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).

Sunday buffet - Part3: Alanya

**** Update 19/05/2012 ****
I have just been told that Alanya will not offer Sunday buffet anymore. That was a sad news. I let the review here just for information purpose.
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The third part of this Sunday buffets review will feature a restaurant that is a little less well-known than the other two but in my opinion a good alternative: Alanya.

(the restaurant may be difficult to spot: the entrance is on the right of the picture but the restaurant itself is located between Søstrene Grene and Vierdal Avokatfirma AS)
The restaurant is named after a city in Turkey and people having been living in Stavanger for a long time will generally tell you about a fire that took place there. In 2006 the whole building took fire but today the restaurant is beautiful and you will not see any trace of fire.

If you don't really know the Turkish cuisine, the Sunday buffet is a good way to discover it. You will find a wide choice of starters and generally 3-4 main dishes and 3-4 side dishes (rice, fries, calamar rings, potatoes...). As dessert, the buffet includes some fresh fruits.

Something really nice about this buffet is that all the dishes are presented with a small tag giving the name of the dish as well as its composition.

Every time I have been there, they had a varied choice of main dishes (lamb/chicken and fish for example). Those dishes are not always the same, so can go there several times without getting bored of them.
I have composed two plates to give you an idea of what you can eat:


As I am not an expert of Turkish cuisine, it is difficult for me to really comment about the quality of the food but I personally enjoy it. I find the restaurant beautiful, the staff nice and warm and the food is varied and original. A definitive recommendation, especially if you don't know the Turkish cuisine and are not afraid to taste something you are not used to.