Category: Icelandic Cuisine

Icelandic cuisine has come a long way. For centuries this was the food of survival — a small population on a remote island making the most of fish, lamb, and dairy, and preserving everything through long winters. That heritage is still on the table today, but it now sits alongside a confident modern food scene that draws on the same pure ingredients in new ways.
The classics are worth knowing. Lamb, raised free-range on mountain pastures, is some of the best you’ll taste anywhere. Fish is everywhere and reliably fresh — cod, haddock, and Arctic char in particular. Skyr, the thick cultured dairy product, is a national staple eaten morning and night. And then there’s the famous hot dog, the pylsa, an unglamorous but genuinely beloved everyday meal.

Some traditional dishes are more about curiosity than appetite. Fermented shark, cured ram, and singed sheep’s head belong to the old preservation traditions, and you’ll mostly meet them around the midwinter Þorrablót feast. Trying them is a rite of passage for some visitors and entirely skippable for others.

For eating well in Iceland, a few practical things help. Dining out is expensive, so many travelers mix restaurant meals with supermarket shops and the ever-present hot dog stands. Reykjavík has the widest choice by far, but good food now turns up in small towns across the country, often built around whatever is caught or raised nearby.

In this section, you’ll find our guides to Icelandic cuisine: the dishes worth trying, the ones to approach with curiosity, where to eat well, and how to do it without emptying your wallet — the honest, practical advice we’d give a friend planning the same trip.


Icelandic Cuisine, Reykjavik

The best beer in Reykjavik – Skál!*

Reykjavik is famous for its vibrant nightlife. There are loads of places that play all the latest music loud. They are filled with trendy people having the time of their life. I, however, absolutely detest this. Loud nightclubs and bars are just annoying to me,...