Good atmosphere but food is not epic

We went to Harry Pepper on a Saturday night in January 2016. This place has existed since 1986 and that is quite impressive in Stavanger. In the past I first of all associated Harry Pepper with good long drinks (try the strawberry daiquiri there) and also a good selection of tequila - but the restaurant has also kept on going for years. When we looked at the menu at Harry Pepper we were both like “this looks familiar”. The restaurant has not really changed their concept much and I guess “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.

The menu is limited with a few starters and a few mains. There are some nachos, fajitas and taco on the menu but I’m not sure you can call this a Mexican restaurant. I ended up ordering wild mushroom tostada as a starter and blackened lamb as a main while Nikki chose scallop ceviche and chili glazed spareribs. My tostada dish was not that good – it was warm mushrooms mixed with lots of rocket and the tostada on top – and I thought tostada was supposed to be the base. Nikki was quite pleased with her scallop ceviche.

The food was served pretty fast and soon I had the blackened lamb in front of me. The meat was fried to medium as I requested and it was very good. The mustard sauce was also quite good but the mashed potatoes on the side were not very good and I left most of it on the plate. Nikki’s spareribs were good and juicy but it seemed like the chili glaze had just been pasted on in the end. Funny enough when looking at photos from Harry Pepper from 2012 we had the same dishes and it doesn’t seem like much have changed.

We went for a three course deal this evening (for 495 Kroner) – and for dessert Nikki had churros and I had the lime and avocado (?) cheese cake. Nikki enjoyed her churros but they are on the sweet side and the chocolate sauce could have been more intense. I like my cheese cake old school so I was not impressed by the cheese cake that was served.

All in all a decent meal – it is not like it fails but it doesn’t blow you away either. The restaurant seems to target mainly groups – work dinners, birthday parties etc and that was also the case when we went there and that makes it lively. But there were also some people there on a date – like us :-) Don’t expect this to be a gourmet Mexican restaurant – but Tex-Mex with a good atmosphere and a simple menu. We will probably return for a new meal in a couple of years– and then we will try to order something else. Check out the restaurant homepage on http://www.harry-pepper.no/ more more information.