Post hike to Mån and Månafossen, this is a well known local and famous Norwegian Inn, Gift Shop,…read moreand Restaurant. It does not disappoint in any of its offerings.
I'll start with the gift shop. It's not to be missed.
The gift shop is enormous. Upon entering, you see Norwegian and other European teas, coffees, candies, chocolates, etc. As you walk in further, you see where they make candles. You will then find a large array of beautiful handmade in-house candles of every type and color. Some are of animals (the owls were my favorite) and lovely tapers and other decorative candles. I was surprised to see they had Yankee candles towards the back of the room as well, seeing as their decorative handmade candles are far superior (even if unscented).
There's a section where you buy tapers and then kids can dip their own tapers in different wax colors.
You'll also find as well as beautiful hand carved and honed wooden cheeseboards and cutting boards, with cheese slicers and knives ranging from high end to more affordable to suit everyone's needs.
There are typical tourist items such as magnets, troll figurines, postcards, etc.
As you continue into the back, there is an amazing, well lit "cave-like" room of "stone" that has affordable and attractive jewelry made with semiprecious gemstones such as tiger eye, peridot, amethyst, rose quartz. There are also animal figurines made from quartz, as well as numerous types of uncut semi-precious gemstones and quartz that you can buy. I bought a lovely tiger eye bracelet for roughly $10US.
The room also has a classic old car, several beautiful wooden carved chairs to take pictures with that are depictions of trolls and giants.
There are large piles of high quality sheepskins, reindeer skins, etc. Scandinavians like to put these on leather and other furniture to keep you warm in winter and to protect the furniture.
It has a large Christmas (Jul) section upstairs as well as a nice selection of Norwegian Hiking/Winter Jackets, socks, tourist t-shirts. I ended up buying a high quality, waterproof yet breathable Nordic Ski Jacket for around $60US on sale. It has the Norwegian Flag on the sleeve, which is pretty cool. It's going to be great this winter as I needed a new XC ski jacket.
The restaurant:
It's gorgeous. I can imagine it seems very inviting and cozy in winter with its candlelit, dark wood tables. You order at the counter and they bring you your food.
I ordered the poached trout which was served with a side of dill cream sauce, buttery potatoes, salad of carrots and also coleslaw. The fish and potatoes were very good; I had never had orange trout before. It reminded me a bit of salmon.
My friends got a traditional meatball dinner and a lamb shank dinner. I have to admit, that lamb shank looked and smelled amazing and disappeared quickly off the fork. I would definitely order that if I were to come again. The meatballs, stewed peas, potatoes were served with traditional brown sauce and lingonberry jam. That too was consumed with gusto (what do you expect after hike?) and my Norwegian friends said that the dish was accurate in its flavors.
Pastries were had a dessert. I found them a bit too dry for me, but as I rarely eat pastries, I just had a bite.
Behind and above the restaurant are lovely traditional hotel rooms. There is also a small viking replica village with goats and other animals (only goats were present while we were there). There are also a couple more large wooden carved statues and chairs to get your picture taken with.
With the lovely mountain view in the background, it's a truly spectacular location.
