The Icelandic cookbook

This is possibly the most interesting and probably the most original place in Reykjavik today.

Using recipes from and letting themselves be inspired by the great icelandic cookbook “MATUR OG DRYKKUR” by Helga Sigurðardóttir, our most beloved mother superior of whatever might actually be called Icelandic culinary tradition. The sheer genious and guts of taking your grandmothers favourite cookbook, the same one that your parents probably learned to cook from and turning it into probably the best concept restaurant in town, is just awe-inspiring.

It takes about five minutes to walk from Reykjavik harbour to Matur og drykkur which has a great view of the bay and is right next to game giants CCP (Eve Online) headquarters and on the way to The Whales of Iceland exhibition.

What struck me as I sailed through the absolutely great tasting menu we had was that the food itself was actually better than what the menu promised. The great use of fresh local ingredients and in most cases a rare faithfullness to the original recipes left me quite satisfied. The menu offers a variety of interesting dishes and it is well worth asking the staff what is what just to be sure. Everything I had there was perfectly executed to my taste and in some cases brought forth memories of days gone by and the simple settings matched really well. The open kitchen and good selection of local brew is also to the point, and check out what the chefs are doing if you can. My absolute recommendation is that you do one of their special menus and fear not the cod´s head, it is absolutely what it should be..

This is a place to go to for something really Icelandic.
Hats off to chef Gísli!