Renaa is actually not 1 restaurant but 3:
- Renaa: Matbaren ("the food bar"), upstairs is the informal place to eat and this is the place I am going to review here
- Renaa: Restauranten ("the restaurant"), downstairs for some real sophisticated cuisine experience. I am not going to review it here now but I did eat there once and had a lovely evening
- Renaa: Xpress, the new one, not on the photo above. I cannot comment on it as I have not tried it yet
Just before I begin, I would like to say that 'aa' in Norwegian is the equivalent of 'å', which is the equivalent of the English 'o'. So please refrain from pronouncing it "Renaaaaaa" with a long 'a', and please pronounce it "Reno" like the car brand "Renault" (actually more like the surname Renault but anyway).
The matbaren is generally a good compromise for people who want to have nice food but can't afford the price of Renaa: Restauranten (or are simply looking for something more informal).
Something I really like in the matbaren, is the menu of the day. You will generally have the choice between the fish of the day, the meat of the day and the soup of the day (either as a main dish or as a starter).
Above was the meat of the day I ordered. The meat was good, the small chorizo pieces (difficult to spot on the photos) were excellent but I found the beans a little bit hard. They may have been better a bit more cooked.
My wife had the fish of the day and really enjoyed it. I think this restaurant is really serving good fish.
We then had 2 desserts. Both were good and were offering a nice culinary experience: 3 different chocolates below and strawberry ice cream + strawberry coulis above.
The service is generally very nice and the prices are in my opinion below Stavanger's average for meals outside the ordinary burger/salad/sandwich.
