Cafe 24: a Turkish place in Pedersgata

Cafe 24 has been in Stavanger for a while now. It was rennovated not so long ago, increasing the size of the front kitchen but decreasing the number of seats available in the main room. However, there is now an available room in the back of the restaurant.

Cafe 24 is the typical kebab/turkish place people have in mind in Europe with a little twist: they do offer other kind of food. The first time I went to this cafe, I was disappointed with the food but since then, my general impressions of this place have increased. This is the advantage of blogging about restaurants I know and have been to several times. I don't just judge on a one-time experience.

Yesterday (31/08/2012), we went there (my wife, my son, and me). I ordered a "kebab tallerken" ("tallerken" is the Norwegian word for "plate") which is kebab meat with rice and salad (photo above).

My wife went for lamb skewer (photo above). It came with salad, rice and potato chips. It was beautifully presented and the meat was good. Finally, we ordered the dish of the day (eggplants/aubergines, tomatoes and minced meat cooked together for a long time) for our son (photo below). It was served with rice and salad and was quite good. I may not be neutral though as I really like aubergines/eggplants.

Overall, it costs 368 NOK which is a good price for 3 dishes. The food was good and the service was not bad either. The dish of the day was served immediately, while the two other orders took longer (this is not a fast food restaurant, unless you just order the regular kebab).

All in all, I think it is a nice place, especially if you go for the grill options (skewers, grill mix, ...) or for the soup (it is really nice but we did not order it yesterday).

Sting cafe: the highest cafe in Stavanger

The place next to the cafe Sting was once said to be the highest point in Stavanger. Not sure how true this is today but it is anyway a nice place (small garden, no cars, center of Stavanger but a bit quiet), especially when the weather is warm.

(photo: tower on the place next to Sting) 

Concerning Sting itself, it is an old house which was probably not designed to be a restaurant (two separate rooms, narrow stairs, floor not even,...). But it gives the place some authenticity makes it cozy.

When it comes to food/drinks, Sting is more a cafe/bar, even organizing some concerts in its "underground floor" (Sting  being elevated, its underground floor is still above the floor...) but it does serve food. We went there on Thursday (30/08/2012) and we had a small dinner.

My wife went for the Sting special: Shrimp and chicken marinated in salsa, garlic dip, pickles, melted cheese and served with bread (photo above). Price: 169 NOK. My wife liked it but I tasted it and was not so convinced myself. Maybe too many different savor mixed which tasted a bit "messy" to me.

I went for the Creole mix: grill skewers with spicy sausages, tiger prawns with BBQ sauce, potato salad, corn and coleslaw (photo above). Price: 179 NOK. The skewers were nice, the sausages were a bit spicy but not crazy hot, the BBQ sauce was nice and in good proportion (still get the taste of the shrimps/sausages). The corn was not the grill corn you could expect, simply salad corn. The potato salad was a bit boring and the coleslaw salad was a bit too spicy (too much mustard I think) but together it was actually fine.

For our son, we went for a pizza Margarita. The pizza was actually better than expected. The dough was very thin and a bit crispy, the tomato sauce was maybe a bit too tasty but the cheese was good and overall the pizza was nice. Price: 109 NOK

Conclusion: Sting is probably not where you will get the best culinary experience but the food is not bad and the prices are not that expensive either.

Bacchus: a good place for light meals

Date of the meal: 22/05/2012
Number of people: 3 adults
Order: Bacchus speciality, Greek salad and Amor salad
Total price: 349 NOK (about 110 for a salad and 130 for other meals)

If you are looking for a small cafe-restaurant where you can eat light meals for less than 150 nok, Bacchus is the place for you. Not too far from harbour, Bacchus is situated in Stavanger city center (sentrum), just next to the "coloured-house-street" (street with houses of different colours).

Bacchus is more a cafe than a restaurant but proposes also salads, sandwiches and light meals. We were there today with my Norwegian friend. He had a meal called Bacchus speciality, with marinated chicken, tomatoes, lettuce, cucumber, tsatsiki and polar bread (sorry the photo is not so good as the chicken pieces were under the vegetables). The chicken was a bit spicy but my friend liked it (and he does not eat spicy food), and I have also ordered it several times in the past and I like it too.

My wife went for the Greek salad, ie lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, feta cheese, olives, tsatsiki and toasts. She liked it but thought the olives were a bit acid (probably marinated with lemon).

I ordered the amor salad. Potatoes, eggs, tsuna, served on bread. I liked it and found it a bit original. We did not have desserts this time but they also have some nice cakes (at least we like their apple cake).

All in all, bacchus is a good place for light meals because it is ideally situated (not far from the harbour but still in a quieter area), because the prices are reasonables, and because their meals are quite good. The only problem is that in busy hours, it can be quite full; there is not enough space for strollers inside so you will have to leave yours outside if you have one (they have a backyard for that, ask them to open the door for you).

PS: by the way, if you wonder about what/who is Bacchus, he is basically the god of wine, the roman equivalent of Dionysus.

Renå Xpress, a nice place for sandwiches and coffee

Date of the meal: 19/05/2012
Number of people: 2 adults and 1 child (2 yo)
Order: 1 sandwich, the soup of the day and 1 pastry
Total price: 208 NOK (about 70-80 for a sandwich and 65 for the soup)

I have already reviewed Renå Matbaren here. As mentioned there, Renå is actually 3 restaurants:  the gourmet restaurant where you get to eat really refined cuisine, the so-called food-bar ("matbaren" in Norwegian), which is a more "standard" restaurant and finally you have Renå Xpress, the new one which is not formal at all. This is the one we went to today.

First, I would say that Renå Xpress, or Renaa Xpress is more a coffee shop than a restaurant. They are mainly serving sandwiches, the soup of the day, some salads, some pastries, and smoothies/coffee/tea. We also saw some people coming simply to buy some bread.

Today, the soup of the day was an asparagus soup with bacon. My wife generally enjoy their soups and today was no exception. The only thing was that the stringy threads of asparagus fiber were a bit unpleasant in the mouth. I went for the grilled vegetables sandwich, which was quite good. The grilled vegetables were giving plenty of taste to the sandwich and the bread was fitting nicely with them.

Something else I would like to say is that they have a very nice terrace outside Renå Xpress with a part reserved for Renå Xpress customers. This terrace is very nice because of the high roof and the luminosity which make people feel outside, without really being outside (this is a major advantage in Stavanger since it is raining so often). Also, the chairs, tables, ... are good as they are provided by the furniture shop next to it. And finally, in the same court, you can find a flower shop, which gives some really nice smell to the area.

To conclude, Renå is doint it quite well with its 3 restaurants, each in a different range of prices. Gourmet experience, nice restaurant or just a sandwich/soup, the choice is yours.

XO Bar

Many people coming to Stavanger want to try something typical Norwegian. Unfortunately, this is not easy because Norwegian people mostly eat "international" food: burgers, sausages, sandwiches, pasta, ... You can have steaks, oven-cooked salmon, ... but nothing of this is specifically Norwegian.

The solution I have found is the XO Bar. I will not review the "bar" side of this place (this blog is not about bars) but this place also serves food and they more particularly serve "Komler". Komler is a typical, traditional Norwegian dish and you will probably not have it anywhere else in the world, so this is perfect for curious people willing to try Norwegian food.

A precise description of this dish can be found in wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raspeball
(notice that this dish can be called differently depending on where in Norway you are).

So the komler itself is a quite compact ball of smashed potato, flour and other ingredients. It does not have too much taste in itself but the point is to have it with bacon, salted lamb, sausages and other very tasty meats. So all in all the dish is pretty good and very filling.

Back to the review of the XO bar in general: this restaurant is quite nice, the service is better than the average in Norway and the prices are OK (the steaks are quite expensive but the meat is of high quality and meat in general is expensive in Norway).

What we recommend:
- Komler (because it is typical Norwegian, because it is original and because it is actually quite good)
- Typical Norwegian Christmas food (this implies that you go there during Christmas time but I believe this is one of the best place in Stavanger for Christmas food)
- The tenderloin of beef was really good but quite expensive (well the meat itself is expensive in Norway)

Otherwise we have tried two of their burgers (beef and chicken) and they were quite nice. Last time we even tried their lasagna and we were impressed (we were not expecting italian food to taste great there).

The only dishes we are less happy with is the fish soup (quite good but not the best place in Stavanger according to us) and the meat balls (vey nice brown sauce but the rest of the dish was not really special).

We have not tried their dessert but last time we were there, their "creme brulee" had a big success around us.

Also going a bit off-topic, once an interesting discussion happened at a table next to us. Well, interesting because I think it is a common mistake for people visiting Norway. Basically, a customer was complaining to have ordered trout and to have got salmon. The waiter tried his best to convince him that it was trout but it did not work. I personally believe the restaurant was right and that the problem is that people are used to river trouts with grey flesh. In Norway, it is quite common to eat ocean trout with pink/orange flesh. It looks like salmon and it tastes like salmon unless you are careful. Actually, most Norwegian people will eat trout and let the salmon for tourists (because let's be honest, Norwegian trout is not as famous as Norwegian salmon). So next time you come to Norway and you order trout, don't be too surprised if something looking like salmon arrives (this is true in whole Norway, not only in this restaurant). From wikipedia: "Salmon belong to the same family as trout"