Tuesday in Iceland: Svarta Kaffid and Sjavargrillid

Tuesday was assigned to be our 'wander Reykjavik' day. Reykjavik isn't very big, and we'd criss-crossed it during the food tour, but we did stop by a place I'd seen recommended online: Svarta Kaffid.

According to the waitress, locals barely notice it's there (it's on a mezzanine above street level), but tourists flock there due to excellent online reviews for their soup-in-bread dishes.

 

We had reindeer soup, because it was seasonal, and it was very good. And also fun, once you've guzzled the soup, ripping the bread bowl apart and eaten the soaked-with-soup innards.

Our afternoon involved swimming, and we walked to and from the pools in a howling blizzard that threatened to knock us off our feet and which did knock a coach over outside Reykjavik. Our trip back involved a little stop-off at a cafe called Kornið Bakarí -- which was very cheap, especially by Icelandic standards. It seemed to be popular with pensioners!



The coffee was drinkable and the pastry was sweet and covered in caramel sauce. Perfect for recovering from swimming and icy winds.

That evening we had a dinner reservation (made for us by Wake Up Reykjavik) at Sjavargrillid, just off the main street. I wanted another ginger-y cocktail, after the one at Matarkjallarin, and asked the barman to improvise something dry without gin.

It involved whisky, campari, ginger ale and cinnamon, and flames at one point to singe the rosemary. It was very tasty, and I kept that cute little cocktail stick too.

The meal started with a little appetiser of prawns in pickled vegetables, along with the standard bread and whipped butter.



Then the mains! My wife had salted cod, and I had pork belly and reindeer.



(I'll confess; I expected to be able to skim their menu to pick out more information about the ingredients for this post, but the menu online isn't the same one that we were given. But both our meals were delicious!)

For dessert, Pez had a Ris A L'amande with apple sorbet, and I had a chocolate mousse that came with a caramel mousse and a raspberry cake-and-sorbet confection.



I am a sucker for raspberry everything. This made me so happy.

We waddled back through Reykjavik after this, again very full and very content. I think of the three restaurants we went to for dinner, this was the least impressive, but it was still very good -- it's just tough competition!