A Kitchen Built on Extreme Ingredients
For most of Iceland’s history, food was a matter of survival. The growing season is short, the winters are long and dark, and the ocean — for all its richness — is not always kind. The Icelanders responded by becoming extraordinarily resourceful: fermenting, smoking, drying, and preserving everything the land and sea could offer, wasting almost nothing.
That heritage of resourcefulness is still present in modern Icelandic cooking. The best Icelandic food today is not a rejection of tradition but an elevation of it — taking the same extraordinary raw ingredients that sustained a Viking settlement for a thousand years and treating them with the care and creativity they deserve. Lamb raised on open mountain pastures. Arctic char pulled from glacial rivers. Langoustine from the cold, clean waters of the South Coast. Skyr that has been made in Iceland for over a thousand years.
At Ice Paradise Tours, food is part of the journey. We know where to eat well across the whole country — from the finest restaurants in Reykjavík to the roadside stops that locals actually use. This guide will help you eat like you mean it.
What to Eat — The Essential Icelandic Foods
Icelandic Lamb — The Finest in the World
Start here. Icelandic lamb is widely considered among the best in the world, and the reason is straightforward: the animals spend their summers roaming freely across highland pastures, eating wild herbs, grasses, and berries with no supplementary feed and minimal human interference. The result is meat with a flavour depth and tenderness that commercially farmed lamb simply cannot match.
Kjötsúpa — Icelandic lamb soup — is the dish every visitor should eat at least once. A simple, hearty broth of slow-cooked lamb, root vegetables, and herbs, it has been warming Icelanders through winter for centuries. You will find it in farmhouses, roadside restaurants, and the finest dining rooms in Reykjavík. It is never the same twice, and it is always exactly what you need.
Fish and Seafood — From the Cleanest Waters on Earth
Iceland sits at the convergence of the Gulf Stream and the Arctic Ocean, producing waters of extraordinary richness and clarity. The fish pulled from these seas — cod, haddock, Arctic char, salmon, and more — are among the freshest and most flavourful available anywhere. Fish has been the backbone of the Icelandic economy for centuries, and it remains the backbone of the Icelandic table.
Plokkfiskur — a traditional fish stew made with flaked white fish, potato, onion, and béchamel sauce — is one of Iceland’s great comfort foods. Simple, filling, and deeply satisfying, it is the kind of dish that sustains a fishing community through a winter. Look for it on menus across the country, particularly in the fishing towns of the Westfjords and East Iceland.
Langoustine — also known as Norway lobster — is the great seafood speciality of South Iceland. The cold, clean waters of the South Coast produce langoustine of exceptional sweetness and quality. The town of Höfn, on the southeastern edge of the country, holds an annual Langoustine Festival each summer and has built its local identity around the ingredient. If you are travelling the South Coast, do not leave without eating langoustine.
Harðfiskur — wind-dried fish, typically cod or haddock, torn into strips and eaten with butter — is Iceland’s original snack food. It has been made here for over a thousand years using the same technique, and it remains widely eaten today. The flavour is intense and concentrated. It is an acquired taste that most visitors acquire immediately.
Skyr — Iceland’s Ancient Superfood
Skyr has been made in Iceland for over 1,100 years. Technically a fresh cheese but with the texture of thick yoghurt, it is high in protein, low in fat, and mildly tangy in flavour. The Vikings brought it with them from Norway, where the tradition eventually died out — leaving Iceland as the only place in the world where it has been made continuously for a millennium.
In Iceland, skyr is eaten at breakfast with berries or honey, used in baking, blended into smoothies, and served as a dessert. Eating it fresh in Iceland — rather than from an export container in a supermarket elsewhere — is a noticeably different experience. It is creamier, cleaner, and more complex than most visitors expect.
The Icelandic Hot Dog — Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur
Every visitor to Reykjavík should eat a hot dog from Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur — the legendary red kiosk that has stood on the harbour since 1937. The name translates as ‘the best hot dogs in town’, which is, by popular agreement, an accurate description. The sausages are made from a blend of Icelandic lamb, pork, and beef, and the correct order is eina með öllu — ‘one with everything’: mustard, ketchup, remoulade, raw onion, and crispy fried onion.
Bill Clinton ate one here in 2004 without condiments, which Icelanders found baffling. Order yours correctly.
Traditional and Adventurous — Foods With History
For those who want to go deeper into Icelandic food tradition, there are a handful of historic dishes that represent the country’s culinary past. These are not everyday eating for modern Icelanders, but they are served at cultural events and in a few speciality restaurants:
Hákarl: Fermented Greenlandic shark, cured for several months underground and then hung to dry. The smell is formidable, the taste intensely ammoniac. It is an acquired taste that many do not acquire — but trying it is a genuine Icelandic experience. Chase it with a shot of Brennivín, Iceland’s caraway aquavit.
Svið: Singed and boiled sheep’s head, served halved. A traditional farmer’s dish that has been eaten in Iceland for centuries. Some restaurants in Reykjavík still serve it, and it appears on the menu at Þorrablót — the mid-winter feast held in January and February.
Súrsaðir hrútspungar: Ram’s testicles, pressed and pickled in whey. Another Þorrablót staple. Genuinely traditional. Genuinely challenging for most visitors. Genuinely worth trying if you are curious about Iceland’s nothing-wasted food heritage.
What to Drink
The Water — Drink It Straight From the Tap
This sounds obvious but is worth saying clearly: Icelandic tap water is some of the purest in the world, drawn directly from glacial springs and filtered through layers of volcanic rock. There is no need to buy bottled water anywhere in Iceland. Carry a reusable bottle, fill it from any tap, and drink freely. The taste is genuinely exceptional — clean, cold, and completely neutral.
Brennivín — The Black Death
Brennivín is Iceland’s signature spirit — an unsweetened schnapps distilled from fermented grain and flavoured with caraway seeds. Its nickname, Svarti dauði or ‘Black Death’, was actually a government-created deterrent: during prohibition, Icelandic authorities insisted the bottles carry a stark black label with no branding to discourage consumption. The strategy did not work. Brennivín is now a point of national pride, served ice-cold alongside hákarl and at any gathering where toasts are made.
Craft Beer — Iceland’s Brewing Revolution
Iceland only legalised beer in 1989 — a fact that still surprises most visitors. In the decades since, the country has developed a genuinely impressive craft beer scene, with small-batch breweries producing creative, locally-influenced beers across the entire country. Breweries like Ölverk in the South, Kaldi in North Iceland, and Borg Brugghús in Reykjavík are producing some of the most interesting beers in Scandinavia. The Ring Road has effectively become a brewery trail.
Coffee — Iceland Takes It Seriously
Iceland is among the highest per-capita coffee consuming countries in the world. Coffee culture here is strong, the quality in Reykjavík’s independent cafés is excellent, and a good cup is never far away even on the most remote stretches of the Ring Road. Kaffitár and Reykjavík Roasters are the names to know in the capital.
Where to Eat — From Reykjavík to the Ring Road
Iceland’s restaurant scene is concentrated in Reykjavík but extends across the country in ways that consistently surprise visitors who explore beyond the capital.
Reykjavík — The Fine Dining Scene
Reykjavík has three Michelin-starred restaurants — a remarkable achievement for a city of 130,000 people. Dill, Iceland’s first Michelin star recipient, pioneered the new Nordic approach to Icelandic ingredients and remains the country’s most celebrated dining destination. Moss, inside the Retreat at Blue Lagoon, offers one of the world’s most dramatically located fine dining experiences, with views across the lava fields. Óx is an intimate, counter-dining experience with a frequently changing menu built entirely around Icelandic produce.
Beyond the starred restaurants, Reykjavík’s food scene is diverse and genuinely excellent. Seafood restaurants along the old harbour serve the day’s catch with minimal fuss. The city’s food halls — including Hlemmur Mathöll in the old bus station — bring together some of the capital’s best small producers under one roof. And the coffee and bakery scene, particularly in the 101 Reykjavík district, rivals anything in Scandinavia.
Outside Reykjavík — Eating Well on the Road
The quality of food outside Reykjavík is more consistent than most visitors expect. The key is knowing where to look — and avoiding the tourist-trap restaurants that cluster around the most famous sights.
Höfn, South-East Iceland: The langoustine capital of Iceland. Every restaurant in town does something interesting with the local catch. The Humarhöfnin restaurant is the most celebrated, but the smaller places on the harbour are often just as good and half the price.
Húsavík, North Iceland: Known for whale watching but also for genuinely excellent seafood. The harbour restaurants serve Arctic char, cod, and fresh fish of the day with views across Skjálfandi Bay. Gamli Baukur is a local institution.
Akureyri, North Iceland: Iceland’s second city and the culinary capital of the North. The restaurant scene here is more sophisticated than most visitors expect, with independent cafés, excellent fish restaurants, and a growing craft beer culture centred on the Kaldi brewery.
Ísafjörður, Westfjords: Remote but rewarding. The Westfjords have a growing reputation for high-quality, locally sourced food — particularly fish and shellfish from the deep, clean fjords. Við Pollinn is worth the journey.
Farmhouse restaurants, everywhere: Some of the best eating in Iceland happens in farm kitchens along the Ring Road, where families serve home-cooked lamb, soup, skyr, and freshly baked bread to passing travellers. These places rarely appear on review sites — ask locally, or ask us.
Geothermal Cooking — Iceland’s Most Unusual Culinary Experience
One of the most distinctly Icelandic food experiences has nothing to do with a restaurant. At Laugarvatn Fontana on the Golden Circle, visitors can taste rye bread baked underground — a dense, slightly sweet loaf called hverabrauð that is buried in a pot near a geothermal spring and left to slow-cook in the heat of the earth for 24 hours. It is served warm with Icelandic butter and smoked salmon, and it is one of the most memorable things you will eat in Iceland.
In Hverargerði, the geothermal activity is so concentrated that locals cook eggs and bake bread directly in the hot springs. The town’s geothermal park offers visitors the chance to participate. It is cooking as geology — and something you simply cannot do anywhere else on earth.
Practical Tips for Eating in Iceland
Budget smartly: Iceland is expensive, and restaurants reflect that. The most cost-effective strategy is a large lunch (many restaurants offer lunch menus at roughly half the dinner price) and a lighter evening meal from a supermarket or bakery.
Supermarkets are your friend: Bónus (the yellow pig) and Krónan are Iceland’s budget supermarkets. A stop at either will reveal an excellent range of local produce — skyr, smoked fish, lamb, local cheeses, and fresh bread — at reasonable prices.
Breakfast matters: Most Icelandic guesthouses and smaller hotels include breakfast, and the quality is generally high: freshly baked bread, smoked salmon, skyr, local cheese, and eggs. Eat well in the morning and the day’s budget takes care of itself.
Zero tolerance for drink-driving: Iceland operates a strict zero-tolerance policy on alcohol and driving. Plan brewery and restaurant visits with overnight stays or designated drivers, and take it seriously.
Book ahead in Reykjavík: The top Reykjavík restaurants fill up weeks in advance in summer. If a specific restaurant matters to your trip, book before you leave home.
Eat Like You Mean It
Icelandic food rewards curiosity. The visitors who eat best in Iceland are not the ones with the biggest budgets — they are the ones who stop at the farm with a hand-painted sign, order the soup of the day in the small-town restaurant, ask the fisherman what he recommends, and say yes to the bowl of skyr and the plate of harðfiskur when it appears on the table.
This is a country that has been feeding itself from the same extraordinary natural larder for over a thousand years. Every meal you eat here has that history behind it.
At Ice Land Paradise Tours, we know where the best food is — from Reykjavík to the most remote farmhouse on the Ring Road. Ask us, and we will point you in the right direction.
Verði þér að góðu — bon appétit.