The new Garcia Stavanger Øst is worth a visit

It was not that long ago since I wrote a review about the restaurant Basil & Co in Stavanger Øst. Unfortunately the place went out of business but the venue was taken over by Garcia (located at Forus outside Stavanger) and in August 2018, Garcia – Stavanger Øst welcomed the first customers. The restaurant claims to focus on Mediterranean food and to have classical dishes from France and Spain. We went there on a Saturday night and we were welcomed by a waiter and quickly shown to out table. I was pleased to see that there was quite a lot of people in the restaurant and I hope it stays this way! The entrance and restaurant have a new and modern feel to it – with mood lighting and with wine and cheese on display.

 

The menu is not extensive, but it has both fish, meat and chicken options and there is also a sharing menu that I assume will change a bit from day to day. As we were not that hungry, we decided to share a caprese salad to start with and Nikki chose bacalao as her main meal and I chose the risotto (of course). We got the caprese salad after about 15 minutes and it was a colorful display. I am a bit puzzled that it came with Parma ham as it is usually a vegetarian dish with just tomatoes, basil and the mozzarella. But I’m flexible (especially when it comes to Parma ham) and I guess it is important to make it into a signature dish by changing it a bit. I was also served with warm tomatoes and bread croutons, so they were really pushing the boundaries. All in all a good starter but I am not big fan of the herb that was used on top (I’m not really sure about the name of it).

 

About 20 minutes later we got our main dish for the evening. Nikki got her bacalao and as with the starter, it was served with a twist. The fish was served on top of the actual bacalao – and it was not salted and dried cod! Bacalao means cod basically and if you got to Portugal (see my Lisbon trip report ) you will find out that they have many ways to prepare a dish with cod. In Norway bacalao is more or less synonymous with Bacalao a la Viscaina – a stew with tomatoes, olives, onion etc. But back to the dish that was served at Garcia: Nikki enjoyed the bacalao and felt it was a generous portion. I would have enjoyed to see klippfisk (salted and dried cod) being used instead of tusk (or brosme in Norwegian) but then again, I love my klippfisk.

 

It is always interesting to order risotto at restaurant. Even if it is quite a simple dish, it can also end up as a disaster. The risotto that was served at Garcia was greenish and looked like a risotto primavera – well, if you didn’t count in the chicken that was on top of it. The risotto was actually excellent: it was creamy, it had a citrus taste to it (according to the menu it contained gremolata which is a lemon/garlic/parsley mix) and the rice was cooked right. It was topped with a small grilled lettuce and the chicken which on the menu was described as a “crispy chicken”, was a juicy and tender chicken piece. 

We decided to skip dessert – not because I was not tempted by the options but because we were running out of time.

Conclusion: I have eaten at Garcia at Forus before but that is more of a lunch place. With Garcia in Stavanger Øst they seemed to have taken it up a notch. Our meal was very good without any flaws in food or service. As you can see from my description above, they have taken some liberties to changes dishes into their own “Garcia style” and hopefully this will be a bit of a surprise for some. Only the future will tell if Garcia can make it in Stavanger Øst. The food is in my opinion, worth a visit!

Facts:
Homepage: http://garcia.no/stavanger-ost-startside/

Location: Ryfylkegata 33 - see Google map https://goo.gl/maps/c79jCd5cK9n 

Price for the food on this visit: 630 kroner (about 75 USD)

Greasy and salty pizza

Domino’s Pizza has opened a branch in Stavanger – located at Fiskepiren where tourist take the boat to go hiking to Preikestolen. As you have seen on the blog, I do like pizza, but it has been a while since I have been to Domino’s Pizza. I stopped by before heading off on a boat trip the other day and ordered a medium pizza from their extensive menu. They only have a few seats in the restaurant so I think the focus will be on delivering and takeaway. The place was just a few days old, so the place looked fresh and clean. The staff is still in a learning phase I guess as there was a bit of running around like headless chickens. There is a TV screen at the counter where you can keep an eye on the progress of your pizza which is a good function. I do however think that it would be good to get the names right as this seemed to cause quite a lot of confusion for people picking up pizzas.

 

I got my Pepperoni Passion and it looked pretty much like the pizza that you see on the menu and that is at least a good thing. My friend on the other hand did not get the pizza that he ordered but we didn’t have time to wait for a new pizza as we had a boat to catch. After traveling a lot to Italy and tasting what can be considered “authentic” Italian pizza here in Stavanger, it is almost an insult to call the Domino’s pizza a “pizza”. I guess there should be a different word for it as it is not really the same thing. My Pepperoni Passion was extremely greasy and very, very salty. If you need a quick and affordable meal, this is the place to go! You can get a medium pizza for 79 kroner (9 USD) which is a bargain in Norway.

 

I guess it does not make sense to review Domino’s pizza - they are the pizza fast food equivalent of Burger King. As you might have guessed already, I was not that impressed with Domino’s Pizza this time around. I hope that with this review, I can convince someone to check out other pizza places in town for a better experience. There is no doubt in my mind: if you want to have something that is close to an authentic Italian style pizza, I would strongly advise you to go to e.g. Renaa Xpress or Villa22 instead of going to Domino's.

Facts:

Homepage: https://www.dominos.no/

Location: Verksgata 12A – see Google map https://goo.gl/maps/j19hCiVxaBq

Price for the food on this visit: 79 kroner (about 9 USD)

Lively place but not a culinary adventure

We have been to Harry Pepper a few times – this is even where I proposed to Nikki! But last year the restaurant moved from the original location and moved into a new location. Now they are located at Skagenkaien 33. The new location is an old sea house with lots of floors and visible old wooden structures which makes it charming. We went there on a Friday night and it was very quiet outside at 7.30 but inside it was quite lively and lots more people than expected. We got quickly shown to a small table and got the menus. This is a tex-mex restaurant, and the menu has not changed much over the years and we decided to go for the three-course deal that they offer. I decided to have a duck confit taco to start with and fajitas as my main meal and Nikki went for seafood and ordered the halibut ceviche to start with and baked ling as main. We got a bottle of tap water right away which was great, but we never got tortilla chips and salsa that everyone else seem to get so I assume that was just a mistake by the waiter. I have to give Harry Pepper some kudos for having a small and good selection of wines. No, this is not your high end wines but they had wine that are reasonably prices (if you can say that about 500-600 kroner wines).

 

My duck taco was served in a wooden holder and according the menu it contained chorizo, sea buckthorn berry and cloudberry salsa (or tindved- and multesalsa in Norwegian).  The taco was excellent as a starter, but I did not taste any of the sourness that is usually the signature for sea buckthorn. Nikki’s ceviche looked pretty with the white fish and the colorful topping (e.g. the pomegranate seeds) but Nikki was not totally convinced by the taste.

  

The main dishes were served soon after and my fajitas was served with soft tortillas in a box and toppings such as guacamole, cheese, salsa and sour cream in small jars. The meat was served sizzling together with onion on a frying pan and topped with a bit of chili. The meat portion was quite generous, and it is fun to be able to construct your own dish. But I was not that impressed by the taste of the toppings. The guacamole seemed to be just mashed avocado, the salsa was very mild and the cheese very standard. Nikki’s ling looked good and certainly had more taste than my dish. But the deep fried squid was just dry but the sweet potato and vegetable chili had some kick to it.

We ended the night with churros served with a dark chocolate sauce and cinnamon ice cream. The platter looked pretty and the cinnamon ice cream was good. But the churros seemed to be a bit undercooked and seemed quite oily.

 

Conclusion: As you can see from this review, we went there in 2016 and I had more or less the same conclusion. Go here for a lively atmosphere and to get some good portions of meat. But don’t expected this to be a culinary adventure in any way.

Facts:

Homepage: http://www.harry-pepper.no/

Location: Skagenkaien 33 – see Google map https://goo.gl/maps/7zaPvtmVDHD2

Price for the food on this visit: 990 kroner (about 120 USD)

 

Seafood risotto at Bevaremegvel

For some reason we normally don’t think of Bevaremegvel as an option when we go out to eat in Stavanger and I’m not sure why. It is located in the street behind the Skagen quay and seem to have a small menu inspired by local food. We went there on a Saturday evening in August 2018 and it is quite a home cozy place with local art of the wall, book shelfs etc. The interior is old school but I guess this fits in with the old buildings that the restaurant is located in. I was surprised to see that there were quite a lot of older guest – and it seemed to be regular guests as well. One gentleman said to the waiter that he didn’t need to see the menu – he just wanted to have the usual “excellent poached salmon” as I put it.

 

We wanted a quick meal as we were heading to the movies and I decided to go for the seafood risotto while Nikki ordered the Moules-frites (an item that does not seem to be on the online menu). We got the food after about 20 minutes and I would have been worried if it had been served sooner – after all it takes a bit of time to boil the risotto. My seafood risotto was served with a big piece of cod on top which was a surprise – I thought the catch of the day would be blended into the risotto. In short: the risotto was excellent with lots of mussels, asparagus and crayfish tails. The risotto was cooked right and had a nice lemon sour taste to it. The cod on top was also delicious and it seemed quite fresh (hence catch of the day I guess) as the white meat came apart in flakes by the touch of my fork.

 

Nikki’s Moules-frites is not a typical Norwegian dish (I think it is popular in Belgium and France). We do like steamed mussels in Norway so that part of the dish is not uncommon - but it is not that common with French fries on the side. I feel that this is a dish that is difficult to mess up – but on the other hand you need to have good mussels. Luckily, we do have good mussels in the area and Nikki enjoyed the dish.

Conclusion: Bevaremegvel served us good food and the service was also flawless. Now I just have to try to keep it in mind in the future so that I can try out the poached salmon and some of the other options that are on the menu.

Facts:

Homepage: https://www.herlige-stavanger.no/bevaremegvel/

Location: Skagen 12 – see Google maps https://goo.gl/maps/iBVXDKTWoCP2

Price for food on this visit: 569 kroner (about 69 USD)