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Reykjavik: Where to Eat

One thing we learned very quickly is that food (read: everything) is VERY expensive in Iceland, so if you are like us and you know you will definitely be spending most of your time eating, definitely budget accordingly. Whatever you expect to spend, multiple that by at least 150%. 

Dinner: The Time to Splurge

Steikhúsid    20/10   $$$$$

This place is AMAZING. It was the best service we had had the entire time we were there. Everything was quick, but not rushed. The food was amazing and the portions were large. The server was very nice and did a great job at serving us in another language and putting up with weird questions such as “Do you have rye?” (they did, so I recommend ordering a rye and ginger because the ginger ale was also quite tasty). 

This was our last meal in Reykjavik and it was a necessity - their surf ‘n turf is whale and horse, and we needed to try them both. For the record, whale is my new favourite meat (tastes like very, very tender beef). Horse is alright, but kind of just tastes like subpar beef. I had the duck which was double the amount of meat I would get in Toronto, and ordered a lobster tail on the side. I swear, my stomach expanded by 300% that night; the food baby was very real. In total, our dinner was about $220 Canadian (plus we left a large tip because it was fantastic service) BUT they do have very good free BREAD, so I’d say it’s worth it.

Íslenski Barinn    8/10    $$$$

My boyfriend really wanted a reindeer burger, and apparently this is THE place to get them. He said it was amazing, and I have no reason to doubt that. The place was packed when we got there and we did have a wait a few minutes, but I’d always rather see a place busy than empty - it seemed like a good sign. The service was also quite good here; everyone was very attentive. They also serve veggie burgers, and burgers made from lamb and horse. 

Bars: Does This Section Really Need A Description?

Tip: Most places have Happy Hour each day which can really help you save $. Outside of Happy Hour the average pint is about $11 and cocktails can be $20+!

The Lebowski Bar   8/10  $$$

This is a Big Lebowski-themed bar in case you couldn’t figure that out from the name. They have a whole page in their menu devoted to White Russians as well as burgers, milkshakes and other typical bar-fare. See the picture above!

Egill Jacobsen Kitchen & Bar    10/10    $$$

We stopped here before going to our grand horse & whale & duck & lobster feast for some drinks, and boy am I glad it was happy hour. The normal price of a cocktail is about $25 Canadian, and the happy hour price was still steep at about $15, but the one I had was amazing. I had an Amaretto Sour with Amaretto, freshly squeezed lemon juice (I saw it happen, it really is freshly squeezed!), simple syrup and egg whites. The egg whites did scare me a bit, but they made it frothy and delicious; I didn’t know I wanted my cocktails frothy until that night. The atmosphere was also super cute and warm - warmth is necessary when everything is so cold there.

BONUS: Sandwiches We Would Eat All Day If We Could

Hlölli    10/10   $$

This sandwich place was a lifesaver. Each large sandwich is about $15, but it was a lot of food. We split one for dinner on our first night and half was enough for each of us - I couldn’t even finish mine. We had the BBQ Boat on the first night with chicken, pineapple, rice, lettuce and their own special Hlölli sauce, and it was my favourite one. It was conveniently only about a 5-10 minute walk from our apartment, which meant we got a LOT of sandwiches since we would pass it all the time. 

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Iceland: Things to Do

Whether you are staying in the city, or want to do some adventuring in the countryside (AKA the literal tundra), here are some of my recommendations and tips. 

Staying in Reykjavik

City Card    7/10     $$

The City Card is a relatively cheap way to see some sights, get around and eat at a bit of a discount. A 24-hour pass is about $40 Canadian, so we opted for the 72-hour pass at $70 each. We ended up booking some tours for outside of the city (discussed below!) and didn’t get to use our cards much, but it seems like a very good deal for anyone looking at exploring Reykjavik. It includes free use of their public transit system, free entry into select museums and galleries and discounted entry into others, entry into several of the city’s geothermal pools, and discounts at select restaurants and bars - including the Lebowski Bar. 

The Settlement Exhibition   7/10   $

Entry to this exhibit is free with the City Card, and about $15 without it. It isn’t the most exciting place in the world and you can go through it quite quickly, but it does include the remains of an original Viking longhouse in its original location. They dug around it to make room for the exhibit, but kept the longhouse exactly where they found it - very cool!

Excursions Out of Reykjavik

Warm Baths, Cool Nights      8/10    $$$$$

This was an 8-hour tour happening in the evening. We got picked up at 5:30pm and got dropped off around 12:30am (we saw the Northern Lights shortly after our hunt for them began, so we were able to get back to the city sooner than other tours). It was about $140 per person, so not a cheap tour, but we thought it was worth it. First you stop at the Fontana Spa for a buffet and a couple of hours in their geothermal pools. You do have to shower without your bathing suit with everyone else in gendered bathrooms before you go in, but there are washrooms you can change in and the last shower has a curtain. We both felt entirely relaxed afterwards, and our skin was super soft for days. After that stop, you hunt the Northern Lights. We were lucky enough to see them, and the place we stopped at had views of not only the Lights, but also of Yoko Ono’s Imagine Peace Tower in the city, the Milky Way and some shooting stars. The company also lets you book another Northern Lights tour for a later date at no additional cost if your hunt is unsuccessful. 

The Game of Thrones Tour   10/10     $$$$$

This tour is about $150 per person, but is an 8-hour day tour to several of the Icelandic filming locations for Game of Thrones. Our tour guide, Theo, did an amazing job and was highly entertaining the entire time. He was an extra on the show for four seasons and had lots of behind-the-scenes stories. My favourite stop was at the national park where the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates meet. As they separate and shift, several valleys are being created. At the end of the trail in the image above, is the waterfall in the picture at the beginning of this post. It was breathtaking - both in that it was beautiful and in the fact that it was freezing and you could see your breath leaving your body.

ALSO: The first stop on this tour is a horse farm that has lots of very friendly, soft Icelandic horses that were featured in the show. I pet so many, they were so nice.

Tips

Wear comfortable shoes - this is a must regardless of what you are doing. You will likely do a lot of walking, and one of the main shopping streets in the city is on a fairly steep hill going up towards the Hallgrímskirkja - Reykjavik’s largest cathedral and Iceland’s tallest structure.

Dress warmly - the city is much warmer than outside of it, but it still gets quite chilly, particularly when it is windy.

Bring a bathing suit - jumping into a geothermal pool is a great way to warm up quickly!

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Iceland, 2018: A Summary

I recently went to Iceland for the first time ever (highly recommend!! So amazing!!) and thought that sharing my experiences and what I learned there would be a good place to start this little old writing endeavour. 

My boyfriend and I went to Reykjavik for 5 days. Our first day was a bit of a write-off as we landed in Keflavik at 5am (which was 1am in Toronto), got into the city around 8am (4am Toronto time) and couldn’t check into our AirBnb until 1:30pm (11:30am Toronto time). By the time we checked in we had been awake for over 26 hours (my profs graciously scheduled two tests for the week we were away, so I had to write them at 7am and 9am in the morning before we left). We were moving from cafe to cafe, awkwardly ordering coffee and tea and squatting for 2 hours before we’d move somewhere else to start the process again. We were tired and grumpy and cold. 

BUT then we checked in and after that had a great time! My advice to you: try to coordinate check-in times with your flight times. This may seem straightforward and you’re probably saying “duh, why wouldn’t you do that?!” but we were ambitious, okay? Our AirBnb was lovely and the host did let us check-in a bit earlier than originally planned, but it was still naive of us to think that we wouldn’t want to die on our first morning there. 

Over the next couple of days, I’m going to post about what we did each day, what we ate, and anything else that pops into my head in the hopes that maybe someone out there will read this and be inspired to go. We bought our plane tickets quite impulsively, and it was a tremendous decision, and you can too!