Íslenski Barinn - The Icelandic Bar

This place has delicious Icelandic foods in a warm, relaxing atmosphere. We enjoyed trying the lamb, shank and reindeer burger. We also tried a small portion of whale just to say we did, it was not too bad, but wouldn’t be my first choice either. They do offer the fermented shark here, but we weren’t feeling quite brave enough to try that. We enjoyed the atmosphere in this place, it did not have the loud music you might expect at a place like this at home, rather the only music came from a real piano that some folks were playing.

For a famous bar, this place was pleasantly surprising. The servers were really nice, attentive and would explain details. I had the fermented shark, dried fish, puffin and the whale meat. I also had delicious popped cod skin (which was like a pork crackling). All of them were top class. I was really surprised by fermented shark, it was like fat with a chewy bit. The whale was like beef

We love this place. Been here few times now and The service is always good and food is excellent. Lamb shank is so delicious. Also the reindeer burger was very good. And they do also have svid the sheep’s head, which was surprisingly so good also! One of our favorites was the creamy seafood soup. It Was very filling. On our first trip to Iceland we tried the shark and Brennivin here. Definitely a must try.

Fantastic reindeer burgers! They put a variety of sauces on the burger that sounds strange but tasted delicious all together. The gluten free bun was awesome and I especially loved the red bell pepper in lieu of a tomato :) Super chill atmosphere. Great bar options and service. The server gave us some info on how they operate and treat their staff and it’s such an awesome set up! If you’re a tourist, brace yourself for the cost of, well, everything in Iceland. Nothing is inexpensive but everything is high quality.

Delicious meal. We went around dinner time with no reservation and only had to wait 15 mins. It was really fun to try the puffin. I was expecting it to taste like chicken or turkey but it tasted like a meat and was good. The lamb soup was also tasty (tender and flavorful). Fish and chips were interesting. I've never had curry seasoned batter but I liked it. Super cozy inside and the staff really friendly / nice. We are from the US and so of course went to leave a tip and our waiter was so sweet he explained to us it is not custom to tip in Iceland, he really wouldn’t let us 😂it was so different to not leave a tip but he was so kind to explain to us the culture there.