Colleen
10+ Posts
While Joan and I were waiting at Keflavik airport for our flight home, we made "Best" and "Worst" lists - here are our favorites in Rekjavik:
Our first morning we needed COFFEE and something to eat while we waited for our hotel room to be ready. We walked around the neighborhood trying to find a good spot to park ourselves for a little bit. We landed at The Laundromat Cafe where, yes - you can do laundry and eat at the same time! We really liked the look of the place although at 9am it was mostly empty. (I had eggs on toast and a cappuccino, and Joan had toast and cappuccino.) We went back for lunch on Sunday, and it was a whole different story! It was packed with families and all their cold weather gear, and we ended up sharing a table. Joan had the traditional Icelandic fish soup, and I had an African avocado and grilled cheese sandwich. With fries.
We later read a description of the cafe where it was called "a typical American diner." Huh. We didn't get that impression at all! But we did enjoy the food, service, and vibe.
We ate at Hornid Italian restaurant twice during our stay - once for a quick pizza and some greens (thin crust pizza was okay, the salad and its dressing were very good) before our scheduled Northern Lights tour, and again on our next to last night. The restaurant is just across the street from the Radisson 1919 Blu hotel where we were staying, and we kept calling it "The Fern Bar" because from the outside that's all we could see in the windows! Inside it's really decorated like a trattoria with straw covered Chianti bottles and "interesting" artwork. Our second meal was more leisurely - all I wanted a simple pasta with olive oil and garlic, and our server (who had an "Amelie" look about her) said, "No problem" even though it wasn't on the menu. My spaghetti was perfectly al dente and had the right balance of aglio e olio. Joan had the pan fried Arctic Char special with almonds in butter, and it was Delicious! We also shared a carafe of the house red wine.
One night we had a pre-dinner glass of wine at Solon Bistro - don't do it! We both took one sip, looked at our glasses, looked at each other and said, "Well, it's drinkable ... Barely." That wine glass took a long time to get empty! LOL But we really loved the white tapers lit at each table, and the service was prompt. We went back on our last night after dinner to enjoy the atmosphere, and Joan had a cappuccino and I had a B52 cocktail shot. MUCH better!
After the disappointing wine at Solon, we walked across the street to Ristorante Caruso where we had better luck with the food. We shared a mozzarella and tomato salad and a prawn risotto. Prior to our arrival in Iceland, we'd read not to expect very good or very many vegetables but our experience was positive. There were quite a few vegetable options, and they were all good. We learned that there are hothouses just outside the city and Iceland is almost 100% self sustaining vegetable-wise. Anyway, the Caprese salad was good and the risotto was tasty, served with grilled prawns on a skewer across the top. (We didn't take a chance on the wine!)
We had lunch one afternoon at Fish Restaurant, a small casual cafe on the main street leading to Hallgrimskirkja church. We both had the Icelandic fish soup -- it was super flavorful, with a little bit of a bite. Big bowls of soup, served with thick slices of Ciabatta pumpkin seed bread.
Probably our favorite meal of the trip was at K-Bar at the OK Hotel on Laugaveger Street. We'd stopped in one day to look at the menu, because the smell from the street was mouth watering! There was no English menu available, but the manager gave us a translation. We liked the decor and the friendly staff, and finally made it back our last day for an early dinner. I had a taste for ramen, but we were too early for the ramen and rice to be ready - although we were told if we came back later they would make me a vegetarian version. We stayed anyway, and ordered a soft-shelled crab sandwich to share, along with tempura green beans and a Fuji apple and arugula salad (with bacon on the side). It was all SO GOOD! The Ciabatta bread sandwich also had thinly sliced pickled vegetables and a spicy chipotle sauce. The green beans were panko crusted and very light, and the salad with hot mustard dressing was seriously good! ... We ended the meal with a "New York style cronut," because who wouldn't want to eat a cronut in Reykjavik! Oh man. We were oohing and ahhing, and when I paid the bill and raved about it (and everything else) our server smiled and said the cronuts were very popular. K-Bar is called a Korean-California Gastropub - but don't let that put you off! The decor is warm and welcoming, the service is excellent, and the food was out of this world. We were sorry we didn't eat there until our last day!
One thing we both liked is that every place we went to was open continuously - not closed between lunch and dinner as in Italy and France. When your stomach doesn't know what time zone it's in, it's nice to be able to get lunch at 3pm, or dinner at 5:30pm.
Our first morning we needed COFFEE and something to eat while we waited for our hotel room to be ready. We walked around the neighborhood trying to find a good spot to park ourselves for a little bit. We landed at The Laundromat Cafe where, yes - you can do laundry and eat at the same time! We really liked the look of the place although at 9am it was mostly empty. (I had eggs on toast and a cappuccino, and Joan had toast and cappuccino.) We went back for lunch on Sunday, and it was a whole different story! It was packed with families and all their cold weather gear, and we ended up sharing a table. Joan had the traditional Icelandic fish soup, and I had an African avocado and grilled cheese sandwich. With fries.
We later read a description of the cafe where it was called "a typical American diner." Huh. We didn't get that impression at all! But we did enjoy the food, service, and vibe.We ate at Hornid Italian restaurant twice during our stay - once for a quick pizza and some greens (thin crust pizza was okay, the salad and its dressing were very good) before our scheduled Northern Lights tour, and again on our next to last night. The restaurant is just across the street from the Radisson 1919 Blu hotel where we were staying, and we kept calling it "The Fern Bar" because from the outside that's all we could see in the windows! Inside it's really decorated like a trattoria with straw covered Chianti bottles and "interesting" artwork. Our second meal was more leisurely - all I wanted a simple pasta with olive oil and garlic, and our server (who had an "Amelie" look about her) said, "No problem" even though it wasn't on the menu. My spaghetti was perfectly al dente and had the right balance of aglio e olio. Joan had the pan fried Arctic Char special with almonds in butter, and it was Delicious! We also shared a carafe of the house red wine.
One night we had a pre-dinner glass of wine at Solon Bistro - don't do it! We both took one sip, looked at our glasses, looked at each other and said, "Well, it's drinkable ... Barely." That wine glass took a long time to get empty! LOL But we really loved the white tapers lit at each table, and the service was prompt. We went back on our last night after dinner to enjoy the atmosphere, and Joan had a cappuccino and I had a B52 cocktail shot. MUCH better!
After the disappointing wine at Solon, we walked across the street to Ristorante Caruso where we had better luck with the food. We shared a mozzarella and tomato salad and a prawn risotto. Prior to our arrival in Iceland, we'd read not to expect very good or very many vegetables but our experience was positive. There were quite a few vegetable options, and they were all good. We learned that there are hothouses just outside the city and Iceland is almost 100% self sustaining vegetable-wise. Anyway, the Caprese salad was good and the risotto was tasty, served with grilled prawns on a skewer across the top. (We didn't take a chance on the wine!)
We had lunch one afternoon at Fish Restaurant, a small casual cafe on the main street leading to Hallgrimskirkja church. We both had the Icelandic fish soup -- it was super flavorful, with a little bit of a bite. Big bowls of soup, served with thick slices of Ciabatta pumpkin seed bread.
Probably our favorite meal of the trip was at K-Bar at the OK Hotel on Laugaveger Street. We'd stopped in one day to look at the menu, because the smell from the street was mouth watering! There was no English menu available, but the manager gave us a translation. We liked the decor and the friendly staff, and finally made it back our last day for an early dinner. I had a taste for ramen, but we were too early for the ramen and rice to be ready - although we were told if we came back later they would make me a vegetarian version. We stayed anyway, and ordered a soft-shelled crab sandwich to share, along with tempura green beans and a Fuji apple and arugula salad (with bacon on the side). It was all SO GOOD! The Ciabatta bread sandwich also had thinly sliced pickled vegetables and a spicy chipotle sauce. The green beans were panko crusted and very light, and the salad with hot mustard dressing was seriously good! ... We ended the meal with a "New York style cronut," because who wouldn't want to eat a cronut in Reykjavik! Oh man. We were oohing and ahhing, and when I paid the bill and raved about it (and everything else) our server smiled and said the cronuts were very popular. K-Bar is called a Korean-California Gastropub - but don't let that put you off! The decor is warm and welcoming, the service is excellent, and the food was out of this world. We were sorry we didn't eat there until our last day!
One thing we both liked is that every place we went to was open continuously - not closed between lunch and dinner as in Italy and France. When your stomach doesn't know what time zone it's in, it's nice to be able to get lunch at 3pm, or dinner at 5:30pm.
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