The plates that define Reykjavik: what they are, and where to eat the canonical version.
The plates that define Reykjavik. what they are, where they came from, and where to eat the canonical version.
The Icelandic hot dog is a lamb-heavy pylsa in a steamed bun, layered with raw and crispy fried onion, ketchup, sweet brown mustard and remoulade. Ordered eina med ollu, one with everything.
Where: Baejarins Beztu Pylsur
Price: ISK 800 to 900
Plokkfiskur is Iceland's great comfort dish, a warm mash of flaked cod or haddock with potato, onion and a white bechamel sauce. It is traditionally served with dark rye bread and butter.
Where: Hofnin, Cafe Loki, Kaffivagninn
Price: ISK 2,500 to 3,800
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: Cafe Loki, Kaffivagninn
Price: ISK 2,200 to 2,900
Humarsupa is a rich, creamy soup built on Icelandic langoustine, the small sweet shellfish often called lobster locally. The shells are simmered for a deep stock before the tail meat is added.
Where: Saegreifinn, Kopar, Hofnin
Price: ISK 1,900 to 3,200
Skyr is Iceland's ancient cultured dairy, thick and tangy like strained yogurt but technically a fresh cheese. It is eaten with milk and berries, blended into smoothies or folded into desserts.
Where: Salka Valka Kitchen, Sandholt, Grai Kotturinn
Price: ISK 400 to 900
Rugbraud is a dense, dark and slightly sweet Icelandic rye bread, traditionally steam-baked for many hours. In some places it is still buried in geothermal ground to cook, earning the nickname thunder bread.
Where: Cafe Loki, Sandholt, Bernhoftsbakari
Price: ISK 600 to 1,500
The fish pan is a Reykjavik restaurant signature: the catch of the day, usually cod, char or trout, pan-fried in butter and served sizzling in a cast-iron skillet with potatoes and vegetables.
Where: Messinn, Fish Company, Kopar
Price: ISK 3,500 to 5,500
Kleina is a twisted, lightly spiced fried Icelandic doughnut, denser and less sweet than its American cousin. It is a traditional coffee-table treat sold in every Icelandic bakery.
Where: Bernhoftsbakari, Bjornsbakari, Sandholt
Price: ISK 300 to 700
Hakarl is fermented Greenland shark, cured for weeks then hung to dry for months until safe to eat. It has a powerful ammonia smell and is eaten in small cubes, traditionally with a shot of brennivin.
Where: Kolaportid, Cafe Loki
Price: ISK 1,000 to 2,500
The Icelandic hot dog is a lamb-heavy pylsa in a steamed bun, layered with raw and crispy fried onion, ketchup, sweet brown mustard and remoulade. Ordered eina med ollu, one with everything.
History: The pylsa took hold in Reykjavik in the 1930s, and Baejarins Beztu Pylsur opened its harbour kiosk in 1937. Iceland's hot dogs lean on lamb alongside pork and beef, giving them a deeper, slightly gamey flavour. The fully-loaded order, eina med ollu, became the national default, and the stand drew global attention when Bill Clinton stopped by in 2004 and ordered his with mustard only, a version locals now nickname a Clinton.
Where to try it: Baejarins Beztu Pylsur
Watch out for: Gluten, Mustard
Plokkfiskur is Iceland's great comfort dish, a warm mash of flaked cod or haddock with potato, onion and a white bechamel sauce. It is traditionally served with dark rye bread and butter.
History: Plokkfiskur began as a thrifty way to use up leftover boiled fish and potatoes, a staple of Icelandic home kitchens for generations. The name comes from the verb to pluck or flake, describing how the fish is broken into the mash. Modern Reykjavik kitchens have dressed it up with bechamel and cheese, but the soul of the dish stays the same: cod, potato and rye bread on a cold day. Cafe Loki and harbour rooms keep the traditional version on the menu year-round.
Where to try it: Hofnin, Cafe Loki, Kaffivagninn
Watch out for: Fish, Gluten, Milk
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.
History: 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.
Where to try it: Cafe Loki, Kaffivagninn
Humarsupa is a rich, creamy soup built on Icelandic langoustine, the small sweet shellfish often called lobster locally. The shells are simmered for a deep stock before the tail meat is added.
History: Icelandic langoustine, humar, is prized for its sweetness, pulled from the cold waters off the south coast. The soup made its name at Saegreifinn, the harbour shack where a former fisherman started ladling it in 2003, and travellers now cross Reykjavik for a bowl. A good humarsupa simmers the shells for a tomato-tinged bisque, then finishes with cream and the reserved tails, served with bread to mop the bowl.
Where to try it: Saegreifinn, Kopar, Hofnin
Watch out for: Crustaceans, Milk
Skyr is Iceland's ancient cultured dairy, thick and tangy like strained yogurt but technically a fresh cheese. It is eaten with milk and berries, blended into smoothies or folded into desserts.
History: Skyr dates back to the Norse settlers and is mentioned in the medieval sagas, making it one of the oldest continuously eaten foods in Iceland. It is made by culturing skimmed milk and straining off the whey, leaving a high-protein, low-fat curd. For centuries it was a daily staple that kept through the winter. Today it is a global export, but in Reykjavik it still turns up plain with cream and sugar, on breakfast tables and in the desserts at New Nordic kitchens.
Where to try it: Salka Valka Kitchen, Sandholt, Grai Kotturinn
Watch out for: Milk
Rugbraud is a dense, dark and slightly sweet Icelandic rye bread, traditionally steam-baked for many hours. In some places it is still buried in geothermal ground to cook, earning the nickname thunder bread.
History: Rye grew where wheat could not, so dark rye bread became the everyday loaf of Iceland. The most famous version, hverabraud, is baked by burying a covered pot in hot geothermal soil near hot springs and leaving it for up to 24 hours, producing a moist, almost cake-like loaf. It is served sliced thin with butter, smoked lamb or pickled herring. In Reykjavik you find it at Cafe Loki and the old bakeries, and even as a rye-bread ice cream.
Where to try it: Cafe Loki, Sandholt, Bernhoftsbakari
Watch out for: Gluten
The fish pan is a Reykjavik restaurant signature: the catch of the day, usually cod, char or trout, pan-fried in butter and served sizzling in a cast-iron skillet with potatoes and vegetables.
History: While not an ancient dish, the fiskipanna became a Reykjavik institution through the seafood restaurant Messinn, which built its reputation on serving the day's catch in a hot cast-iron pan. It plays to Iceland's great strength, fish landed hours earlier, cooked simply in butter so the freshness carries. The format spread across the city's seafood rooms and is now one of the most ordered dishes for visitors wanting Icelandic fish without a tasting-menu commitment.
Where to try it: Messinn, Fish Company, Kopar
Watch out for: Fish, Milk
Kleina is a twisted, lightly spiced fried Icelandic doughnut, denser and less sweet than its American cousin. It is a traditional coffee-table treat sold in every Icelandic bakery.
History: The kleina arrived from Scandinavia and became a fixture of Icelandic baking by the 19th century, made at home for guests and holidays. The dough, flavoured with cardamom or lemon, is rolled, cut into diamonds, slit and twisted into its signature knot before frying. It is eaten plain with coffee, never iced. Reykjavik's oldest bakeries, Bernhoftsbakari among them, still turn them out daily as part of the traditional pastry counter.
Where to try it: Bernhoftsbakari, Bjornsbakari, Sandholt
Watch out for: Gluten, Milk, Egg
Hakarl is fermented Greenland shark, cured for weeks then hung to dry for months until safe to eat. It has a powerful ammonia smell and is eaten in small cubes, traditionally with a shot of brennivin.
History: Greenland shark is poisonous when fresh, so Icelanders learned to bury and ferment it, then air-dry it into hakarl, an extreme example of the preserving that kept the nation fed. It is a centrepiece of the midwinter Thorrablot feast, eaten as a dare-and-tradition with the caraway schnapps brennivin to chase it. Most visitors try a cube at the Kolaportid flea market or Cafe Loki, where it is served as a rite of passage rather than an everyday food.
Where to try it: Kolaportid, Cafe Loki
Watch out for: Fish
Reykjavik's signature dishes include Pylsa (Icelandic hot dog), Plokkfiskur (fish stew), Kjotsupa (Icelandic lamb soup), Humarsupa (langoustine soup), Skyr. See our signature dishes chapter for where to eat each.