna, as wooden planks cover its upper section, but an eight-meter flight of stairs leads down to a large dining area that sits about 40 guests, walled by a gigantic transparent window to the ocean.

A full 18-course meal, based on local ingredients and seafood, can cost up to 3,700 crowns ($430) per person. — Reuters