Icelandic Food: What to Order and How to Plan Your Meals

A few useful names on the menu

Plokkfiskur is a fish-and-potato dish; kjötsúpa is lamb soup. Hangikjöt means smoked lamb, often served sliced. These are useful names to recognise when you want a substantial meal rather than a tasting challenge.

Skyr is cultured dairy. Harðfiskur is dried fish, often eaten with butter. Rúgbrauð is dense rye bread; some producers bake it with geothermal heat, but that method is not a definition of every loaf.

Hákarl is fermented shark. Try it if the food’s history interests you, rather than treating it as a compulsory test of being a visitor. Ask what comes with a tasting portion before ordering.

Visit Reykjavík’s guide to exploring at your own pace includes plokkfiskur, skyr and Icelandic pancakes among its food suggestions. Use an actual restaurant menu for ingredients, portions and dietary suitability.

A hot-dog stop or a booked food experience?

Bæjarins Beztu lists its Tryggvagata stand as operating since 1937 and publishes separate hours for each branch. Navigate to the branch you intend to visit; the hours for a 24-hour location do not apply to every stand. Ask about the sausage, bun and sauces if you avoid particular ingredients.

At Laugarvatn Fontana’s geothermal bakery, the bread has cooked underground for 24 hours before the tasting. That is the baking time, not the visitor’s tour duration. As checked September 10, 2026, the operator lists adult admission at 3,500 ISK and departures at 10:15, 11:45 and 14:30 in summer; October through May drops the first departure. Check the booking calendar before fitting it into a Golden Circle day.

Choose a special dinner by the whole booking

For a tasting-menu evening, compare the menu, dietary accommodation, drinks, cancellation deadline and transport back to your accommodation. A headline menu price can exclude the pairing or other choices you will make at the table.

The MICHELIN Guide’s Iceland selection includes DILL, ÓX and Moss among its listed restaurants. Check the individual listing for its current distinction and the restaurant for reservations. This replaces the outdated claim that DILL is Iceland’s only Michelin-starred restaurant.

Keep a destination dinner separate from a long driving day. If the restaurant is the main event, arrive in its area with enough time to check in and change without racing the last sightseeing stop.

Compare meals with meals

Use the same basket when budgeting: main course or full menu, drink, coffee and any extras. Compare a supermarket shop with the number of meals it actually supplies, including whether your accommodation has a kitchen and refrigerator.

For each overnight stop, save one dinner option and its last food-service time. A café’s closing time may be later than its kitchen’s. Keep a simple grocery meal available when a rural arrival could run late.

This is more useful than applying a country-wide restaurant price or claiming one supermarket is always the cheapest. Use current menus and shelf prices in ISK, then convert the total once if you need another currency.

Dietary needs need an ingredient check

Vegetarian does not mean vegan: skyr contains milk, and bread or sauces may contain dairy or eggs. Fish and lamb dishes may use stocks, butter or wheat. Ask the venue about the actual preparation and any cross-contact concern before relying on a dish’s familiar name.

For a tasting menu, get any required adaptation agreed when booking. For a road trip, identify suitable food near each overnight stop before departure; an unspecified promise of vegetarian food somewhere in town is not a meal plan.

Use the cold drinking-water supply where provided and follow local notices. Veitur describes the capital region’s groundwater supply; that does not justify this page’s former blanket assurance about hot tap water or untreated streams.