Matarkjallarin offers a few set menus, an a la carte menu, and a tasting menu which we eventually plumped for.
But first: a green tea gimlet (gin, green tea syrup) for my wife and a molecular lemon drop cocktail (vodka, lemon juice, sugar syrup, cointreau foam) for me, both of which were delicious.
Alcohol in Iceland is expensive, so those cocktails cost us about £15 each. Everything in Iceland is expensive, truth be told, but the cocktail menu was too tempting to pass up.
Like most meals in Iceland, this one started with warmed ryebread and whipped butter.
Icelanders are understandably proud of their dairy produce; the butter everywhere is gorgeous to eat.
Our first course was slow cooked cod with asparagus, smoked dried lamb, langoustine-hollandaise sauce and croutons. It was delicious; the cod was melt-in-the-mouth good, and the lamb was salty and earthy, and the hollandaise was creamy and tasty.
Next up was cured salmon with mustard, mayo and thin-sliced cucumber. The cured salmon had a really nice consistency, firm and almost sashimi-like, and the whole thing was really nicely balanced. Possibly a bit mustardy for some people but I really like mustard.
Then came tiger prawns in a sort of string batter with panzo sauce and chilli dressing. The batter was such a nice, crunchy texture! Really fun, if a bit messy to eat. I ordered a glass of wine at this point, which was a decent standard white wine and I mention it only because it is relevant later.
The next course was pork loin and lamb, with celeriac and pickled something. The pork loin was so, so soft and caramelised, it was blissful. The mashed celeriac cake was a delight, too.
There was a long delay at this point. We were quite full, warm, happy to just sit and chat to each other. It helped that we could see that the waiters were noticing our lack-of-dessert-course regularly and kept going to chase it up, but it still took perhaps forty minutes and a lot of scrambling and several apologies before the dessert arrived. The head waiter came and apologised and offered us a free cocktail each (which was very generous) and told us the dessert would be free too. Which is a good way to apologise, really.We ordered a ginger martini (dark rum, ginger syrup) and a dry martini (gin, vermouth, lemon). The ginger martini was so good that it sent me off on a quest for ginger syrup so I could attempt to replicate it, because I need more of that in my life.
The dessert, when it arrived, was the chef's mother's Christmas meringue recipe, with strawberries and white chocolate sauce. It felt a lot like a seasonal Eton Mess, in fact, and we liked it a lot. The desserts both came with a little fortune-cookie-ish message in; my wife's was seeded with a 'you are a winner' message that landed her with a little package of Icelandic sweets, which was a nice touch.
Top one says: congratulations, you are a winner. My fortune says: better a flat beer than a dry bottom (of a glass). A pun! I approve greatly.
The winning package has a Hraun bar, some chocolates, some toffees and a lollipop.
We topped the meal off with coffee served in a thermos flask that my wife had to show me how to use; I'd never seen one with this integral pouring spout on top! The coffee was smooth and delicious, too.
At this point the waiter came and explained that as our dessert was part of the tasting menu they couldn't give it to us free, so instead they just gave us all our alcohol free, merry Christmas, they hoped this made up for the delay.
I'm just going to explain this in actual money value: the tasting menu was approximately £70 per head. The alcohol came to about £90 in total, we calculated afterwards. As apology gestures go, I think that's the most generous I've ever received in return for minimal irritation and annoyance. A very pleasant way to start our trip, in other words! We wound our way back through the windy cold streets of Reykjavik afterwards, replete and tipsy.
Next day: a food-sampling tour of Reykjavik! Which absolutely deserves its own post.
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