Scan Magazine | Holiday Feature | Fisketorget Stavanger AS
During summer, the restaurant opens it terrace and allows the guests to wine and dine whilst overlooking the beautiful Vågen bay.
From sea to plate with style In the heart of Stavanger, by Vågen bay, sits the fishmonger and restaurant Fisketorget. The restaurant has taken seafood to a new level, selling whatever the ocean provides. And with the North Sea almost pouring in through the door, they do not have to go far to make a catch. By Lisa Maria Berg | Photos: Fredrik Ringe
It is not without some feeling of astonishment that you enter into the organised chaos of the restaurant. As you step in, a chef yells over your head “Guests at the door!” You have been spotted. Still confused as to whether you are finding yourself in an Italian port, South Asian fish market or a busy Mediterranean village, you are shown to a table – that is, if you have booked one – by a smiling sommelier. Where is the menu, you ask? Your lovely guide points to a large blackboard, just as a chef wipes a dish out and writes something else in its place. 24 | Issue 114 | July 2018
That is right. The second supply of fish of the day has come in, and it is different to the first. Here, the menu has to adapt to the sea.
Local produce Fish has been sold at this site for over a hundred years and its central location highlights the importance of seafood in this seaside town. It was not until six years ago, however, that the sale of seafood moved to another level with the opening of the Fisketorget restaurant. Conceived as an on-the-side kind of thing, it has –
161,000 portions of creamy fish soup later – come to be the flagship of the whole operation. “We wanted to change things around a little. We wanted to know where locally sourced seafood and produce could take us and our menu,” says owner and chef Karl Erik Pallesen. He and his team are passionate about food and it has been a whirlwind six years. “Without getting ahead of ourselves, between you and me, it is going very well. Our menus are based on the day’s catch and we are always working with what is in front of us,” says Pallesen, explaining the reason for the restaurant’s success. “This keeps us experimenting and creative.”
The menu To some it might sound like something from a TV show, and it does all have a touch of Masterchef about it. But this is