Around the world in a glass of beer - Cardinal

If you want to go out in Stavanger for a glass of beer you should consider Cardinal. The place is located near the harbour in Stavanger (right behind Hansenhjørna) and in the middle of the "bar district". I went there last year with a couple of friends and I was surprised to see the selection of beer on offer. Cardinal is a place that has been around for a long time and it is pub of the old type. Back in the old days when people was allowed to smoke in the pubs it was more or less impossible to breath in the place...that has improved a lot after the new laws about smoking came along :-)

We started with a trip down memory lane by having a glass of Tiger beer. We had quite a lot of this when we went to Malaysia lasy year (see http://gardkarlsen.com/malaysia_kuala_lumpur.htm ) but I think the beer is originally from Singapore. We continued with a Sapporo beer from Japan. We didn't have too much of this when we went to Japan in 2005 (see http://gardkarlsen.com/japan_tokyo.htm )...we stuck to Asahi when we went to Japan...but they have that too at Cardinal :-) . After that we "returned to Europe" by having a Leffe from Belgium...the Leffe Blonde was horrible by the way. By this time it was time to move on already :-(

Conclusion: If you are looking for an excellent selection of beer you should check out Cardinal. You can choose between 250 different types of beer and they claim it is the best selection in Norway. Having such a selection is really quite amazing at least for Stavanger...at bars here there are normally just a few beers to choose from...like Heineken, Carlsberg and local beer types. A bottle of beer will typically cost you from 60 to 90 kroner (10$ to 15$).

You can read more about this pub on and see the entire menu of beer on http://www.cardinal.no/ . If you want to try out a Norwegian brand that is a bit different try out Nøgne Ø (see http://www.nogne-o.no/ ) .

Regards
Gard
http://gardkarlsen.com - trip reports and pictures

Best coffee in town? - Charlie Brown

Note that Charlie Brown has closed down :-(

So where do you go to find the best coffee in Stavanger? I have tested out some of the joints in town and in my opinion you can find the best coffee in town in the small cafe Charlie Brown in Stavanger Storsenter. I have gotten feedback from people that I shouldn't recommend a place that is located in a shopping mall...but if you are looking for good coffee this is the place to go. Here is a short review of the place.


Charlie Brown is located on the second floor of the shopping mall Stavanger Storsenter. There are about 6 tables with a view and a few more in a room behind the place....here you will also find a few PC's if you need to get on the internet. We normally drop in on Saturdays when we are in town and we enjoy to have a chicken or tuna fish salad. But Charlie Brown also offers sandwiches, ice cream, cakes but it is the coffee that is the specialty. Personally I enjoy the caffe mocca with whipped cream but it is more of a dessert really. They also have a very good cappuccino and if you want some more coffee taste why not try the cortado. I have also tried ice coffee here in the summer time and that is also quite delicious.

The conclusion is that this may not be the cosiest place in town as it is located in a shopping mall. But if you are looking for some great coffee this is the place to go. By the way...if you go there on a Saturday please leave a couple of salads for us :-) I would love to here other suggestions to places that can compete for the title "Best coffee in town"....I'm always willing to try out new places :-)

Regards

Gard

http://gardkarlsen.com/ - Trip reports and pictures

Full package at Craig's

Note that Craigs kitchen has closed down :-(

In January the restaurant Craig's kitchen got a pretty good review in the local newspaper RA (see article http://www.rogalandsavis.no/bruland/article2535867.ece - only in Norwegian) so we decided to check out th place again since we haven't been there in a while and since we had a 10 year anniversary :-) We booked a table for 7.30 PM and when we arrived we were told we were the last guests to arrive that evening so we could pick any table. I guess there is about 30 seats in the restaurant and even if there are some nice decorations (garlic, vanilla etc in jars) the place looks a bit cold and "uninviting"...and the chairs could have been more comfortable :-)

We went for a full package which means a 6 course dinner with the wine package to go along with it. Craig's is one of only 5 restaurants in Norway that can use the title Best of "Award of Excellence" in the american magazine Wine Spectator (see http://web3.aftenbladet.no/lokalt/article230412.ece -only in Norwegian) so they have a pretty good wine selection. We started with a drink....and after a trip to Paris last year (http://gardkarlsen.com/Paris_France.htm ) we have a standard drink: Kir Royale (a refreshing mix of crème de cassis and champagne). I had this in Paris last week and in general I think it is better when we travel...maybe it is all in the mind :-)

We got some bread to start with but the first course came suprisingly fast. Our opening dish was smoked pork roll with apple and foie gras. Foie gras is strange but it works very good in a small dosage and together with the acidic apple. Along with this dish we got a Fritz Haag Riesling that worked pretty good with the food. Each wine was explained to us by the waiter but he was aiming a bit too high in his explenations...we don't know that much about wine. I would loved to have more redwine but that is because I like redwine better in general :-) Second dish was scallop in a potatoe soup with truffles. The soup was excellent and the scallop was very good. Once again we got a riesling...this time Hirsch Riesling from Austria is I'm not mistaken. This was drier but once again it went good with our dish....it must be hard for them to choose which wine to serve to each dish when they have about 750 bottles to choose from :-)

We continued with cod in a butter sauce with capers and parsley. The cod was delicious and split into layers as it should do. And the sauce was to die for...I'm pretty sure that they used the real thing here and not some diet margerine thing :-) We continued with an Austrian wine if I'm not mistaken...a Prager-Hinter Grüner Weltliner (another white wine) and once the wine was good. The only problem with the meal so far was that the different courses came a bit too fast so Nikki was struggling to finish her wine. In the end she was left with numerous glasses in front of her :-)

After a fast pause dish (champagne and ice) we had another main dish...suckling lamb, homemage sausage, spinach gnocchi and pepper sause. The lamb, sausage and gnocchi was excellent and the sauce was again to die for. For this dish we finally got a red wine....a Cornas Granit "30"...where the 30 number indicates the age of the wine bushes according to our waiter. It is always great to taste red wines that are different and this red wine was a nice new acquaintance :-) Nikki said no to the next dish but I did go for the cheese. I got some brie, a blue mold cheese and a "regular" cheese. The blue mold cheese was a bit too intense for me so it was pretty nice to "rest" by eating nuts and grissini :-) We got a sweet French wine for the cheese: La Quintessence. Sweet wine like this is pretty good if you only get a glass :-) For dessert we got tiramisu with a passion fruit sorbet. I have tasted many strange versions of tiramisu over the years so I have become a bit sceptic when I see this on the menu...but Craig's made it pretty good and the way it shoud be made (at least in my opinion). To this dessert we got a very sweet Astrian white wine called Weinrieder Eiswein.

We had some coffee before we headed back home...pretty full at a bit tipsy after all the wine. Craigs met our expectations and the food was great. But note that if you go for a full package (food and wine) it will cost you a bit. The total bill was 2600 kroner for the both of us (about 420 $)...the Kir Royale was about 110 Kroner per glass (about 18$). I think it is a bit strange to charge 10 kroner for tap water when you are paying for such a meal. The 6 dishes cost 645 kroner (105$) exluding the wine. As I mentioned earlier the different dished came a bit too fast and Nikki was struggling to keep up when it comes to finishing the wine. But all in all....if you are looking for a good meal in Stavanger you should consider Craig's :-)

Read more about the place on http://www.craig.no/

Regards
Gard
http:/.gardkarlsen.com/ - trip reports and pictures

Wine by the weight at Café Sting

Here is a short review of Café Sting in Stavanger. We have visited this little restaurant many times over the years and it is usually a safe bet if we want a small and fast meal. The place is located right by the Valbergtårn and you can check out more info about the place and see the menu on their homepage http://www.cafe-sting.no/ . It is a small place so it can be hard to find a seat. It is also a popular place for just sitting down with friends to have a glass of wine or a beer. The place is informal and you order your meal by the counter but the food is brought to the table by a waiter

We stopped by Sting in March and even if it was Stavanger Wine festival it was not a problem getting a table. Nikki wanted to have the Italian pork chop while I went for the salad with grilled chicken. The food came surprisingly fast and Nikki was satisfied with her pork chop...the only problem was that they didn't have any real sharp knives and hence she had to do some tearing to get the meat of the pork chop :-) My salad was also goo with lots of chicken, marinated portobello mushroom etc

Sting has a cool concept when it comes to wine. You can buy wine by the weight. They don't have that many wines to choose from but they place the glass on a scale and they pour the wine and you can say stop when you want. The price depends on the weight of the wine. So I used this opportunity to have a small glass of Italian red wine and a small glass of Spanish red wine.

I recommend the buffalo wings at Sting by the way. It is made with a very good, spicy and acidic sauce...just the way we like it :-)

Conclusion: Sting is still a safe bet if you want a fast snack in informal surroundings. But remember that it can be hard to get a seat...and the menu is a bit limited.

Regards
Gard
http://gardkarlsen.com - trip reports and pictures

Charles & De in Sandnes

Nikki and I usually eat out in Stavanger and we joke about that we can't go to Sandnes as there are no "real" restaurants there....and it is a fact that the selection of restaurants are limited in Sandnes compared to Stavanger. But enough about that...in mid February we went to Charles & De in Sandnes (see http://www.charlestjessem.no/ ). This place is run by the world champion chef Charles Tjessem. The place is split into a Brasseri and a Café and we visited the latter. It is a bit of a shame that the Café close at 6 PM because we would love to visit this place before going to the movies at 8-9 PM.

Back to the visit...the café is informal as there are menues on the tables and you have to walk over to the counter to order. You can check out the menu on the homepage and as you can see you can get sandwiches, pizzas, salads, small warm dishes etc. I'm very into risotto so I had to try that while Nikki wanted to try the bacon fried cod. The risotto was changed a bit compared to the menu as they ran out of peas...but it was still good even if it was a bit different compared to the risottos that I'm used to...and it could have been warmer (I don't like lunk warm food). Nikki's fish was good...cod wrapped in bacon with mashed potatoes and fried vegetables on the side. They also sell various home made vitamin drinks...we tried the passion fruit drink with mango, local apple cider and banana...and the drink was excellent.

If you are up for dessert they can offer small portions of flan, chocolate cake etc.

Conclusion: Charles & De is a nice place that I would love to visit again. They only problem is that they close to early :-( So I guess there are some real places to dine in Sandnes after all :-)

Regards
Gard
http://gardkarlsen.com/ - trip reports and pictures

Rubber band in the food at Ostehuset

In the series "Gard is testing out places to eat in Stavanger" it is time to check out the place Ostehuset. Ostehuset is located in Klubbgaten in Stavanger (see the map on http://gardkarlsen.com/eating_out_Stavanger.htm ) and it is a small and informal place. I think there are about 30-35 seats in the cafe. There is also a shop in the same room when you can buy cheese (hence the name of the place as ost is the Norwegian word for cheese ), different oils, bread etc.

I have been to Ostehuset a few times over the years and I like their big menu where they offer sandwiches, salads, small warm dishes, pizza etc. You can check out the menu on http://www.ostehuset.no/ . They have even highlighted the dishes that are healthy :-) When I went there in March 2007 I ordered the pasta with chicken in a creamy tiger sauce...and Nikki when for chili con carne with mashed potatoes. My pasta dish was OK but as before it seems like it is served a bit too lukewarm for my likings...I keep on wondering if they don't heat it enough...or if it is left outside once it is done. There was lots of food in this dish...lots of chicken, pasta and pepper and I got really full.

Nikki took the chili con carne and this is a wonderful dish that we make at home from time to time. But at Ostehuset this dish was a disappointment. This must be the most boring chili con carne that I have ever tasted and we were joking that it should have been called con carne as there was no traces of chili. On top of the dish there was a bunch of ruccola (rocket) and when Nikki had eaten parts of it she found something that didn't belong there. In the salad they had forgotten to remove the rubber band that kept the rocket together and when inspecting it closer it didn't look like the rocket had been washed. We called the waitress and for a second it seemed like she was tempted to just pick it out of Nikki's food with her fingers. But Nikki said she wanted the rocket moved altogether and they took it back to the kitchen to do this.


So what is the conclusion? Ostehuset is a nice little place with a large menu. But it seems like the quality has gone a bit downhill over the last few years...lukewarm dishes and left rubber band in the food indicates that they are pushing the limits. We will probably go there again but I am a bit skeptic after the rubber band incident.


Regards Gard
http://gardkarlsen.com/ - trip reports and pictures

What do U say?

I was thinking of changing the look of the blog these few weeks....finally today I decided, Nothing Venture - Nothing Gain! So I went right ahead and got this new template..... so whaddya think?