Jans Mat og Vinhus, Stavanger

Behind the rather anonymous entrance to "Jans mat og vinhus" lies one of the better restaurants in Stavanger. The restaurant is located in the basement of an old house and there have been different activities here since 1820 (including a printer shop, shoe maker etc). But it is now occupied by the restaurant and it is one of the few places in Stavanger that can call itself a gourmet restaurant.

My wife and I went here to celebrate a 5 year anniversary and we decided to go “all the way”. That means that we went for the 8 course meal with new wine for each meal. The service in the restaurant is great and the meals kept coming from the time we got there (about 7 pm) and until we were finished at about 11 pm. For each dish the waiter came to our table and presented the next wine that would be served with the dish.

The only thing I have to complain about is that it took quite some time before we actually got the bill. The prices have been reduced lately in the restaurant. The current price for an 8 course meal is about 560 kroner pr. person. But the price is about double if you also want to have the wine menu.

Favorite Dish: We went for the 8 course meal and I'm not sure that I will get into details with all the meals (as they change the menu on a monthly basis). But we had stuff like frog legs, trout with mussels, scallops with quail egg, foie gras, cod, chicken, cheese and a dessert in the end. I haven’t been to that many other gourmet type restaurants so I don’t really have that much to compare the experience with. But it was great having lots of small different dishes and it was interesting to have a new wine dedicated to each meal.

It was a great experience and I would like to recommend this place if you have a special occasion that you want to celebrate.