Þrír Frakkar hjá Úlfari

"3 coats at Úlfar"

May contain traces of advertisement.*

On the first evening of our gourmet weekend in Reykjavík we were invited to Þrír Frakkar. The restaurant is located on Baldursgata, less than 500 meters from Hallgrímskirkja. "Þrír Frakkar" means "3 coats" - but unfortunately I don't know why the place is called that. I should have asked...

The restaurant has been run by chef Úlfar Eysteinsson and his family for almost 30 years.

I first noticed it on a German television program when there was a report about the restaurant and the good, typical Icelandic food there, and shortly afterwards when we had a holiday apartment two streets away and passed Þrír Frakkar, I recognized it with joy.

When we arrived at 7 p.m. as agreed, the dining room was still quite empty, but then it quickly became full. Later, guests had to be put off because there were no more free seats, but they really tried to do whatever was possible and the staff remained very nice, friendly and committed even in the most hustle and bustle. Overall, there were a lot of tourists there, but also locals.

When eating, we were advised by the very friendly, very cheerful waitress, who found almost everything particularly tasty, but ultimately recommended two fish dishes to us.

As is often the case in Iceland, the starter was fresh bread with butter.

My husband then decided on " grillsteikt þorskflök á mildri sinnepssósu ", i.e. grilled cod fillet in a mild mustard sauce. The waitress recommended the dish to us because of the mustard sauce with three different types of mustard (white, brown and black mustard). And she was right - we've never had such a good mustard sauce before, it was absolutely amazing! The cod was very nice too - but the sauce was really brilliant.

I chose " pönnusteikt fersk skata með rjómalagaðri sítrónu dill sósu", i.e. pan-fried fresh skate in creamy lemon-dill sauce .

Icelanders usually eat their stingray fermented at Christmas as “kæst skata”. This is fermented rotten ray with rendered kneaded fat that you hang out until it gets blue hair. An absolutely intense olfactory experience, to put it that way.

It was actually the first time I saw fresh rays on the menu at Þrír Frakkar - and then I really wanted to try them. And I have to say - when fresh, rays taste incredibly delicious. The sauce with it was nice, but comparatively "harmless", but the fish was a real poem and definitely recommended, I think.

We were actually quite full after the main course, but we were so pleased with the dessert menu that we shared a portion of Skyr Brulée . It tasted very tasty, especially with the fruit sauces on the side.

Afterwards we were really full in a very pleasant way.

At a glance:

The menu is truly "typically Icelandic", just as you would expect: starters include hákarl, grilled whale meat and smoked puffins. The main courses are dominated by fish and seafood (e.g. char, cod, halibut or wolffish), but there is also horse meat, auks, whale meat and lamb.

When we were there, a starter cost on average around 2,350 ISK (just under €19) and a main course cost on average around 5,100 ISK, the equivalent of around €40 (as of June 2018). The dessert cost an average of 1,380 ISK, just under €11.

Þrír Frakkar is normally open during the week for lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 2:20 p.m. and in the evenings from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.; on weekends the restaurant is only open in the evenings from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m.

* Legal notice:

Formally this article can be graded as advertisement, since we had been invited for the meal. Anyhow, we have chosen only restaurants, which we had heard good things about and which we estimated as interesting. Accordingly we're really delighted, and if we fall into words of praise, these are meant honestly.


[Translated from here.]