Fish Company — Restaurant in Reykjavik

I chose this restaurant as I was curious about the gastronomic scene in Iceland. In short, the food was mediocre, the wine pairing was sub-standard, and the service was disappointing. I got a table at 9:30 pm and the restaurant wasn't very busy. I wanted to ask about the menu but nobody paid attention to me for at least 10 minutes even though I was waving my hand many times. With this bad start, I didn't feel welcomed and couldn't enjoy the meal. So my review can be a bit biased.

I went for the 'Around Iceland' course menu with wine pairing. When they brought me the first dish (cod), they didn't bring me a spoon and the server's attitude was rather cold. When they served the second dish, they served white wine in a hot glass (I think the glass was just taken from the dishwasher). After I complained, they served the wine in a new glass. When the server took the plates, she also took the bread knife, which should remain on the table with the breads. These things can be easily fixed but shouldn't happen in the first place when they advertise themselves as a fine dining restaurant.

I could see that they paid much attention to the plating but the food itself wasn't exciting. For example, I didn't think the salmon went well with the sweet apple sauce. The lamb was good but you can find a similar quality dish in many other places.

Wine pairing was particularly disappointing. I experienced this in other restaurants in Iceland, so I guess it's not only this restaurant's issue. The wines they use are generally cheap and too young (2020, 2021) and often don't pair well with the dish. I was particularly disappointed by the red (cheap Cotes du Rhone, 2020) paired with lamb. Shiraz can go well with lamb but this wine didn't.

When they asked me if everything was ok, I gave my honest opinion and they gave me 25% off. I appreciate it but still decided to leave this review in the hope that they improve their...

SALTY. I really wanted to like this place, truly. The atmosphere was great, and the service was very good. The complimentary amuse bouche was excellent. The bread was really good, and the granola was an interesting and nice touch. My sushi plate appetizer was good. The rice was not cooked very well, but it's not a Japanese restaurant and the rest of the dish was good, so I really didn't have complaints. The soy sauce was amazing. The entree was where it really went wrong for me.

Partner and I both ordered a fish dish. His had 3 different kinds of fish, and mine was 2 fillets of the same fish. All 5 pieces were extremely salty. I'm really not someone who's very sensitive to salt, in fact, I've been told by people that I eat too salty. The saltiness of the fish here was unbearable, and I was still feeling sick the next morning. I mentioned this to the waiter, and they comped us a sorbet dessert, which was very good, but at that point, I was already feeling sick from the salty fish (I still tried to eat it for a bit since I felt bad sending the dish back and wasting food ugh). The tiramisu my partner had was really just ok and not a good reflection of the price point.

We were splurging for our anniversary here, so I really wanted to like this place, but I was left feeling really uncomfortable from the saltiness(and the insane amount of water I had to drink). This was easily the most expensive meal we had in Iceland, and the food was honestly the worst. Everything else in Iceland from gas station hot dogs to nicer restaurants like Messinn were all so much better. Really...

I rarely leave poor reviews on anything, and this is an amazing restaurant, with amazing food, but unfortunately our server attempted to ruin the entire experience. Most of the staff were kind and helpful (which makes me feel even worse leaving a bad review), and our server was quite competent at the mechanics of her job, but at some point, my family was in need of something, and I attempted to get her attention, which she made an obvious (and frankly, quite silly) effort to ignore, as if my asking for assistance from a server was somehow offensive. (And I've dined hundreds of times in Paris, supposedly famous for its rudeness, and I've never seen anything quite so silly as this -- unless you count comedy films making fun of Parisian stereotypes.) She continued the rudeness for quite some time, which (being both obvious and ridiculous) made the dining experience uncomfortable for my family, to say the least.

As a former waiter, I am extremely conscious of my behavior in a restaurant, and I always treat staff with respect and gratitude for their service. This behavior was just weird, though.

Other than that: The food was quite enjoyable, and showed a great deal of care in its preparation. The reindeer carpaccio was a beautiful dish, and as a starter, I expected it to be quite small, but it would have been enough for 3-4 people. The staff (with the exception of our server) were uniformly friendly and helpful. The prices were quite reasonable for this area, and even more so considering the quality of the food.

It is unfortunate that one person's behavior can...