Kjotsupa is a clear, hearty lamb soup simmered with chunks of free-range Icelandic lamb, root vegetables, onion and herbs. It is the warming backbone of the winter table and a budget meal year-round.
Where to eat it: 2 restaurants across 1 city.
Lamb soup is as old as Icelandic settlement, a one-pot meal built on the country's one abundant meat. Free-range sheep graze wild herbs through the summer, which carries into the flavour of the autumn lamb. The soup uses cheaper cuts on the bone, stretched with potato, carrot, swede and rutabaga, and was a way to feed a household through the long dark. Cafe Loki opposite Hallgrimskirkja serves it with rye bread, keeping the communal, generous spirit of the dish alive.
Tip from the editors. The soup tastes better the next day; make it ahead and reheat gently for a deeper flavour.
This is the TableJourney editorial recipe, modelled on the canonical bistro / counter version. The first place to try the dish in its city of origin is below.
Why locals love it: Most visitors photograph Hallgrimskirkja and leave, missing the small cafe opposite that serves the city's most accessible traditional Icelandic plates.
Tip: The easiest place to try rye bread with mashed fish and rye-bread ice cream. Walk-in only.
Why locals love it: Billed as Iceland's oldest restaurant, this 1935 harbour canteen sits among working docks where fishermen, not tourists, fill the tables for the day's catch.
Tip: The catch of the day, eaten where the fishermen eat, is the order. Open from 08:00 by the water.
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