Bjargarsteinn Mathús — Restaurant in Iceland

We came to town suddenly without a plan when our trip toward Hofn was disrupted by the flood closing the road. Drove all day in the rain and fog to a new area and got here a bit late. What luck to stumble upon a very fine restaurant. The town seemed deserted on the streets but this place was bustling with activity. All servers were helping us along at our own pace, no rushing and this is a neat aspect of dining out in a country that doesn't rely on tips to pay them. It's a cute place with an amazing view. The appetizer of scallops was good but the shocker to me was the appetizer of smoked lamb with bets and skyr. It was actually what we would term lamb jerky, thin and intensely smoked and dried. My husband makes and loves meat jerky and was in heaven. I ate only a bit too get the experience with the bets and yogurt as I like just a taste of jerky but the portion was large for the bold flavor and he enjoyed every slice. We both had catch of the day, a local flat fish prepared fresh and to perfection with veggies and sweet potato puree, again delicious. Honestly my favorite part of the meal was blueberry sauce over yogurt mouse with a thin shock of white chocolate on top and an amazing strong ginger cookie. The thing is, I got the Icelandic hot tea, a balanced blend of herbs, with it, and it went so well with that cookie. Sublime. I saw a review that mentioned puffin. Puffin is not currently on the menu thank goodness. I had just spent hours the day before on a cliff in Vik watching them and felt far too attached to see them eaten. So don't fear, they serve less cute proteins as their primary dishes. One more thing, I have a hearing disability and the busy and cozy space caused me some extraneous noises making it harder for me to understand. The server casually dropped down to my level to speak directly to my face so I could know about the food options as well as anyone else. This has not happened to me anywhere since this recent hearing problem began last year. Thank you. I love to know what...

I almost never write reviews but future visitors deserve to know this before deciding to dine at this restaurant.

Came in for the good rating/reviews but it was the worst decision we made in Iceland. The waitresses either all had a bad day together or were intentionally being racist, since they all exhibited the same demeaning energy and attitude towards us and 2 other parties of asian customers as we observed. When we thought the dining experience couldn’t get any worse than receiving poor customer service, the main course came out and we were once again disappointed. My partner and I both ordered the catch of the day, which was a halibut with variety of sides. The fish was too soft to a point that we can both easily tell it was on the undercooked side, as well as the cauliflowers, which were barely cooked and even had an obvious raw taste and texture.

The flavor profiles were either nonexistent or a mess: starting from the complimentary bread, which was dry, dense, rough, and tasted like cardboard; the side of mashed sweet potato was mixed with some tangy citrusy fruit, a surprisingly revolting combination; there was a bread/cake underneath the mashed sweet potato that tasted like ginger molasses cake (I’m usually a fan of this but whatever they did to it was not delicious at all); aside from being undercooked, the cauliflowers and broccolis were extremely bland and unevenly seasoned with salt; there was also some sort of diced fruit/melon on the side that was hard, sour, and with no flavor even with dressing. Both of us feel disgusted after the meal and left with upset stomachs.

The only acceptable dish was the seafood soup, but it was not worth paying for this pricey yet mediocre place.

This place is simply an upscale restaurant wannabe that disguises its meagerness with a pretentious cozy ambiance and fancy plating. Dine here at...

Food is really delicious, probably had the best fish of my life there, not exagerating at all. It's quite expensive though, have a look at the prices online beforehand if you've got a limited budget because it can climb up quickly.

I wish there was a bit more for the side (was some kind of rice or cereals for me) because after a long day of walking and visiting around, it felt a bit short and I left a little bit hungry.

While the fishs are, mark my words, amazing, we decided to have a chocolate cake and what a fail. It was such a hard chocolate which had no taste at all. I would definitely not recommend the deserts there.

Another thing to note... Many jokes were made before dinner (while booking a table on the phone, while ordering and while paying). It's not the kind of super funny jokes... Here are what we got: while making the reservation I asked if we could get a table for 4 people and I got asked if we "were going to eat a lot". What kind of question is that ?! I was stumped and starving so basically assumed I misheard on the phone because it was a bit noisy then, when we entered the restaurant we got seated and they start by giving you the list of drinks. We felt some kind of pressure like if we didn't order a drink that wouldn't be well seen... I don't remember the exacts words for this one then when people were paying and same for us, the same joke was made all the time: hopefully we'd come back the next day and... Eat "even more"?!

That made the interactions quite weird to be honest... And just for that I'm not sure I'd comeback even though the fish...