Salza Steakhouse–not the most memorable meal

Salza is a steakhouse located right on the harbor of Stavanger (on the Straen side) and it has been around for quite a few years. I have tried to go there a few times but it always seems to be fully booked. But a couple of weeks back I decided to try again and I was able to book a table after we had done a city walk around Stavanger town.
The restaurant is located in an old “sjøhus” – one of the original houses around the harbor area of Stavanger (just like the houses that you find at Bryggen in Bergen). The restaurant occupies the ground floor while there is a night club upstairs and at the very top you can find a meeting room or a room for hire in connection with parties.
We came in on a cold evening and we got the menu pretty fast from our waitress. We decided to go for a starter to share as we were quite hungry and we decided to have some meat (surprise surprise) as our main meal. But you can also go for burgers, pork, lamb and they even have a fish dish on the menu. Before we got our food we got a few pieces of thinly sliced bread served with three types of dip…a tomato kinda salsa, a yellow bell pepper salsa and a red bell pepper mayonnaise – quite tasty to have three different dips.
The starter was “KFC Kristoffer’s fried chicken”…which seemed to be deep fried chicken pieces which the same red bell pepper mayonnaise. The chicken pieces were juicy, had a zing and seemed to be freshly made….excellent. I wonder if the colonel knows about the unauthorized use of the name of the dish ;-)
Nikki decided to go for the grilled rib eye (known as entrecote in Norwegian) and I went for the sirloin. Nikki ordered her steam medium rare and seemed to get it pretty right and it was served on top of a bit of vegetables. I’m all for the “avoid the gigantic portions” but I think there could have been a bit more vegetable. Nikki was pretty OK with the meat but it could have been warmer – we were a bit puzzled that the plates were not hot when the food was served.
My sirloin was served with beetroot, fried mushroom and a pepper sauce. I asked for the steak to be medium and I think it could have been grilled a bit more and I had the same issue as Nikki that the steak was not that warm and not served on a really hot plate. So I guess it is kinda sad that what I remember best from the meal is the potatoes that we got to share as they seemed to be freshly made, they were hot and were seasoned just right.
I had a glass of red wine to start with and I was pleasantly surprised that they could offer three different kinds by the glass. But when the main meal was served we were asked if we wanted to have something to drink and I said “Yes, I would like to have another glass of red wine”. I guess the waitress forgot all about me as I never did get another glass of red wine. When we walked out of the restaurant we were not totally blown away by the dining experience – the meat was decent enough and the service was good enough. But it was not a memorable meal in any way.
Read more about the restaurant and book a table on their homepage. The main meals were about 350 Norwegian kroner (about 60 USD) and my glass of red wine was about 105 Kroner (about 18 USD).
Regards
Gard http://gardkarlsen.com – trip reports and pictures