Nov 16

Nov 16 Iceland Eats: Fiskmarkaðurinn | Fish Market

Address | Aðalstræti 12, 101 Reykjavík, Iceland

Of course, an important part of any travel is enjoying a great meal. After a day of hiking waterfall trails and horse back riding on the beach, we wanted to get dressed up and go out for a late dinner in Reykjavik. There are a lot of great dining options in Reykjavik and in researching where to go, I found that most reviews said that restaurants are expensive but tend to be quiet good overall. Living between the two most expensive areas in the US, I didn’t have too much sticker shock—we often laugh that Manhattan dinning now seems so affordable compared to Sag Harbor—but I admit I was skeptical about how well the menu would be executed. My wife assured me that Fiskmarkaðurinn | Fish Market was a fine dining experience that we would all enjoy.

Fiskmarkaðurinn is located in one of Reykjavik’s oldest buildings, giving your dining experience a certain level of charm as you enter the restaurant. With an upper and lower level, on a Thursday night, the restaurant was packed with locals, food industry people, and tourists alike. The cocktail menu offers all the classics and created a special mocktail for our junior crew member.

The dinner menu is largely focused on Icelandic seafood with Asian flavors and preparation techniques. In addition to grilled fish and sushi options, you’ll find steak and even reindeer on the menu. Our starters were really delicious. The seasoning on the shrimp lime tacos was perfectly balanced, the squid tempura was the perfect texture, and the vegetable tempura was nicely balanced with chili lime dressing.

Our dinner party all selected seafood items for our mains. We had the nigiri mix which was very fresh and clean, the lightly salted cod (served with soba noodles in langoustine veloute, smoked haddock brandade and matcha butter), and the grilled salmon steak. I definitely sampled/shared each dish and they were all nicely done.

For dessert we were offered the sampler with molten chocolate cake; mango, raspberry, and strawberry sorbet; a creme brulee topped chocolate ganache cake, and cheesecake—which my wife pointed out resembled a golden snitch (you know, Quidditch).