After resting well last night, we met up this morning and headed to grab breakfast. We had heard about the bakery Bread & Co., specifically about their cinnamon rolls. We had seen it on Icelandic sites about where/what to eat, and I had seen it recently when watching the show “Somebody Feed Phil” and his episode about Reykjavik.
The cinnamon rolls did not disappoint!
Following the cinnamon rolls, we went to Harpa Concert Hall. That was our meeting spot for the Reykjavik Food Walk. I had done a food tour/walk a few weeks ago in Florida, and it was super fun, very yummy, and informative! We figured this was a good way to be introduced to Icelandic food.
The concert hall sits along the water and is beautiful architecture… They only allow you into the auditorium (or whatever they call it) if you’re there for a concert, so we had to settle for the outside of it and the gift shop. We also had to pay to use the restroom there!
We met our tour guide, Siggy, and once the full group had arrived, we headed out for our tour. There were five children on the tour, and I couldn’t help but wonder how much of this food they would eat. But with the exception of one of them, they were all pretty adventurous!
Here’s a list of our stops, and what we had at each one, followed by my honest review:
Fjallkonan (The Mountain Lady)
Slow cooked lamb shoulder on a traditional Icelandic flatbread from the Westfjords, with horseradish sauce and carrot puree.
Lightly cured arctic char on a chickpea blini with horseradish sauce, yuzu-elderflower dressing, crispy lentils and fish roe.
Oh goodness, was that lamb good! The cured arctic char was also a pleasant surprise, as it was very yummy. And I didn’t remember the guide saying elderflower when we were eating it, but she followed up the tour with a list of everything we ate, and now that I see that, of course I liked it!
Messinn Reykjavík (The Messhall)
Arctic char baked in honey, butter and lemon with cherry tomatoes and almonds.
Icelandic “Plokkfiskur” with Bernaise Sauce: Boiled cod mashed with potatoes, onion, garlic, celery, lime, white wine, cream, and butter.
Icelandic rye bread, “rúgbrauð” with butter.
Yum, yum, and yum. This was all very good!
Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur (The Town’s Best Hot Dogs)
Traditional Icelandic hot dog with Icelandic ketchup, Icelandic mustard, remoulade sauce (remúlaði), deep fried onions and raw onions.
The guide recommended that we get the “Ein með öllu” or one with everything. I was skeptical before eating this as I normally order a plain hot dog and am not a big fan of ketchup or mustard, but it was really good, too!
Íslenski Barinn (The Icelandic Bar)
Traditional Icelandic lamb soup with root vegetables - “Kjötsúpa”.
Fermented shark - “Hákarl” with a shot of Brennivín.
Viking Gylltur // Appelsín orange soda.
The small pieces of shark are stored in jars, because the smell is… let’s just say not pleasant.
Well, we tried the shark first. The guide told us that a shot of Brennivin makes it taste better than it would otherwise, so when in Rome…
There is video evidence, but it won’t let me post that to the blog. Text me if you want to see it, because it really is funny to watch my facial expressions. I started out by saying “it’s not terrible,” then moved on to “it’s definitely not good.” At the end, I’ll say I’m glad I tried it, and I will definitely never need to try that again. Ew! Ha!
The soup was fine, but I’d say just fine. Not my favorite; wouldn’t order it again.
Café Loki (The Marvel café)
This was delicious! Rye bread in Iceland is sweeter because they use more brown sugar. We had the bread on its own earlier in the tour and liked it. But now they’ve made it into ice cream and added chocolate chips? And a beautiful view out the window while we ate? Great way to end the food walk.
Overall, highly recommend! It was a super fun experience, a great way to be introduced to Icelandic food, and our tour guide did a great job.
After the food walk wrapped up, we worked on making a plan for the rest of the day (and thinking ahead about what we might do tomorrow). We moseyed our way back down the hill toward our hotel, stopping in a few gift shops along the way. Pauline remembered there was a sculpture down by the water that we wanted to see, so we made our way down there. On the way, we stopped for a scenic photo with the city behind us and mountains in the distance…
The sculpture is called “Sun Voyager.” According to their website, “Sun Voyager is a dreamboat, an ode to the sun. It symbolizes the promise of undiscovered territory, a dream of hope, progress and freedom.”
We walked from Sun Voyager to Lemmy, a bar not far from our hotel for a late afternoon drink. Then we decided to come back to the hotel for some downtime before dinner because nobody was hungry yet (we ate so much earlier!).
We ended up eating a late dinner. We walked around the corner to a place called Tapas Barrin, which was recommended by our tour guide. “Barrin” means “the bar” in Icelandic.
We shared some delicious dishes, including a stunningly beautiful charcuterie board (of which we forgot to take a picture before we started chowing down), an arctic char dish with beets (multiple times eating char today - I’m a fan!), and a beef dish.
With full bellies, we made the short trek back to our hotel, pausing to enjoy the view at night of the square outside where we are staying.
The weather today was wild. Crazier than Indiana and North Carolina, even! Throughout the course of the day, we experienced brilliant sunshine, blue skies, wind, rain, snow, sleet, and hail! Anytime it would start snowing, sleeting, etc… it would only last for a few minutes and then go back to being sunny. Not gonna complain about that!
Another banner day…
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