Tjöruhúsið in Ísafjörður

Lunch in the “Tar House”

Neðstakaupstaður

The town of Ísafjörður can trace its settlement history back to the year 920 thanks to the accounts in the land acquisition book. The first settler was the Norwegian Helgi Hrólfsson, who came to Iceland to meet his father Hrólfur Helgason (the father had abandoned the family and emigrated to Iceland before Helgi was born). Hrólfur lived with his new family near Akureyrei and his son's reception was a bit bumpy, so Helgi wanted to return to Norway quickly. During the winter storms he had to go ashore in the area of ​​today's Ísafjörður and then settled here.

Due to the town's favorable location on a sandbank in the fjord with a sheltered harbor for landing, a commercial center developed here. In the 16th century, German and English companies founded their branches here, and the Hansa was present here. In the years from 1760 to 1780, the first large trading center was built, the so-called "Neðstakaupstaður", the "Lower Trading Center". The four houses that still exist today represent the oldest surviving settlement center on Iceland.

Two of the houses now serve as residential buildings. The local history and fishing museum is now housed in the tower house ("turnhús"), a former warehouse. And in the former tar house ("tjöruhús"), where the tarring work on the ships was carried out, the fish restaurant "Tjöruhúsið" is now located.

On the left the museum building, on the right the red house is "Tjöruhúsið"

In the evening you actually have to reserve a table, but at lunchtime we were lucky and got a place. It was well attended, but not packed - although it was also during the week and there was no cruise ship that day. The audience consisted largely of locals and Icelandic tourists.

At Tjöruhúsið there is only fish - either fish soup with bread or the fish buffet. This also includes fish soup, as well as salads and a range of warm dishes, which are always placed fresh from the kitchen on the counter in large, cast-iron pans.

The contents of the pans smelled really good and the cook who put out the new pans obviously liked the food after trying it out.

Here's an overview of the cold dishes at the lunch buffet - in the background you can see the large pot with the hot fish soup.

We didn't choose the buffet, just the fish soup. At around 2,000 ISK (as of July 2018 - the equivalent of around €16), it's not exactly cheap, even by Icelandic standards. There is also bread and butter, all self-service.

By the way, my husband has discovered that he sometimes even likes seafood soups with crabs better than pure fish soups - and I had to laboriously "get him used to" crabs and similar sea creatures. But apparently successful!

If you like, you can also have a coffee after your meal.

The fish soup was really nice and if you're in Ísafjörður, it's definitely worth stopping by spontaneously at lunchtime (or in the evening with a reservation). The restaurant with its rustic decor is definitely charming and the fish soup is delicious.

[Translated from here.]