Hi, I'm Jo. And I live to eat.

Growing up in Kuala Lumpur, food wasn't just something you ate — it was the architecture of every conversation, every celebration, every ordinary Tuesday. Mamak stalls open 24/7. Char kway teow from the same uncle for twenty years. Nasi lemak that made you understand why people talk about their mum's cooking like it's a religion. I didn't know it then, but KL was calibrating my palate to expect a lot from food.

After moving to Norway, I yearned for what I had back home. So much.

I missed the variety of seafood you could in warmer waters. I missed eating out without it costing half a liver. I missed having access to different cuisines besides the usual suspects of Thai, pizza, and very bad Chinese.

But over the past decade, the food scene has gradually developed — thanks to innovative local chefs, but also largely because of an influx of foreigners who moved in and made Stavanger their home.

Many of the most talked-about places in town are opened by outsiders. Korean, South American, Chinese, British. People who arrived, stayed, and decided to feed the city properly.

Stavanger was never really a tourist town, so the food that exists here exists for the locals. There are no tourist traps — just honest food, some of it boring, some of it genuinely brilliant. With Gladmat on the calendar and Pedersgata slowly becoming the food street of Stavanger, the city is gaining a reputation as the food capital of Norway.

I'm glad to be a witness to this food revolution.

There is one other food blog out there with good information, and the newspapers cover things here and there. But I always found myself searching. Always looking for places to eat, things to do, somewhere worth going on a Saturday night — and never finding it all in one place.

The Stavanger List is the resource I wished existed. A curated list I can refer back to myself, a place to relive my own experiences, and hopefully something useful for everyone else out there doing the same search I was doing. Locals, expats, visitors — anyone trying to figure out where to eat in this city.

In English. Because that's what was missing.

That's what this is.

Honest restaurant reviews — Every place on this list I've actually eaten at, paid for, and formed a real opinion on. Sponsored posts will still be 100% honest, but will have a disclaimer added.

Curated top lists — The best spots by cuisine, occasion, or neighborhood — no filler.

More to come — Experiences, things to do, and hidden gems that don't make the usual lists.