The Food Cellar
May contain traces of advertisement.*
"Matarkjallarinn", the "Food Cellar", is a quality grill and cocktailbar with pleasant atmosphere in the heat of Reykjavík, just around the corner from Ingólfstorg plaza in the callar of a 160 years old building.
Here you get "food in your body and music in your soul", that's the restaurant's selfconcetion. The kitchen provides culinary art based on icelandic ingredients. Furthermore "Matarkjallarinn" owns a mahogany grand piano made in 1880 in Vienna by the Bösendorfer Company, and you can listen to live music every evening.
The evening we spent in "Matarkjallarinn" took place under the headng "Upplifðu Ísland - Discover Iceland".
Appetizer - Nýbakaðar pretzels með rjómaost
We started the evening with a little basket with two warm half pretzels served with cream cheese. (Not part of the menu, but an appetizer for all dinner guests.) A taste of garlic and herbs. For us, as Germans, this was a bit surprising. We know pretzels with cream cheese as a traditional Bavarian dish and hadn't expected to get it here in Iceland. But it was delicious anyhow. And, in fact, pretzels become more and more popular in Iceland, too.
1st course - Hægeldaður Þorskur
As first course we got slow-cooked cod with crusty strips of smoked lamb (Icelandic "hangikjöt"), almonds and langoustine hollondaise. This course was absolutely great. The combination of beautifully soft fish, the creamy sauce and the crunchy slices of lamb served with fresh herbs - this combination of different textures was my personal highlight.
2nd course - Grafin Gæs
The second course were smoked goose with pecan nuts, goat cheese, singapore sling sorbet and cherries. (I had to google what "singapore sling" is and asked the waiter, whether it is with alcohol. It is not.)
The goose was very delicious. The goat cheese was great and had an intense taste. Crunchy nuts and icy cold sorbet. Here we had not only the contrast of different textures, but also of hot and cold. It was sweet and fruity. I could not have eaten much more of it. But it was tasty and interesting.
3rd course - Steikt Lambafille
The main course to become fully sated consisted of fried fillet from the shoulder of lamb, grilled celery, onions and potato salad. Both pieces of lamb were extremely tasty and wonderfully tender. Absolutely perfect!
Only the potato salad was a bit too heavy and rich, for my taste.
But I liked very much the taste of the grilled celery, even though I'm normally not a great fan of celery.
4th course - Hjónabandssæka
Finally, for dessert, we got the traditional Icelandic "happy marriage cake" consisting of oat flake crumbles, marmalade and little pieces of marzipan. It was served freshly baked and warm in cast-iron pans and topped with ball of vanilla ice cream.
A mixture of warm and cold, crispy and creamy. And it was a really large portion. So we ended completely filled.
These are the moments, in which I love to be a food blogger!
Overview:
The restaurant opens for lunch on Mondays to Fridays from 11:30 to 14:30, for dinner on every day from 17:00 to 23:00.
Dinner menu:
The 4-courses menu "Discover Iceland" costs 9700 ISK per person (June 2019, about 68 €, 78 $), with wine 17500 ISK (about 123 €, 140 $). The three-courses menu "Haf og Hagi" (= "surf and turf") costs 8900 ISK (about 63 €, 71 $). The trhee-courses seafood menu costs without drinks 7900 ISK (about 56 €, 63 $), sme as the vegan four-courses menu.
The six-courses "Food Cellar's Secret Menue" ("Leyndarmál Matarkjallarans"), a chef's choice surprise menu, is the premium meal for 10900 ISK (about 77 €, 87 $) per person. It's only served for the whole table.
Of course, you can order not only menus, but also single dishes á la carte. Starters and small dishes are available for 2290 to 3390 ISK (16-24 €, 18-27 $). Main dishes reach from 4190 ISK (30 €, 34 $) for glazed butternut squash with polenta to 8490 ISK (60 €, 68 $) for a large portion of Icelandic langoustine with garlic, butter and parsley.
Desserts are available for about 2200 ISK (about 15 €, 18 $).
All dishes served on the tables around us looked really great and delicious!
* 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. Accordingly we're really delighted, and if we fall into words of praise, these are meant honestly.