Matur og drykkur

Fantastic dinner in one of Iceland's best restaurants

When we were in Reykjavík during the autumn holidays in 2016, I fulfilled a big, long-held dream: we reserved a table for the evening in the restaurant "Matur og Drykkur". The food was absolutely brilliant and definitely a highlight, if not THE highlight, of my Iceland vacation this time!

I first came across the restaurant in March 2016 - on the Vox cooking show "Kitchen Impossible". As a result, the Berlin star chef Tim Raue was sent to Iceland by Tim Mälzer, to the very same restaurant with the Icelandic top chef Gísli Matthías Auðunss on. Gísli Matt actually comes from Vestmannaeyjar, the Westman Islands, and also works in the family restaurant “Slipurinn” in Heimaey during the season. In January 2015 he opened the "Matur og Drykkur" in Reykjavík with friends, ...

...in a former factory building built in 1924 near the harbor, which housed a saltfish factory until the 1960s. Today the building houses the Saga Museum (also highly recommended, I think!) and now also the restaurant.

The restaurant takes its name from the matarbiblía okkar Íslendinga , i.e. the "food bible of the Icelanders", the cookbook "Matur og Drykkur" ("Food and Drink") by Helga Siguðardóttir, which was originally published in 1946 (by the way, the cookbook was published in its old form in 2009 reissued - yay!).

Since the restaurant is in high demand, we reserved a table for two people online. Luckily, because it was really well attended - guests who came spontaneously were unfortunately unable to get a seat, but they were very kindly given a card so that they can reserve a table for their next visit.

The evening menu includes a few individual main courses and desserts, or you can opt for a 4-course meal. The menu was available in three variations, one “typical Icelandic”, one with fish and seafood and one vegetarian. The menus each cost 9,990 ISK, the equivalent of just under €80. Alternatively, you could have ordered drinks to go with the dishes, for an additional 7,990 ISK (a good €60).

We chose the seafood menu (without drinks) - and it was absolutely worth it!!!

By the end of the evening we were extremely full in an incredibly pleasant way. The “Matur og drykkur” was currently named the 8th best restaurant in Iceland by the “White Guide Nordic” in October 2016. I can really only recommend the food!!!

1st course

2nd course

3rd course

4th course





[Translated from here.]