Einarshúsið

Visiting Bolungarvík - Dining at the End of the World

May contain traces of advertisement.*

During our summer vacation we spent some days in Ísafjörður. At one of these days we visited the neighbouring village of Bolungarvík. The village with its about 900 inhabitants is located at the western end of Ísarfjarðardjúp fjord - and that is in fact a kind of end of the world. The street does not end in Bolungarvík, but it only leads to a radar station on top of Bolafjall mountain and to a few abandoned farms. We visited Bolafjall mountain and enjoyed the great view from there, and we also visited the fishery museum Ósvör in Bolungarvík.

From the snowslide protective wall you have a great view over Bolungarvík.

The harbour of Bolungarvík was quite busy, when we arrived there in the early evening. Goods were loaded, lots of fish were landed.

Directly at the harbour there is "Einarshúsið", a hotel and restaurant, which furthermore occasionally offers cultural events like musical performances or games evenings.

When we arrived, the restaurant was completely empty. 6 p.m. seems to be quite early for a dinner in Iceland. After calling, a waitress came and welcomed us friendly.

View into the hotel's breakfast room

The restaurant's interior is nicely arranged. There are lots of historic family photos printed on perspex. The wooden walls painted in turquois gave me a feeling of being at home.

Food blogger at work

For drinking my husband chose "Engiferöl", ginger beer. We don't know it from Germany. But in Iceland it is nothing unusual. It's not an alcoholoic beer, but a non-alcoholic lemonade with the pungent taste of ginger. (There was no beer or wine offered on the drinks menu.)

For our meal we selected for one thing a hamburger and secondly the fish of the day, two very common dishes for Iceland. The menu was in Icelandic language only, but the waitress translated it for us - even though our Icelandic is meanwhile good enough to read a menu.

The hamburger named "Víkarinn" contained a fried egg, cucumber, tomato, bacon and Bernaise sauce. It was served with french fries ("franskar kartöflur") and a bowl of ready-made cocktail sauce.

The "Fish of the Day" was cod, the waitress explained to us. They get it every day fresh from the harbour. It was served with fresh salad and potatoes. The salad was fine - with pieces of orange, which gave it a fruity taste. The sauce also had a slightly fruity note.

All in all, the food we had in Einarshúsið was plain cooking in the Icelandic way. Hamburger with french fries - a take-over from America, which meanwhile is very common in Icelandic cuisine. Fresh fish - of course, unavoidable in the fishing nation of Iceland.

Overview:

The menu of Einarshúsið is relativela short. You can choose between hamburger with french fries, the soup of the day with homemade bread (each of them for 1950 ISK, approx. 15.60 €, 18.30 $) , a vegan dish of the day (2900 ISK, approx. 23 €, 27.30 $) and the fish of the day (3900 ISK, approx. 31 €, 36.70 $).

For children they offer baked toast or nuggets, both served with french fries for 1390 ISK (approx. 11 €, 13 $), a smaller portion of the fish of the day for 1490 ISK (approx. 12 €, 14 $) or just simply french fries with cocktail sauce for 500 ISK (approx. 4 €, 4.70 $). 

Under the heading "Eitthvað sæt" (= "Somethind sweet") you find a piece of cake or waffles with ice cream, each for 890 ISK (approx. 7.10 €, 8.40 $).

Soft drinks, ginger beer and hot drinks cost between 350 and 450 ISK (approx. 2,80 - 3,60 €, 3.30 - 4.20 $). 

* Legal note: 

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. If we fall into words of praise, these are meant honestly.

[Translated from here.]