Hotels · Norway · Rogaland
Eilert Smith, Stavanger: breakfast from a three-star kitchen
Twelve rooms above one of the best restaurants in Norway, where they know your name before you say it, and breakfast arrives on a trolley.
The verdict
Few hotels combine food, service and design this well. Book a night when the restaurant downstairs is open, and let them take care of the rest.
When we walk through the door, nobody asks for our names. The person at the desk simply smiles and welcomes us, because with only twelve rooms, they already know who is arriving and when. It is a small thing, but it sets the tone: from the first minute, Eilert Smith feels less like checking in and more like being expected.
The hotel takes its name from the architect behind this curved, pale 1930s building in the centre of Stavanger. Inside, it is Nordic design all the way through, calm, warm and considered down to the last light switch.
The rooms
Ours was more apartment than hotel room: a bedroom flooded with afternoon sun, a sitting area, and a round table by the window that would turn out to be important the next morning.
We were celebrating an anniversary, and the hotel had noticed. Waiting in the room was a bottle of wine, a plate of berries, sweets and dried fruit, and a handwritten welcome note from the hotel.
Arrival
The real wow came in the evening. Turndown here is a small ritual: the lights are dimmed, slippers and water set out, the room quietly made ready for the night.
Opening the door to our room.
Food and drink
On the ground floor is RE-NAA, chef Sven Erik Renaa’s restaurant, which in 2024 became one of the very few restaurants in Norway with three Michelin stars. It seats only around twenty guests and the menu changes with the best produce of the day. If you stay here, eat here, but note that the restaurant is open Wednesday to Saturday only.
The breakfast alone would be a reason to come. It is cooked in the same kitchen and wheeled up to your room on a trolley. A member of staff sets it out on the table by the window, and then you are left alone to eat in your bathrobe whenever you like. The eggs were extraordinary.
Breakfast
Bread, cured ham, cheese, fresh juice and those eggs, all from a three-star kitchen, eaten at your own pace.
Breakfast, served in the room.
Around the hotel
Stavanger has quietly become one of the best food cities in Scandinavia, and Eilert Smith sits right in the middle of it. The harbour, with its old wooden sailing ships, is a few minutes away. Behind it lies Old Stavanger, narrow cobbled lanes lined with white wooden houses and flowers on every doorstep.
The harbour
On a June evening the sun hardly sets. We walked the harbour after ten at night, and the sky was still glowing.
A tall ship in the harbour at midsummer.
What we loved
- Being welcomed by name, without having to give it
- The evening turndown, a small ritual that makes the room feel like home
- Breakfast from the RE-NAA kitchen, served at our own table
- Nordic design that feels personal rather than showy
Worth knowing
- RE-NAA is open Wednesday to Saturday only, so plan your stay around it
- Book the restaurant well in advance; it seats only around twenty guests
- There is no spa or pool. This is a hotel for food, design and the city
Good to know
Eilert Smith is lovely for couples, for friends on a weekend away, for retirees and anyone who cares about food. The best days to stay are Wednesday to Saturday, when the restaurant downstairs is open.
Old Stavanger
The food, the service and the design. Together, they make Eilert Smith one of the most complete small hotels we know.
The white wooden houses of Old Stavanger.
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