Of course – or maybe – you want to try some of the country's specialties in Iceland. Of course, there is a lot of fish, when you are surrounded by the sea. If you like that, then you are in the right place at fish restaurant Messinn, a somewhat messy, cozy hut with large wooden tables and nautical paraphernalia such as model boats, lifebuoys, nets and old-fashioned sailor-tattoo drawings on the wall. Messinn is famous for its one-pot dishes with fish. Try plokkfishur, a cod and potato stew – here served with a sprig of exotic rocket for colour. This is Icelandic comfort food and according to the islanders, everyone puts their own spin on it, but the one from mother’s house is always the best – or this one from Messinn. You eat it with local rye bread, which is on the sweet side, like, er, gingerbread. You can also leave it out, it’s filling enough. Also delicious: arctic char, or migratory salmon, a salmonid that is fresher and less fatty than regular salmon.

Messinn

 In the middle of the trendy harbour district of Grandi is Matur og Drykkur, a restaurant with modern Icelandic dishes that is named after an old cookbook. It goes like this: Matur og Drykkur likes to cook from those traditional cookbooks and writings, to give them a modern twist. spin moves to indicate. What that yields, you can taste in a ten-course menu – so leave those tight pants at home. The menu sways with the seasons, but you have a few certainties, namely that there is fish and lamb on the menu, seasoned with local Icelandic herbs. Pleasant place with a slightly lighter interior than many other places here: greige walls, slender Thonet chairs, floor of washed concrete. Nice long seats, good for an evening-filling program.

Mature and Drykkur

Bakery and lunchroom during the day, but in the evening they serve the best sourdough pizzas in town. Lots of wine by the glass, nice to keep the costs under control. Early in the evening lots of families with children - because pizza, yay! - later in the evening lots of hip students and city ​​dwellers. Housed in a cute Scandinavian wooden house, which gets its atmosphere inside through wooden poles, curved wooden Thonet chairs, low brick walls and a white painted beamed ceiling. Not fancy, pleasantly casual and always busy – so cozy.

Baka Baka

Monkey's may not be the best restaurant we've been to in Iceland, they lack that little bit of finesse. But a fun evening? Guaranteed. There's an old train carriage right in the middle of the place. The Champagne Train, they call it. It has to be in a carriage, we told you you're going to have fun here anyway.

The cuisine? Nikkei. A mix of Japanese and Peruvian, created when Japanese immigrants settled in Peru in the 19th century. Think: raw fish, spicy sauces, lots of flavor. A bit like OTO, but a bit less refined.

The cocktails make up for a lot. The food is also delicious, but huge portions. And they are very generous with the mayo and balsamic.

Monkey's

Valdis Minus twenty degrees or not, Icelanders love ice cream. The best shop in town is the pastel-coloured Valdis, with two branches: a tent by the harbour and one a bit more in the centre. You know blue Smurf ice cream, that's nothing special, but definitely try the rye bread-ice cream, vanilla ice cream made with Icelandic rye bread. Don't think of those pitch-black, wet Bolletje slices that we know here as rye bread, but of a firm dark brown bread that is sweetened with lots of brown sugar, so it looks a lot like gingerbread. And then ice cream made from that. Or choose Danish licorice ice cream, also a special sensation. A scoop is already plenty of ice cream. Always busy.

Valdis