Restaurants
When I told people that I was going on holiday to Iceland, most people mentioned that it was an expensive place to eat out. That is true, but we found that with a bit of care you can find some good food for not much more than you might pay in the UK at a good restaurant.
However — with one honourable exception — we found the service to be slow everywhere we went.
The Laundromat Cafe
The first place I ate at in Reykjavik was the Laundromat Cafe. I was expecting this to be a bit of a tourist trap, partly because of its location (more or less tourist central, almost opposite a pub called the English Pub), and also because all of its signage was in English (as far as I can recall). However, it seemed to be equally full of Icelandic families. Due to the mix of tourists and families, it was quite a nice atmosphere.
The food was surprisingly good as well. I had a BBQ chicken burger for lunch, and it might have been the best BBQ chicken burger I have ever had. I never really knew that chicken could melt in your mouth.
If you’re in Reykjavik and feel like popping into somewhere for a quick burger, I couldn’t recommend the Laundromat Cafe more highly.
Fiskmarkaðurinn (Fish Market)
I was able to walk into this good-quality restaurant and get a seat to myself at a bar-style table. It was also where I had by far the quickest service. I was probably in and out after not much more than half an hour.
I had monkfish, which I had never had before, so I am not sure what it is supposed to taste like. I thought it tasted a bit odd and the texture was rather rubbery (something I found with food in Iceland in general). But maybe that is just what monkfish is like.
I went to a fish restaurant because Iceland is supposed to be good for its fish. I had fish a few times in Iceland, and in general I was underwhelmed. When I got back and thought about it, I figured that Scotland probably has excellent fish as well because we pretty much fish from the same place.
Here I gave a tip. The waitress seemed very pleased about my tip, which was less than 10%. Later that evening I discovered that they don’t do tips in Iceland. Whoops!
Including my mistake tip, I spent over £30 on the monkfish and one beer. So that is rather more than you would expect to pay in the UK. But it was a nice restaurant, and the service was very friendly. Most importantly, the service was prompt, unlike other places.
Glætan
I got breakfast in this pleasant book cafe in Reykjavik’s main shopping street.
I ordered an Icelandic country breakfast, not really knowing what it was. Going by the description on the menu, for some reason I thought it would be a fry-up of some description. I could not have been more wrong.
My tray came with butter, jam, toast, two slices of cheese (a bit like Dairylea slices), a slice of some kind of meat and some kind of cookie type thing. I had no idea what to do with it. While a normal person would just ask, I just improvised and probably outed myself as some kind of gullible idiotic tourist.
I buttered the toast, and placed the slices of cheese and meat in it and ate it like a crispy sandwich. I spread the jam on the cookie. That was delicious.
What I haven’t mentioned so far is the “Skyr”. The quotation marks were around “Skyr” in the menu as well, so I include them here as well. My mad brain translated “Skyr” into “tasty greasy meat”, on the basis of absolutely no evidence whatsoever.
“Skyr” turned out to be yoghurt with cream poured on top. I am lactose intolerant.
I ate half of it. Although I would have loved to have eaten all of it, it would probably have made me rather ill.
Having done some Google research on Icelandic breakfasts, it seems as though there was no such thing. So I outed myself as gullible just simply by ordering it.
In all seriousness though, the cafe was lovely and I really enjoyed the food. The portion sizes were generous, and there was also complementary orange juice.
Tabascos
This Mexcian restaurant was fine enough. I had sliced leg of lamb, which was delicious. However, the service was exceptionally slow.
Cafe Paris
This cafe/restaurant always seemed very busy whenever we walked past it. When we actually paid it a visit we had to wait a long while before getting seated.
I opted for a lobster sandwich. I hadn’t eaten lobster before, and I quite liked the taste of it. However, it made my mouth tingle. My friends suggested it was an allergic reaction.
It hadn’t really occurred to me before that trying out new foods in a foreign country might be a bad idea. But I don’t see much point in travelling and just eating what you would at home. So I’m glad I had the lobster sandwich, but maybe I should keep an eye on the lobster/shellfish potential allergy situation.
Rossopomodoro
This Italian restaurant in Reykjavik’s main street was probably the best value-for-money restaurant we found, and the food was very tasty too. It was so good some of us went twice. The only downside was that the service was very slow, but this was a common theme among almost all restaurants we visited.
Bars and beers
Iceland is not meant to be good for beer. In fairness, beer was illegal in Iceland until 1989, so you would expect them to be playing catch up.
However, I tried quite a few Icelandic beers and I found that they are not all that bad. There is clearly an emerging market for interesting Icelandic beers.
Micro Bar
I had read some good reviews of this pub on Tripadvisor, so I went on the hunt for it. You do have to hunt for it a little bit, but I would say it is worth the effort.
I asked the barman what beer he would recommend, and he seemed a bit annoyed at the question. “I recommend them all,” he replied. I opted for Gæðingur Pale Ale, which I rather enjoyed.
The bar was civilised, not too busy, and appeared to have a good selection of local beers. So if you’re a beer buff, this is probably the place for you.
Kaldi
I had read about this bar in a brochure in my hotel, and decided to pay it a visit. It was bustling, happening bar, and it was impossible to get a seat. It felt a bit like a BrewDog bar.
Truth be told, I felt like a bit of a wally in there. I was seemingly the only non-Icelandic person in the place. I must have stood out a million miles in my waterproof jacket. Everyone else was a hipster and dressed like a ponce.
Nice beer though, even if I’m not even entirely sure what it was that I drank.
Some other beers I tried while in Iceland
- Úlfur – This IPA tasted quite bitter at first, but ended up being quite drinkable and enjoyable.
- Brió – A pleasant enough pilsner.
- Carls Jul – This is a Christmas beer made by Carlsberg. I’ve tasted better.
- Gull – An OK lager.
- Boli – I can’t remember much about this, apart from that it was better than Carls Jul and Gull.
- Viking – Probably pretty much like Tennant’s or any other pissy generic lager.
- Snorri – This was the last beer I had in Iceland, and I probably enjoyed it more than any other. It has a strong citrus overtone, which marked it out from some of the bland lagers I had been having.
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