The taste of the east
May contain traces of advertisement.*
In May 2019, in the oldest residential house of Egilsstaðir, called "Nielsenshús", a new restaurant opened: Nielsen restaurant.
The name goes back to the Danish man Oswald Nielsen, who build the house in 1944 and lived here together with his Icelandic wife and his family. Some photographs and old tools remind of Oswald Nielsen, for example a self-made hammer, which he used, when he built the house, and which his daughter surrendered to the restaurant.Even though the house is the oldest residential house of Egilsstaðir, it is only 75 years old. The whole town is quite young. Before, there was only a farmhouse here at Lagarfljót river. Only in 1944 further houses were build. Not until 1987, Egilsstaðir was awarded with town status. Today about 2,500 people live in Egilsstaðir.
After Nielsen family moed out of the house, it was used for many different purposes, most recently as a café, until Kári Þorsteinsson and his partner Sólveig Bernadóttir opened their restaurant.
Sólveig was born and raised in Egilsstaðir. Kári is from the Westfjords. He is a very renowned chef in Iceland. After having worked in London (in the star-rated restaurant Texture) and in Copenhagen (in the famous restaurant Noma) he was head chef in Kol restaurant in Reykjavík. In 2018 he was head chef in Iceland's only star-decorated restaurant Dill, where he managed to defend the Michelin star of his predecessor.
When Sólveig and Kári expected a baby, they decided to move to the country side, away from the hustle and bustle of Reykjavík to Sólveig's home town Egilsstaðir.
Nielsen restaurant is focused on the taste of East Iceland. The dishes are based on local and seasonal ingredients. These are harvested at their maximum of taste and then either used fresh or preserved - pickeled, boiled, salted, dried, ...
To offer best products, the menu of Nielsen is small and changes depending on the availability of ingredients. The ingredients originate from Iceland, even from East Iceland, if ever possible. Many of them come from Vallanes, the organic farm south of Egilsstaðir, which's products are sold in Iceland under the well-known "Móðir Jörð" label - "Mother Earth". Cheese and skyr are delivered by another farm in Egilsstaðir. But the icecream for the dessert, which is made from organic milk, is not from the nearer surroundungs, but from a very special icecream manufacturing in Reykjavík. Later more about this.
The dinner menu offers three appetiziers, four main dishes and three desserts - and a three-course meal.
In July 2019 we had been travelling through East Iceland, and for one Monday evening we got an invitation from Sólveig and Kári to try out dinner in their restaurant. Even though it was quite early at 6 p.m. on a working day, the restaurant was well attended. (It was hard to take a photo of my husband during dinner without getting other guests into the picture.)
To try out as many different dishes as possible, my husband decided upon the three-course menu, while I chose an appetizer and one of the main dishes. During the meal, Sólveig cared for us, explained every dish in detail to us and guided us lovingly through the dinner.
Sólveig told us, that Kári had hunted the raindeer by himself and that he had collected the moss by himself, too. (Unfortunately we couldn't meet Kári, since he was at home taking care of his 7 months old son. A man, who not only cooks, hunts and collects herbs, but who is in addition a dedicated father - what a dream man!)
This is the appetizer of the three-courses menu: Barley-risotto, cooked in skyr, with cheese, shallots and arugula. My first encounter with pearl barley was in the 80s in a food-food restaurant in Hungary - and that was traumatic. But that barley had nothing to do with the barley-risotto we got here. It was wonderfully creamy and smooth, just as a risotto should be. Simply perfect. (What a luck, in the morning I had bought of flour on Vallanes. I have to try to reproduce this risotto at least rudimentarily.)
The main course of the menu was lamb prime with potatoes, kohlrabi, vegetable puree and oil with garlic chives. It tasted great. The lamb was beutifully soft. The vegeatable puree with the oil was a pleasure.
As third course of the menu we got for dessert milk ice cream on chocolate with salted caramel and larch needles. The chocolate was intensive in tast, not too sweet, rather aromatic. While eating, from time to time you meet a crispy flake of salt or some of the fine larch needles. The milk ice cream comes from SKÚBB, Sólveig told us, a small icecream manufacturing in Reykjavík. It is made from organic milk. (We decide to visit SKÚBB, when we come to the capital city, and to try the ice there once again.)
After our dinner Sólveig offered us a little surprise. They were working on a new dessert, and we should try a small sample of it. Lupin sorbet with basil oil. According to Sólveig, the test eaters either love or hate it, but nothing inbetween. Hence they were thinking about making it milder in taste. But for us it's just right the way it is. An explosion of taste, slighly sweet, very intense, and breath-taking fresh. We wouldn't have been able to eat much of it. But these few spoonfuls were a grand closure of a really great dinner!
Finally Sólveig guided us through the restaurant. The main dinner room, where we had sat, is in the second floor. They have further tables in the newly renovated first floor, ...
... where we could admire another one of Kári´s activities: He experiments with different methods for preserving foodstuffs. And so she showed us jars with dried fruits, with herbs pickled in vinegar, in sugar or is salt. These will become ingredients vor Nielsen's winter cuisine!
But Kári's experiment with Jerusalem artichokes had failed, Sólveig told. The plants, which usually grow up to 2 meters, had only become knee-high. Reason was not the short Icelandic summer, but the long lasting days. The plants need some hours of darkness every night to grow. And that's something you don't have during the Icelandic summer.
Nielsen restaurant has a large terrace to eat outside, when the weather is fine. Unfortunately the weather in Egilsstaðir had not been so good during this summer. So they couldn't serve food outside very often. Furthermore, in the garden there is a party tent for achelor parties and similar events.
We had an absolutely great evening at Nielsen restaurant. Fantastic food! And Sólveig introduced as wonderfully into the tastes of East Iceland. We're thrilled about this restautrant and will definitely come back, when we're in Egilsstaðir next time.
Once again thank you very much, Sólveig and Kári, for this fantastic experience!
Overview:
Nielsen restaurant opens daily from 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.. It offers lunch, coffee and waffles and dinner. On weekends brunch they serve brunch.
The lunch menu changes every day, since most of the guests around noon are employees in their lunch break and come regularly. Here a huge variety is more important than serving food typical for East Iceland. Hence the lunch menu is more general than the dinner menu.
For dinner three appetizers, four main dishes and three dessert are offered. The appetizers cost around 2,500 ISK (18 €, 22 $). Main dishes are at about 3,800 ISK (27 €, 30 $) and desserts at about 1500 ISK (11 €, 12 $).
For 6,990 ISK (50 €, 55 $) you can get the three-courses menu consisting of a certain appetizer, main course and dessert.
* 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.