Stavanger - Norway - page 242

helping of couscous. To wake up your taste buds, opt for the tea-smoked tuna
with a jalapeño salsa.
Nedre Strandgate 15. & 51-84-37-40. Reservations recommended. Main courses 195NOK-235NOK
($28-$33). AE, DC, MC, V. Mon-Thurs 6-11pm; Fri-Sat 6-10pm.
MODERATE
N. B. Sørenson's Dampskipsexpedition & Annenétage NORWE-
GIAN When the wood-sided warehouse that contains these restaurants was
built in 1876, the waters of Stavanger's harbor literally lapped at its foundations,
and merchandise could be unloaded directly from ships that could moor beside
it. Today a road separates its front entrance from the harbor. The heavy timbers
and all-wood interior evoke a rich sense of nostalgia for the 19th-century mer-
cantile days.
The street-level brasserie (Dampskipsexpedition, or “Steamship Expedition”)
is the more convivial and animated (and cheaper) of the two venues—a warren
of varnished pine planks, polished brass, nautical-nostalgic memorabilia, and
beer suds. Menu items served in the street-level brasserie include Cajun-spiced
filet of pork with a hazelnut-flavored butter sauce; Thai-style chicken; ham-
burgers “Italiano,” with pesto and Parmesan cheese; and a Nordic version of
bouillabaisse. Upstairs, an interconnected series of late-19th-century Victorian
parlors is the setting for “Annenétage,” a much more rigid and pretentious gour-
met restaurant. Food items here are innovative: Examples include crabmeat
soup; filet of turbot with cauliflower tempura and a caper sauce; filet of monk-
fish with saffron-flavored risotto; and a dessert specialty of chocolate marquise
with espresso sauce.
Skagen 26. & 51-84-38-20. Reservations recommended. In street-level brasserie main courses 129NOK-
265NOK ($18-$38); in upstairs gourmet restaurant fixed-price menus 598NOK-738NOK ($85-$105). AE, DC,
MC, V. Street-level brasserie daily 11am-midnight; upstairs gourmet restaurant Mon-Sat 6-11pm.
Vertshuset Mat & Vinhus CONTINENTAL One of the old town's
most appealing restaurants, this “food and wine house” is set on a street running
parallel to the old port, within a simple-looking early-19th-century wooden
house. Its interior has been “postmodernized” with a decor that is both high-tech
and woodsy-looking. Lunches tend to feature husmanskost (grandmother-style)
dishes such as Nordic meatballs, filet of reindeer, grilled salmon steaks, and piz-
zas. Dinners are more elaborate and, at least in terms of cuisine, more stylish,
with memorable dishes that include salted filets of cod with mashed potatoes and
green peas; salmon with garlic sauce; or perhaps a “symphony” of different kinds
of fish, either fried, steamed, grilled, or broiled. On-site is the cozy XO Bar.
Skagen 10. & 51-89-51-12. Reservations recommended. Lunch pizzas and platters 109NOK-198NOK
($15-$28); dinner main courses 239NOK-249NOK ($34-$35). AE, DC, MC, V. Mon-Sat 3-11pm; Sun
12:30-10pm. Bar open until midnight or 1am, depending on business.
INEXPENSIVE
Dolly Dimple's PIZZA This is the Stavanger branch of an enormously
popular nationwide chain of pizzerias whose Greek-born owner lives in—guess
where—Stavanger. It was established in honor of “the world's most beautiful fat
girl,” in this case, Celesta Geyer, who the owner saw as a sideshow attraction at
an American circus in the 1970s. Today her pen-and-ink likeness (looking even
more zaftig and delectable thanks to the many pizzas she has consumed since
becoming Norway's official representative to the pizza-loving world at large) is
displayed in about 60 locations throughout Norway. Pizzas here are delicious,
coming in 25 already-defined versions, in various degrees of spiciness, plus any

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