Sjávarbarinn

The sea bar and its TV chef

Maggi mostlyari hefur matreitt sense síðasta fisk. Master Maggi has cooked his last fish. In November 2019, the Icelandic chef, television chef and journalist Magnús Ingi Magnússon died unexpectedly at the age of 59. The Sjávabarinn restaurant was closed.

We had dinner with him in the summer of 2018:

May contain traces of advertisment.*

"Sjávar-" means "sea" and "barinn" means "the bar", so the "Sjávarbarinn" is "the sea bar". From the outside the place looks rather inconspicuous, and when I walked past it the first few times , I did notice the beautiful fish pictures in the window, but otherwise I thought it was just some inconspicuous fast food joint.

The “Sjávarbarinn” also looks relatively unspectacular from the inside. Sure, nice fish pictures, lovingly hung and framed, and nice food pictures above the counter - definitely nice food pictures. But overall it seems more like a “fast food restaurant” than a “fish restaurant”. Practical and functional. The food is also available to take away.

The restaurant is a family business run by chef Magnús Ingi Magnússon and his wife Analisa Montecello. You can also order from a menu here, but many guests opt for the buffet - we did too, on the recommendation of the hotel.

The buffet is neat and solid, the fish is fresh from the harbor, which is only a few hundred meters away, and which you buy directly from the nets without any middlemen. At lunchtime it is mainly the Icelanders who work in the district and at the harbor who come here and who appreciate the authentic everyday Icelandic cuisine here. Groups of tourists often come too. And many tourists who were there with a group at the beginning of their tour come back alone at the end of their trip, Magnús told us very proudly.

When we were there for dinner, the cold dishes included various salads (e.g. coleslaw, salad with celery and apples or mixed salad), various marinated fish and pickled herrings. There was also bread with lamb pate, breaded meat bites... and a very special, typically Icelandic fish snack. But I'll get to that below!

There was also herb baguette - and the typical Icelandic Rúgbrauð, this slightly sweet, sticky rye bread that is baked in hot lava in some corners of Iceland. Since this is not possible in Reykjavík, Magnús puts his bread in the oven at a low temperature for 12 hours. Yes I know that!

The warm dishes included the "fish of the day", curry fish, the typical Icelandic plokkfiskur ("pounded fish") and fish cakes ("fiskibollur"), with potatoes and vegetables as side dishes. There was also a large pot of lamb stew in the sea bar.

Magnús, the chef, told us that his customers at Plokkfiskur and Fiskibollur don't take a joke - the Icelanders like their pounded fish and fish balls just the way they learned them from their grandma as a child, so nothing can be changed. So he offers these dishes exactly the same to his guests.

In any case, we ate our fill in a very pleasant way!

The absolute highlight of the meal for us was the seafood soup. They come with the buffet, in a decent-sized pot in which the soup simmers and when a hungry soul comes, they get a nice, hot cup of soup straight away. And this soup tastes absolutely amazing, hardly anything can compete with it!

Definitely one of the best soups I've ever tasted!

A very special highlight of this restaurant visit was the surprising realization that I "knew" the chef and owner of Sjávarbarinn - at least his cookbooks. I had already come across his cookbook "Eldhúsið okkar - íslensku hversdagskræsingarnar" ("Our kitchen - Icelandic everyday delicacies") a few years ago and spontaneously fell in love with this cookbook and its down-to-earth, typically Icelandic recipes.

In his restaurant, Magnús Ingi also sells the English version of his kitchen book: "Our kitchen. Icelandic home cooking". We were given a copy - and a copy of his DVD "Eldhús Meistaranna". Magnús Ingi is a well-known television chef in Iceland who accompanies other master chefs and presents their work in various well-known restaurants in Iceland on the show. With recipes to cook.

Source: Eldhús Meistaranna

His own restaurant and his work are of course also presented on the DVD - and it also explains how the popular Icelandic snack that we had previously tried at the buffet is made:

When filleting the fish, the skin is carefully removed and cut into thin strips. Then the skin is rolled in flour and fried in hot fat. Then you let it cool and dry and then eat it as a snack in between.

Source: Eldhús Meistaranna

So if you come to Sjávarbarinn, you definitely have to try this typical Icelandic snack at the buffet!

For me, our visit to Magnús Ingi at Sjávarbarinn was once again a special highlight because it was really about exactly what is my absolute favorite topic: Icelandic cooking. Very practical and tangible and authentic and suitable for everyday use.

I was just happy!

At a glance:

In the "Sjávarbarinn" you will find down-to-earth Icelandic cuisine, high-quality fresh fish at reasonable prices - by Icelandic standards.

The lunch buffet with soup, salad bar and cold dishes costs 2,390 ISK per person (as of June 2018: approx. 18 €), the evening buffet with warm dishes including soup and salad bar and the freshly baked typical Icelandic rye bread costs 3,900 ISK per person (approx. 31 €). The seafood soup alone costs 1,690 ISK (around €13.50).

The "Seafood Gourmet Menu" costs 6,300 ISK per person, a good €50, but - in addition to the normal buffet - it also includes 120 g langoustine tails in garlic butter and a copy of the cookbook "Our Kitchen".

The "Sjávarbarinn" is open daily from 11 a.m. to 10 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.]