Modern European$$101Daily 12:00-22:00
Froken Reykjavik Kitchen and Bar (Modern European) in Reykjavik: Dinner runs 18:00-22:00. Smart-casual room with a long bar; book for the winter-garden seats.
Why locals love it: Tucked into the ground floor of Hotel Reykjavik Saga, an art-deco room of open kitchen and winter garden that quietly turns out modern Northern European plates without the Laugavegur crowds.
Tip: Dinner runs 18:00-22:00. Smart-casual room with a long bar; book for the winter-garden seats.
Nordic$$101Daily 08:00-22:00
Family-run Icelandic kitchen across from Hallgrimskirkja on Lokastigur serving meat soup, fermented shark and rye-bread ice cream from 8am to 10pm daily.
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.
Cafe$$101-grandiDaily 08:00-21:30
Iceland's oldest restaurant, founded 1935 by the Grandi harbour; Axel Oskarsson now serves fish and chips, fish soup and breakfast in the green wooden hut.
Why locals love it: Billed as Iceland's oldest restaurant, this 1935 harbour canteen sits among working docks where fishermen, not tourists, fill the tables for the day's catch.
Tip: The catch of the day, eaten where the fishermen eat, is the order. Open from 08:00 by the water.
Modern European$$101Sun 16:00-22:00
Chef Robert Olafsson's appetiser bar by the old harbour on Nylendugata since 2011, small plates with Icelandic produce and Southern European influences.
Why locals love it: Down in the old west-end harbour streets rather than on Laugavegur, this small-plates room rewards anyone who wanders a few blocks off the tourist spine.
Tip: Build a meal from four or five starters. The harbourside location keeps it quieter than the centre.
Asian fusion$$101Tue-Sat 11:30-23:00
Tiny side-street restaurant on Hverfisgata 12 from three friends, Asian sharing plates with langoustine, yuzu and miso glazes; Michelin-recognised plate.
Why locals love it: It hides above the Hverfisgata 12 pizza-and-bar building, a Michelin-listed kitchen rewriting its globe-trotting menu weekly that many visitors walk straight past.
Tip: The menu changes every week, so no two meals match. Book ahead, the room is genuinely small.
Wine bar$$101Mon-Thu 15:00-23:00, Fri-Sat 15:00-01:00, Sun 17:00-23:00
Vinstukan Tiu Sopar is a wine bar room in 101. The kitchen punches above a wine bar's weight; the halibut and burnt broccoli are worth ordering.
Why locals love it: Easy to miss behind a plain Laugavegur door, this natural-wine bar pours funky bottles with serious small plates that locals guard as their after-work spot.
Tip: The kitchen punches above a wine bar's weight; the halibut and burnt broccoli are worth ordering.
