Reykjavik eats small and eats seriously. The 101 postcode covers maybe a square kilometre of downtown, and a serious cook can walk between most of the kitchens on this list in under fifteen minutes, from the harbour edge at 2 Austurbakki to the top of Skólavörðustígur. What that compression produces is a scene where a Thai kitchen, a Basque tapas room, an Icelandic seafood grill and a wood-fired pizzeria compete for the same short winter evening, and where the honest restaurants pull ahead by cooking one thing well rather than everything passably. The twelve rooms below were chosen for that discipline. You will find a fine-dining counter at 2 Austurbakki that serves three distinct services a day, a vegan kitchen at 2 Aðalstræti closed Mondays, and two very different addresses trading as one at 2 Bankastræti. This is a list for a traveller with three or four dinners in Reykjavik and no interest in wasting one.
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1 Mama Reykjavik
2 Bankastræti, Reykjavík, 101A pan-Asian kitchen that runs an eleven-hour service without breaking for the afternoon lull
From 11:30 straight through to 21:00, seven days a week, the kitchen at 2 Bankastræti runs Mama Reykjavik as one unbroken shift, which is a rarer thing in this city than the hours suggest. The locals eat here at the awkward hours: 15:00 after a museum, 20:30 before a film. The menu reaches from Thai to Indian to sandwiches and finishes at chocolate and dessert, which sounds unfocused until you notice that each corner is cooked by someone who likes cooking it. Skip the mid-Laugavegur tourist canteens promising the same range; this room delivers it. Book by phone at +354 7666262 if you are more than three; the site at mama.is/restaurant takes the rest.
- asian
- thai
- indian
- sandwich
- chocolate
- dessert
Hours: Mo-Su 11:30-21:00
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2 BakaBaka
2 Bankastræti, Reykjavík, 101, ISA dedicated pizza kitchen that opens with the breakfast crowd and closes with the dinner one
By 07:30 the ovens at 2 Bankastræti are already on, which tells you what BakaBaka is: a pizza kitchen that decided the city needed dough at breakfast as much as at dinner. Service runs 07:30 to 17:00, then 17:30 to 21:00, with a deliberate half-hour gap that lets the room reset between the daytime bakery trade and the evening pie service. The locals know to arrive at 07:45 or 18:00 and to accept the shape of the queue between. This is a pizza-only kitchen, which is the honest thing to be at this address; don't bother with the tourist places three blocks up trying to do six cuisines badly. The phone is +354 551 4430, the site bakabaka.is.
- pizza
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3 Torfan veitingahús
1 Amtmannsstígur, Reykjavík, 101A regional Icelandic kitchen that closes on Mondays and half-opens on Tuesdays, on purpose
The door at 1 Amtmannsstígur stays shut on Mondays, opens for dinner only on Tuesdays from 17:00 to 22:00, and runs the full Wednesday-through-Sunday service from 11:30 to 22:00. That shape is Torfan veitingahús telling you what it thinks of Mondays in Reykjavik, and it is right. The cooking is regional, meaning Icelandic in the older sense: what the country eats when nobody is trying to impress a cruise ship. Skip the harbour-front rooms trading on the same idea for twice the price. Book at torfan.is or +354 546 6900. The dining room is set above the street on the slope up to the pond, which is the sort of detail a first visit misses and a second one plans around.
- regional
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4 Neó
17 Geirsgata, Reykjavík, 101A harbour-side pizzeria with a longer weekend service and a phone that gets answered
Neó sits at 17 Geirsgata, which puts it on the working edge of the old harbour rather than in the tourist grid, and the difference shows in who is eating there at 12:30 on a Wednesday. The kitchen opens Sunday to Thursday from 11:30 to 21:00 and stretches to 22:00 on Friday and Saturday, which is exactly the extra hour a Reykjavik weekend needs. Pizza is the whole point; the menu does not pretend otherwise. The locals head here rather than the identikit chains up on Laugavegur, and they book: +354 588 2066 or the site at neopizza.is. Ask for a table by the window if the wind is up; the harbour under sideways rain is one of the honest sights of the city.
- pizza
Hours: Su-Th 11:30-21:00; Fr-Sa 11:30-22:00
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5 101 Bistro
3 Austurstræti, Reykjavík, 101, ISA Mediterranean and Turkish kitchen on the main square with the longest daily service in this list
Twelve hours a day, every day, the kitchen at 3 Austurstræti runs from 11:00 to 23:00, which in a country that closes early makes 101 Bistro the useful late option on the main square. The cooking is Mediterranean and Turkish, and the room treats those as two related traditions rather than a fusion menu. The locals swear by the late seating, when the tour groups have moved on and the tables at the back open up. Not worth the queue at 20:00; come at 21:30 instead. The site is 101bistro.is and the phone is +354 588 0015. Order one grilled thing, one braised thing, and a bowl of something with yoghurt in it, and you will understand the room.
- mediterranean
- turkish
Hours: Mo-Su 11:00-23:00
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6 TIDES
2 Austurbakki, Reykjavík, 101A fine-dining room that serves three distinct services a day, breakfast to dinner
At 07:00 the first service opens at 2 Austurbakki, and TIDES runs breakfast until 10:30, lunch 12:00 to 14:30, and dinner 17:30 to 22:00, every day of the week. Three distinct services under one fine-dining kitchen is an unusually ambitious pattern for Reykjavik, and this address at the concert hall's edge is where it makes sense. Skip the hotel dining rooms doing softer versions of the same idea; the cooking here has a point of view and holds it across all three sittings. Booking is essentially required: +354 582 0002 or tidesrestaurant.is. Come for lunch when the light off the harbour is doing its thing, or for a 17:30 dinner if you have any interest in seeing what the room looks like empty before it fills.
- fine dining
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7 Sjávargrillið
14 Skólavörðustígur, Reykjavík, 101A seafood room on Skólavörðustígur that splits the day into a proper lunch and a proper dinner
The kitchen at 14 Skólavörðustígur opens weekdays from 11:30 to 14:30 for lunch and 17:00 to 22:00 for dinner, with weekends running dinner only from 17:00 to 22:00. Sjávargrillið keeps the split honest: the room resets between services and the seafood arrives on a plate that took the afternoon to think about. The locals prefer the 11:45 weekday lunch, when the fish is at its freshest and the room is quiet enough to hear it. Avoid the harbour-adjacent tourist grills pushing the same idea from a laminated menu; the difference is in the pacing, and the pacing is set by the hours. Reserve at sjavargrillid.is or +354 571 1100. The walk up Skólavörðustígur toward Hallgrímskirkja before or after is the correct approach.
- seafood
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8 Loving Hut
2 Aðalstræti, Reykjavík, 101, ISA vegan kitchen on the oldest street in Reykjavik with an unusual Sunday-evening-only weekend rhythm
At 2 Aðalstræti, on the shortest and oldest named street in the city, the kitchen runs Tuesday to Saturday from 11:00 to 21:00, then goes dark until Sunday's 16:00 to 22:00 dinner-only sitting. Loving Hut is closed on Mondays entirely, which is the plainly correct decision for a vegan international kitchen whose regulars are on a weekly cadence. The locals go for the Sunday dinner, when the room fills with people who planned it. Don't bother turning up on Monday; the door is shut and you will feel foolish. Booking helps: +354 556 2200 or lovinghut.com/is. The address alone is worth the visit: Aðalstræti 2 is a plot with more history under it than the room lets on.
- international
Hours: Tu-Sa 11:00-21:00; Su 16:00-22:00
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9 Tapas barinn
3b Vesturgata, Reykjavík, 101, ISA tapas room that stays open until 01:00 on Fridays and Saturdays
By 17:00 the doors at 3b Vesturgata open and stay open: Sunday through Thursday to 23:30, and Friday and Saturday all the way to 01:00. Tapas barinn is a tapas kitchen running on Reykjavik weekend hours, which is what makes it the honest late option on this street. The locals eat here at 22:30 on a Friday and stay for a second round. Skip the identikit small-plate rooms up the hill trying to do the same thing with fewer plates and worse hours. Order six things, share them, and add three more; the room is built for that rhythm and not for a fixed menu. Book at tapas.is or +354 551 2344. The service does not rush you, which is the point.
- tapas
Hours: Su-Th 17:00-23:30; Fr,Sa 17:00-01:00
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10 Krua Thai
21a Skólavörðustígur, Reykjavík, 101A single-cuisine Thai kitchen at the top of Skólavörðustígur that keeps different hours for every part of the week
Up at 21a Skólavörðustígur, almost at the church end of the street, the kitchen opens Monday to Friday from 11:30 to 21:30, Saturday from 12:00 to 21:30, and Sunday only from 17:00 to 21:30. That is Krua Thai telling you when it thinks its cooking is at its best, and the three shapes are all correct. The menu is Thai and stays there, which after 40 minutes in a Reykjavik dining room is the discipline you want to see. The locals go on the Sunday evening, when the room is quieter and the kitchen is unhurried. Better than the harbourfront Thai places running longer menus and shorter attention spans. The site is kruathai.is and the phone is +354 551 0833.
- thai
Hours: Mo-Fr 11:30-21:30; Sa 12:00-21:30; Su 17:00-21:30
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11 Padre Pizza
30 LaugavegurA twelve-hour pizza service on the main shopping street with no weekly break
Twelve hours, seven days, 11:00 to 23:00 at 30 Laugavegur: Padre Pizza is the address on the main shopping street that answers the question of what to eat when the plan has fallen apart and it is 22:15. The kitchen is pizza and only pizza, and the room is set up to move people through without hurrying them. The locals prefer the late window, when the shopping crowd has thinned and the tables at the back open up. Not worth the 19:30 rush; wait an hour. The phone is 766-5757 and the site is padrepizza.is. This is not the pizza a food writer flies in for; it is the pizza an editor eats twice a week and does not tire of, which is a different and more useful test.
- pizza
Hours: Mo-Su 11:00-23:00
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12 Indian Curry House
12 Vesturgata, Reykjavík, 101A dinner-only Indian kitchen with a small weekly window and a longer Friday-Saturday one
At 12 Vesturgata, the door stays shut all day and opens only in the evening: Tuesday through Thursday and Sunday from 17:00 to 21:00, Friday and Saturday from 17:00 to 22:00. Indian Curry House is closed Mondays entirely and does not do lunch, which is the shape of a kitchen that has decided what it wants to be. The cooking is Indian and the room is small enough that a booking on a Friday matters: +354 583 4242 or indiancurryhouse.is. The locals go for the 17:15 opening, when the kitchen is at its sharpest and the room has not yet filled. Skip the pan-Asian rooms downtown trying to do a lighter version of the same menu; this address has committed to one cuisine and cooks it that way.
- indian
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