Nero is still good–but there are some glitches in the matrix

I have visited Nero since they opened the restaurant in Stavanger and I have had some great experiences there as you can see from previous reviews and we have also had some great wine tasting there. In connection with an anniversary in March 2012 we decided to spurge and we went to Nero to have a full evening there. The Nero homepage allows you to book a table online which is a great feature To start with Nero was advertised as a fine dining restaurant with an Italian twist. Over the years it seems like they have changed their profile a bit and now it is “just” a fine dining restaurant. Anyway, when we got there we noticed that the furniture had been changed – apart from that the restaurant is like it has been “forever” – located in the basement of Victoria hotel. It is still a pretty intimate restaurant as there are not that many seats and the stone walls create a certain atmosphere.

We went for the 6 course dinner package with wine pairing as well. As usual the menu consisted of a lot of seafood to start with and Nikki was a bit concerned that it would be too much white wine so she asked if she could get it replaced with a red wine that would be suitable. The answer we got was that they only had two red wines by the glass which I think sounds a bit strange – I thought a nice place like Nero would be able to offer more. But it was even stranger when Nikki asked if she could get a replacement for the cheese course as she is a bit lactose intolerant and she tries to avoid cow cheese – the answer we got was a simple “No”.

We first got a small snack with compliments from the kitchen…a smoked halibut with corn inspiration. The first dish of the menu was Norwegian scallops with something called abalon, pear and a pumpkin puree. Scallops seems to be a safe bet on fine dining restaurants and this was also good and I enjoyed the pairing together with pear and the pumpkin puree. The next dish out was wild arctic char which is a fish in the salmon category I guess. It was served with jerusalem artichokes in various version…fried, puree etc. The char is a good fish and I enjoyed it and I also have a thing for jerusalem artichokes so this as a good dish.
As we started out quite early (at about 7.30) the restaurants was far from crowded – we felt that they used the opportunity to rush our dishes to prepare for people coming later on. So we eventually had to ask them to slow down a bit to let us have a bit of a break as we were not able to finish the wine before the next dish was served.

We went to Café de France recently (read about it here) and we got a big chunk of great foie gras. Foie gras was also on the menu at Nero and the piece was served with parsnip and some fried porcini gnocchi. The foie gras was not as great as at Café de France – it seemed a bit on the dry side and the gnocchi seemed to just be some fried dumplings with no particular taste. And I’m not sure I was convinced about the wine that was served with it.
The main dish this evening was elk that was cooked on low temperature for a long time and served with a sweet potato puree. The main dish at a fine dining restaurant is normally not a huge thing but the Nero portion must be one of the tiniest portions that I have ever seen. And I’m not sure that I felt the effect of the long frying on low temperature – the meat was not very tender.So all in all this dish was a bit of a disappointment for me at least.

The cheese dish was a Reblochon cheese served with some “sweets”, buckwheat and an onion in a potato wrap – and I had this dish alone as they could not come up with an alternative for Nikki. And to wrap it all up – a passion fruit sorbet, a passion fruit cream of some sort served in a filo dough. Again we were not totally convinced but as I’m a sucker for sweet stuff I did eat most of it and I enjoyed the sauternes that was served to go along with it.

Conclusion
As I said to start with, I have had some great experiences at Nero but this time I was not totally convinced. Don’t get me wrong – the food was very good and Nero is still a good restaurant but there are things that could have been better. We were served by several waiters and some could only communicate in English which is not a big problem but it can be tricky with some of the various ingredients that you don’t come across every day. We also felt that we were rushed as the first few dishes was served so fast that we were not able to finish of the wine – and our waiters seemed a bit insecure at times when describing what they were serving. I’m also a bit surprised over the blunt “No” we got when we asked for a replacement when Nikki asked if she could get something else as she could not eat the cheese dish and that they only had two red wine options when Nikki wanted to replace some of the white wine with red.  With strong competition like Renaa Restauranten, NB Sørensen 2. Etage and Café de France, Nero has to be careful to not let their guard down too much – the restaurant once got 6 out of 6 in all categories in a newspaper reviews a few years back but that was not the experience we had on this visit. I hope that Nero is not resting on past glory – it can be a dangerous move.

You can find more information about Nero on http://www.restaurant-nero.no/ - and to give you an idea about the prices: 3 course is 525 NOK (90 USD) and 6 courses is 695 NOK (120 USD) – and the wine pairing also cost 695 Kroner for the 6 course meal.

Regards
Gard
gardkarlsen.com – trip reports and pictures

Stavanger Vinfest 2012

The annual wine festival known as Stavanger Vinfest is coming up on April 18th to April 21st. As usual Route de Vin will start the whole thing but unfortunately it is already sold out. Please take a look at the Stavanger Vinfest homepage http://www.stavangervinfest.no/ to see a list of participating restaurants and to see other events in connection with the festival.

Regards
Gard
gardkarlsen.com – trip reports and pictures

Al Forno–decent Italian food in an informal atmosphere

This Italian restaurant is located in the middle of town and the concept seems to be a success as there are now 4 Al Forno’s around Stavanger  - I guess everyone enjoys some Italian food. I guess it didn’t start that great as the local food critic Tore Bruland gave it a pretty bad score. I went there on a Friday night with my wife and a friend – we had no reservation but they seemed to have lots of tables available and we chose to sit upstairs to avoid draft from the entrance door. Their menu is extensive and it contains all sort of variations of pasta and pizza – but their wine list is very,very limited. We were starving when we came in and we decided to go straight for the main course and I went for the Pizza Al Forno, Nikki went for the Gnocchi con carne and our friend went for Pizza frutti de mare.
My pizza was quite good – it was topped with a spicy sausage, a bit of artichokes, lots of cheese and it had been fried in their wooden fired oven I guess as the crust was crispy and a bit black. I love my pizza together with red wine so I very much enjoyed it. The gnocchi was not that great but there was nothing wrong with it or anything – it just seemed a bit boring. And our friend did not complain about her seafood pizza either – it was served with various seafood like shrimp, mussels and calamari. I went a bit overboard and went for the tiramisu for dessert after the meal – and that was also quite good but the portion was quite huge and it was served with a splash of whipped cream from a can. I’m not sure why they had to add that – the tiramisu is great and there is no need for whipped cream on the side. To round it of I asked them if they had limoncello and they were like “of course”
Conclusion
If you like your Italian food and you just want an informal meal together with friends this could be a nice place to go. The food we had was pretty good and the service was OK. As we were about to leave a larger group came into have some food and that brought up the noise level considerably – with an open plan it can be a bit noisy there. It would have been great to see a proper wine list but I guess their main target group is not going to buy expensive wines anyway.  Most of the pizzas are from 150 to 200 kroner (25 to 35 USD) just to give you an idea about the price level. Check out http://pizzeria-alforno.no/ for more information and to read the entire menu. And here is the review from Tore Bruland: http://www.rogalandsavis.no/nyheter/article3129710.ece (NB Only in Norwegian).
Regards
Gard
gardkarlsen.com – trip reports and pictures

5 course dinner at Café de France

There are not that many true fine dining places in Stavanger but I guess you can call Café de France this along with places like Nero, NB Sørensen 2. Etage and Renaa Restauranten (click on the links for my reviews). Café de France appeared in 1988 and after a few years they changed name (to Setra) but a couple of years back they moved back to the original Café de France name. The food is not necessarily French – it is just fine dining based on a European cuisine but I guess with focus on good ingredients. This review is based on a visit to the restaurant in March 2012.
Café de France is quite a small place located in what seems to be the basement of an ordinary house on Eiganesveien (just behind Radisson Blu Royal hotel). The restaurant logo is recognizable on the wall outside on the slightly pinkish house and when we arrived the front door was locked so we had to ring the doorbell and our host Emil Heimdal opened the door or greeted us welcome. After a bit of Valentine Rose champagne as an aperitif, we were ready to get to know Tuscany through some wine tasting. But I’m not going to focus on that in this review – let us talk about the food instead.
As I said, the place is quite small and there are only seats for like 35 people maximum and based on the video on the restaurant homepage, the kitchen looks tiny! But there is a nice atmosphere in the place with the neutral white painted walls, old wooden beams and some rather strange art works. The host Emil seems to keep him calm and is knowledgeable about both the food and wine that is presented.
We were starving after a long day so it was great when we got a selection of fresh bread. We also got a small starter before going into our 5 course meal. The small starter was a small piece of salmon with løyrom (not sure what that is in English), a soup and a pate. The salmon was excellent (even if I do prefer my fish fried/boiled/steamed etc) and the soup had a very, very rich seafood taste if remember correctly.
Our first dish was a cold plate of salad leaves, clip fish I guess and poached quail egg. The egg was perfect but the rest of the dish was a bit on the boring side. Keeping track of the dishes and taste is always a challenge when going to a place where you get so much good food but I’m trying my best to summarize the experience based on what I remember and the photos I have taken. Dish number two was also a fish dish: fried turbot with artichoke, Jerusalem artichoke and a sort of block on mashed Jerusalem artichokes. The fish was great in taste and texture and I enjoy Jerusalem artichokes. But this block on mashed Jerusalem artichokes was very bland and maybe this portion of fish was a bit on the large side.
The next dish was a real treat – a big piece of foie gras. I guess it is not politically correct to enjoy this dish but from time to time it is a real treat to have this but only in small portions. The foie gras that we got was served on a piece of bread and with a fig, fig juice and some nuts. The foie gras was just right in my opinion but the portion was one of the largest that I have come across in a restaurant here in Stavanger and it can actually get too big as it is rich in taste.
After a small refreshing drink to clean the palate a bit we moved on to the main dish of the evening: chicken confit with cabbage(?), potato and onion. If you don’t know about confit, I guess it can be summarized by slowly boiling e.g. chicken in e.g. duck fat at low temperature for several hours and it was previously used as a preservation method. Slowly cooking the meat like this makes the meat very juicy and tender. And this dish was also very, very good and the chicken was just amazing.
To round of the evening we got a dessert where we got one piece of chocolate cake topped with a chocolate cream and cumquat and a raspberry sorbet I guess. The dessert was not the highlight of the evening but as I love my sweet stuff I didn’t have any problem finishing it together with some Vino Santo. The restaurant also has an excellent selection of cognac that you can enjoy along with the sweet stuff that is served as you round of the meal.
Conclusion: We were at Café de France from 6 pm to midnight and the place proved once again that it is one of the real fine dining restaurants in Stavanger. Some of the people I was there with was not totally Impressed and felt that the 5 course dinner was too fatty and not as good as what you can e.g. get at Renaa. But in my opinion we got a lovely 5 course meal with wine pairing (with wines taken from Italy) and the best dishes in my opinion were the foie gras and the chicken main dish. A big thanks to our host Emil for giving us an entertaining introduction to various wines of Tuscany based on Sangiovese grapes. If you are going to celebrate a special occasion you should consider an evening at Café de France. You can read more about the restaurant on the restaurant homepage on http://www.cafedefrance.no/ . A 5 course meal is about 800 NOK (140 USD) and if you want wine to go along with the food you have to pay an additional 750 NOK (130 USD) but you can also go for a three course meal.
Regards
Gard
gardkarlsen.com – trip reports and pictures
 
 

Lille Taste of Indian–new Indian restaurant in town

As I have said before, it is always good to see new places open in downtown Stavanger. This time a new Indian restaurant called “Lille Taste of Indian” (a bit weird combination of Norwegian and English name) has opened in Stavanger and it is located on the corner of Øvre Holmegate and Kirkegaten. I’m not sure if this place is jinxed or not but businesses never seem to last here. I think it has been clothing stores, bars and now a restaurant.
Anyway, we went there one day after a workout just to check it out. I think this is a branch of a restaurant with the same name located in Bergen as the menu seems to be similar. I’m also a bit fascinated by the name – when you look outside the place they have used “Lille taste of Indian” one place and “Little taste of Indian” another place. Shouldn’t it just be “Little taste of India”? But hey, what’s in a name – I’m just glad to see that there is an additional Indian place in town so we can try something apart from India Tandoori, Delhi and Mogul India. You can read a review of Mogul India here.
Luckily they had a table when we got there as I was starving and we got the extensive menu pretty fast. Reading the menu was not that easy on the other hand with the dim lighting and the photos of Indian food as a background on some of the menu pages – but that is why you have an iPhone with a “flashlight” built in, isn’t it ;-) I went for one of my favorites: the Murg Saag (chicken in a spinach sauce). In the menu it said that you could choose how spicy you wanted the meal (graded from mild to vindaloo or something like that) but when we ordered we totally forgot about it and the waiter never asked us.  We also went for some naan bread: I wanted the garlic naan and Nikki went for vegetable naan. The food was served pretty fast and I guess it can have something to do with the fact that there were not that many people in there.
The meals were presented in small pots on top of a candle and that is a good idea to make sure that you keep the dish warm. We were however a bit disappointed when we tried the meal – my dish was not bad at all but it was not spicy at all so I assume that I got the mildest version. Next time I will be sure to ask for it a bit spicier. The naan bread on the other hand was not good at all – way too dry in my opinion but I’m not an expert in the field of course but I have had better naan bread in other restaurants. So all in all we were not totally crazy about this place but I’m willing to give it another try in the near future and then I will be sure to ask for the meal to be a bit spicier.  The main dishes seem to range from 170 to 200 Norwegian kroner (about 30 USD to 35 USD) just to give you an idea about the price level.
Regards
Gard
gardkarlsen.com – trip reports and pictures

Runners Up - Au Passage and Miel & Paprika

When it takes me this long to pen my reviews of some new venues, it can mean one of two things - I wasn't knocked out by the experience or I just don't have much to say. Not being one who is very often at a loss for words, chances are that the former is more at cause than the latter. Which pretty much describes my recent visits - with Co. in tow - to one tres hyped spot, Au Passage, and one significantly under the radar, Miel et Paprika.

AU PASSAGE


Before my introductory remarks are entirely misconstrued, I should start out my discussion of Au Passage by saying that we definitely had a good time and I can't say anything bad about the food. It's just not what we expected. Au Passage, as you may remember from one of my recent entries, won Le Fooding's 2012 Palmare for 'Fooding d'amour', therein dubbed as a 'typical bistro-style place' where the food is 'jazzed up a bit by a former Spring cook ... just good, simple and inexpensive.' All confirmed by our visit, I don't deny it, but it would have been more accurate to describe Au Passage as a 'typical tapas-style place in the fashion of Aux Deux Amis, but with even younger clientele.' Nothing wrong with that, if that's what you're up for.


We found Au Passage at the end of the narrow and quiet passage Saint-Sebastien in the 11th. Funky facade and, upon entry, a bar-like atmosphere, with some old leather couches, large mirrors, parquet floor. I almost expected to see a few guys huddled together in the back shooting darts. The only darts, however, took the form of glaring stares from the patrons at the bar where the bartender/hostess informed us that we weren't on the reservation list. As I hemmed and hawed about my having made the reservation nearly a week earlier - I would take a lie detector test, I swear - she ultimately found some cryptic markings in her ledger that must have approximated my name. Hey, I understand, I can't read French handwriting either. We were guided to a nice little table in the back, where I quickly let bygones be bygones and, upon noticing the menu items scrawled on a few blackboards quickly realized it was a tapas night. And here is what one of those blackboards looked like:



Choosing was tough, but we eventually settled on, in order as the photos display below, burratta poutarque, truite et raifort, ceviche de bar de ligne et mandarine (not pictured), magret canard poischise endive, and the gateau d'orange.









The smooth and soft burratta was a nice start, but I think it comes a close second to the same dish I sampled at Aux Deux Amis. I think the more original offering of the night was the ceviche de bar, but my photo is too weirdly cropped to post here. Overall, the photos remind me of a satisfying meal, or maybe it's the mellow mood induced by Blind Willie McTell, Duster Bennett, and Sharon Van Etten playing in the background as I write. The wine, a 28€ Perriere Costieres proved a fine accompaniment, with plenty of time between the latter dishes to ponder its subtlety, as the crowd burgeoned. So the verdict - definitely a nice place to dine with a few friends, sampling a large chunk of the chalkboard, sharing dishes, wine, and conversation - all much in evidence on the Friday evening of our visit. If I were 35 years younger, I would probably do just that. Au Passage is good, it's simple, and its cheap (the final tally totalled 73€). Nonetheless, I think I'll stick to the insane and frenetic Aux Deux Amis.

AU PASSAGE
1 bis Passage Saint Sebastien
75011 Paris
tel: 01 43 55 07 52

MIEL & PAPRIKA


During our various dinners at La Gazzetta, I often pondered the little restaurant directly across the street on funky rue de Cotte, Miel & Paprika. A little searching and I quickly realized that it doesn't show up in any of my Paris restaurant guidebooks, but the online reviews scattered here and there were all favorable. So off we went. Once into the meal, I found myself staring out the window at La Gazzetta's facade, ruefully wishing we were sampling one of their excellent 7-course meals. Can anyone say, 'the grass is greener...?'

M&P is a tiny spot, as so many Parisian restaurants are, so nothing unusual in that regard. A decent mise en bouche got us started - what it was I am sorry not to remember. In turn, our entrees consisted of Os a moelle and ravioles de chevre (the latter pictured below). Now if you haven't guessed, the restaurant's name betrays the hook - each meal more or less comprises something sweet (miel) and spicy (paprika), some more effectively than others. Main dishes took us into gambas a la creme de corail (second photo below) and souris d'Agneau territory. I love shrimp, the bigger the better, and the duo of tiger shrimp on my plate were big enough but maybe just not tasty enough, although the ratatouille accompaniment helped. Co. couldn't quite detect the sweet yin to her lamb's yang. My nems au chocolat salidou proved an interesting dessert as Co. dug into her tiramisu de framboise speculoos. All in all a pretty good meal, but it paled from being in such close proximity to La Gazzetta's great.





Along with a bottle of Cotes du Rhone Pourpre (22€), the damage came to 92€. I'm glad I finally got Miel & Paprika out of my system. Not bad, not great. All in all, I'd rather have been across the street.

MIEL & PAPRIKA

24 rue de Cotte
75012 Paris
tel: 01 53 33 02 67

NOTES:

1. Somewhere along the line during February Co. and I revisted La Gourmandise - a casual spot we used to frequent until we lost interest about 2 - 3 years ago, as we were reminded by the familiar host, who spent a lot of time at our table explaining why the food now sucked. During our hiatus there was change of ownership and chef, the latter of whom was instructed to pare down the menu and go mainstream. The good deals are still available, but when the food isn't any good anymore, does that really matter? Too bad.

2. I have created a monster - after my favorable review of Septime a couple months ago, it is now impossible to get a reservation (Le Fooding's high praise may have had something to do that, I admit). I'm on the waiting list for more than a month from now, another Friday night. Weeknights seem to be easier. Bon chance.

Renaa: Xpress–the new breakfast/lunch place in town

In earlier articles I have written about Renaa Restauranter. Just to summarize it: Renaa Restauranter is split into two sections: Matbaren upstairs which is an informal place to have some good food and Renaa Restauranten (downstairs) which is one of the few fine dining gourmet restaurants in Stavanger. Just a few weeks back Mr. Renaa expanded and opened a new third section called Renaa: Xpress. This new place will focus on breakfast and lunch so it closes at 5 PM. I have had the pleasure of going there a few times already and they serve a selection of sandwiches, soups, smoothies, juice, Danish pastry etc.

The first time I went there I had a sandwich based on focaccia bread and it was with Stavanger ham (delivered by the local butcher in town Idsøe) and tallegio cheese. The sandwich is served on a wooden trey and the cutlery is in a disposable wooden version. The only problem with the sandwich was that there was quite a lot of mustard on it and I’m not a huge fan. So the next time I came there I asked if I could get it without mustard and that was not a problem as there are chefs on duty that actually makes stuff ;-) Without the mustard the sandwich was great and I have also tried the one with pancetta and salsa verde. Another great thing about this place is the power smoothies…one example is cucumber/avocado/apple/spinach. Sounds kinda weird but it was actually quite good.

They also serve Danish pastry – like croissant, pain au chocolate but they also have blueberry muffins, scones etc. From what I have tasted it seems like the products are fresh and made with good ingredients. The only thing that hasn’t been a huge success so far is the salad that Nikki tried the other day – she found it to be very boring. They also serve coffee of course and I have tried the caffe mocha and it seems like I have finally found a great replacement for Charlie Brown that was closed a few years back. The caffe mocha here is served in a glass, it is made with chocolate sauce and served with real whipped cream – just the way I like it

Renaa: Xpress is located right next to Matbaren and you can access it from Breitorget. It is a tiny place so there are only like 20-25 seats inside but you can also sit within Breitorget. On cold days it can be a bit cold inside Xpress – maybe it would be an idea to install a self closing mechanism on the entrance door ;-) Anyway, I like this place – I think the sandwiches are good and the caffe mocha is great. So there might be a chance that this will be the regular hangout spot on Saturdays after a good workout Read more about Renaa: Xpress on http://www.restaurantrenaa.no/xpress.htm .

Regards
Gard
gardkarlsen.com – trip reports and pictures