Iceland has been on my travel bucket list for nearly a decade, and it exceeded my expectations. From fjords to waterfalls to volcanic landscapes, the scenery is almost too gorgeous to seem real. I also loved soaking in hot springs, staying at an Airbnb on a sheep farm, and wandering the colorful streets of Reykjavik.
Food wasn't necessarily the focus of our trip—dining out is incredibly expensive in Iceland, so we stocked up on groceries in order to prepare nearly all of our breakfasts and most of our dinners at our accommodations. However, we still ate some incredible food. Here are my favorites, organized by region of Iceland, plus a section at the end with grocery store finds.
Golden Circle
1. Tomato soup and bread buffet at Friðheimar (Reykholt)
Due to its isolation, short growing season, and abundant geothermal energy, Iceland is home to greenhouse-based farms that grow produce like tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, strawberries, lettuce, and herbs. Friðheimar is a restaurant located inside a working greenhouse—the dining area is surrounded by ceiling-high tomato plants, and you'll spot workers on ladders harvesting tomatoes. Everything on the menu, from cocktails to ice cream, features tomatoes in some form, but the star of the show is the all-you-can-eat tomato soup and bread buffet.
I am not usually a tomato soup person, but I really enjoyed this herb-forward version, which you can garnish with cucumber pickles, sour cream, and basil snipped from the plant at your table. Even better was the bread: enormous, crusty loaves topped with cheese, poppy seeds, and olives, slathered with butter and sprinkled with lava salt.
2. Chocolate licorice ice cream at Efstidalur II (Bláskógabyggð)
I have wanted to visit Efstidalur II ever since I learned about it on the Rick Steves Europe special about Iceland. It's a working dairy farm with a restaurant and ice cream shop adjacent to the cow barn, with windows so that you can look at the cows while you eat.
The cows were as fun as I had hoped (one them seemed even more fascinated by me than I was by her), and the ice cream was also excellent, extra-creamy and made fresh on-site. I opted for the chocolate licorice flavor, made with a chocolate base and a crunchy ribbon of licorice flavoring running throughout. No one does licorice better than the Nordic countries, and this was the perfect start to a week-plus of copious licorice consumption.
South Coast
3. Rhubarb cake at Freya Café (Skogar)
The Skogar Museum is one of the most eclectic collections I've visited—there's an open-air section with historic buildings, a folk museum with everything from antique spinning wheels to taxidermy sea birds, and a technical museum with dozens of vehicles and technology artifacts, including cell phones from the early 2000s (yes, that made me feel old). The museum cafe is similarly unique: the vibe is Victorian tea room, but with an actual airplane suspended from the ceiling. My rhubarb cake (also known as hjónabandssæla or Happy Marriage Cake) was the highlight of a lovely lunch, thanks the the richly fruity rhubarb jam filling and delicate, crumbly oatmeal crust.
Reykjavik
4. Fish and chips at Reykjavik Fish Restaurant (Reykjavik)
After experiencing severe sticker shock while perusing menus posted outside more upscale Reykjavik restaurants, we got dinner at Reykjavik Fish Restaurant, a counter-service spot with quirky nautical decor and several locations throughout the city. I enjoyed the freshest fish and chips I've ever eaten—the cod tasted more like a brisk, refreshing ocean breeze than fishy, and the batter was delicate and crispy.
5. Cinnamon roll at Hygge Coffee & Micro Bakery (Reykjavik)
Similar to licorice, no one does cinnamon rolls better than the Nordic countries, and the ones at Hygge Coffee & Micro Bakery are especially superb. The pastry was extra-buttery and loaded with cinnamon, and it was so tender that the entire roll, even the edges, had a gooey, center-of-the roll quality.
6. Mushroom soup and sourdough bread at BakaBaka (Reykjavik)
I ate a lot of soup during our trip: it was budget-friendly (by Icelandic dining standards), there was nearly always a vegetarian option, and it usually came with hefty slices of fresh bread. BakaBaka, a bakery and cafe by day, pizza restaurant by night, served my favorite version. The vegan soup of the day was a mushroom soup unlike anything I've tasted before—bold umami, earthy notes from wild mushrooms, with a drizzle of herb olive oil and a garnish of fresh onions. The sourdough bread on the side was also incredible, with a crackling crust and deep tangy flavor.
West Iceland
7. Krauma platter at Krauma (Reykholt)
If you know me well, you know that my favorite types of dishes include lots of different components, like Ethiopian sampler platters or cheese boards. Obviously, the Krauma platter at Krauma, a geothermal spa and restaurant, was my kind of dish: a platter of lime-marinated goat, pine-smoked goat, coriander and basil-marinated salmon, birch-smoked salmon, cucumber, mint skyr, horseradish cream, fresh goat cheese, blueberry jam, and baked blue cheese topped with honey, served with slices of sourdough and rúgbrauð (a dense rye bread). Everything was exquisite on its own, but the delightful aspect was trying different combinations: goat with the mint skyr, horseradish and salmon, sourdough spread with goat cheese and blueberry jam.
(You may have noticed that this is the second town called Reykholt that we visited—one is on the Golden Circle, the other is in West Iceland. Make sure that you have them straight when you're planning your trip and when you're looking up GPS directions!)
8. Skyr cake at the Maritime Museum (Hellissandur)
A running theme of our trip was stopping at a rural cafe that we didn't have high expectations for, and then being served wonderful housemade desserts. The ultimate example of this was at the Maritime Museum in Hellissandur, a tiny museum with an on-site cafe punching way above its weight. The skyr cake was elegantly garnished with chocolate shavings, whipped cream, and raspberry sauce, and the texture was wonderful—lighter and fluffier than a New York-style cheesecake, but still luxurious and tangy. The vibrant raspberry sauce was the perfect accompaniment.
9. Fish soup at Fjöruhúsið Café (Hellnar)
At the end of the hiking trail from Arnarstapi to Hellnar is Fjöruhúsið Café, housed in small picturesque stone building with a deck overlooking the ocean. Miraculously, it was actually sunny and relatively warm when we arrived, and we enjoyed our one and only al fresco meal in Iceland. The fish soup had a creamy broth with notes of curry and was loaded with flaky pieces of salmon and whitefish, plus tiny shrimp, leeks, and other vegetables. The bread on the side reminded me of Irish soda bread, with a similar dense, hearty texture. Yes, the meal probably got some bonus points from the view, but it was one of the most memorable experiences of our trip.
10. Hjónabandssæla at Vegamót (Stykkishólmur)
Hjónabandssæla (Happy Marriage Cake) is a ubiquitous Icelandic dessert—I had four versions throughout the trip (including the rhubarb cake at Freya Café I mentioned above). However, each was a little different, and the slice at Vegamót was my favorite. We stopped at the small cafe inside Hótel Snæfellsnes to break up the drive back to Reykjavik and were delighted to discover a case filled with homemade cakes. I loved the extra thick, cookie-like crust of the hjónabandssæla, and the dollop of whipped cream was a nice touch.
Grocery Store Eats
11. Cottage cheese from MS Iceland Dairies
I know that cottage cheese is a divisive food—I'm firmly in the "love it" camp. That said, the cottage cheese from MS Iceland Dairies might even win over some haters. The varying curd sizes give it an especially appealing texture, the dressing has thicker, creamier quality than I'm used to, and the flavor is pleasantly tangy and robust. I actually tracked some down on our last night in Iceland so that I could eat it one more time before we flew home.
12. Rúgbrauð from Kökugerð HP
Throughout our trip, rúgbrauð accompanied many restaurant meals, and we also purchased a loaf made by commercial bakery Kökugerð HP to eat at our Airbnb for dinner. I loved it so much that I bought another loaf to take home, and I'm going to have to figure out how to make it myself. Rúgbrauð is a very dense, sweet rye bread that's leavened with baking powder rather than yeast. Traditionally, it was baked by burying a pot in the ground near geothermal heat source; in modern times, it's made in loaf pans in the oven. The crumbly texture reminded me of cake, but with a slightly earthy rye flavor.