Skagen Restaurant - informal setting with great food and wine

Note that this restaurant is permanently closed! Is has been replaced by Matkontoret

We went to Skagen Restaurant on a Saturday night and I was surprised to see that the restaurant did not seem full - a lot of other restaurants in Stavanger are fully booked these days. When we got there, we got a great table by the window overlooking Stavanger harbor – as I mentioned in my previous review, Skagen has a long history and the interior is charming!

Skagen (with the new chef Cato Ødemark) is now running a collaboration with the wine bar Vinkontoret and that means that you get access to both great food and great wine! We decided to go all in this evening and have all the items on the menu but the concept is that you can choose as many servings as you like, and each dish costs 99 kroner (10 USD). We listened to Christoffer from Vinkontoret and started with a Cava but soon moved over to Metodo Classico Extra Brut from Franco Conterno – a sparkling wine from Italy made from Nebbiolo grapes! This turned out to be the highlight of the evening – out of the wines that we had that night.

 

But it was not all drinking, of course – we started with a small shrimp and crab sandwich which was beautifully presented on the plate. From there we continued with cured duck with beetroot and blackcurrant – also tasty and delicately plated. Next was a small shellfish soup that was intense (imagine lobster bisque) with some salmon bits. The next two dishes were vegetarian as we got a tomato tart topped with crunchy celeriac chips and spring salad with vegetables from the lovely small island Brimse located a bit out of Stavanger. I am usually not a big fan of mackerel but served with a butter sauce, the fish was excellent as well. As you would expect, there was a dish with meat, and this was pork cheeks served with chickpeas and lardo (Italian cured fat). We rounded off the evening with two desserts – rhubarb with chamomile cream and pistachio and a white/dark Valrhona chocolate ice cream dessert.

 

Sounds like quite a lot but as you can tell from the photos, they are all smaller portions and servings are well paced and so we had no problem finishing and being satisfied. The service had a bit slow start but that was not an issue for us as we had good drinks and good company. Suddenly it was 1 am and we were basically the only ones left in the restaurant.

 

All in all, this was an excellent meal. It is a sort of gourmet/fine dining light as the service is informal and the restaurant interior is rustic. I think that a lot of people still think of Skagen as traditional and an old school established restaurant. This is not the case anymore and I hope that many others will re-discover and enjoy Skagen! Thank you to Cato Ødemark for the excellent and locally sourced food and to Christoffer Ingebretsen for guiding us through the wine list. We shall certainly be back to try more of both.

Facts:

Homepage: https://www.skagenrestaurant.no/

Location: Skagenkaien 13 – see this Google map 

Price: Each dish is 99 kroner (10 USD)