Friday, May 25, 2012

La piazza: nice italian restaurant next to the harbour

Date of the meal: 25/05/2012
Number of people: 2 adults and 1 child (2 yo)
Order: Capricciosa (from the children menu), 14. Farfalle al Salmone and 43. Calzone con Spinaci
Total price: 551 NOK (about 180 for a pizza or for a pasta meal, 75 for a child)

It has actually been about 5 years since I first went to "La Piazza". My Italian friends invited me there and if Italian people themselves go to an Italian restaurant, it is generally a good sign. Today, as someone voted on the poll for an Italian restaurant (the poll is about which restaurant to review next), I decided to go there to review it.


First of all, this restaurant is well placed, next to the harbor of Stavanger. For curious people, "la piazza", means the place, the square, as in "Leicester square". It fits perfectly with location of the restaurant, in a place with a small fountain. If you want to access to the restaurant with a stroller or a wheel chair, you will have to go from the back side (from the bar/night club "Checkpoint Charlie").


Then, I have to say that this restaurant is quite beautiful, having been renovated not so long ago. Also, the cutlery is nice, tables are covered with "real" tablecloth (not the paper or plastic ones).


Going to the food review, we were served some warm hand-made breads to make us wait which was a good surprise. Concerning the main dish, my wife ordered the Farfalle al Samone, which is pasta with Salmon (easy to guess). She liked the pasta and the sauce, and the dish was very filling. The only small negative point is that she found the salmon a bit salty, but it may be because Japanese people eat less salty food.


I went for the Calzone con Spinaci. Again, Spinaci is quite easy to understand, it is Spinach. The Calzone is a "closed" pizza that always reminds me of the drawing of the little prince novel by St Exupery. It was served with a tomato sauce and a gorgonzonla sauce. What I really liked was the dough and the gorgonzola sauce. Actually the gorgonzola sauce did not look nice but its taste was really good, maybe too strong taste, though, if you are not used to eating this kind of cheese. Also the pizza was perfectly cooked, not overcooked, not undercooked. The tomato sauce was fine but not exceptional.


The children menu proposes different kind of pasta or a pizza of your choice from the adult menu. This gives quite a lot of freedom if your child wants something in particular. We simply chose the "Capricciosa" pizza with ham and mushrooms (the name of the pizza is easy to guess, it means "capricious" but it is more difficult to guess what toppings this implies). The pizza was quite good and I appreciate it when restaurants have good quality meals for children.

To conclude, the service was good too and as the prices are not excessive, I think "La Piazza" is still a good restaurant, a "classic" in Stavanger.

The restaurant has a website but it is a bit outdated. For example, the opening hours on the website do not fit with the ones displayed on the menu. Here are the ones from the menu today (25/05/2012):
Monday-Friday    16:00 - 23:00
Saturday-Sunday  14:00 - 22:00
(kitchen closing half an hour before the restaurant closes)

That's it for this review. Hope this was useful. Don't hesitate to leave a comment, whether or not you agree with this review. Thanks!

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