Grillmarkaðurinn — Restaurant in Reykjavik

I've been to this place two times recently and so far there is big potential. Service is 5 stars - waiters seem very trained and experienced for their role in the restaurant, they explain everything about food and also what I like is that they don't have that fake positivity a.k.a. 'trained positivity' which I encounter in some restaurants. Some food is good, some food is not for my taste and some is honestly nothing special. Overall I think the food could be better. There is originality and creativity in presentation in most meals. So far in these two times we tried: smoked arctic char - one of my favourites - smokey flavour, fresh, light and my recommendation for everybody to try. langoustine lava rocks - the lobster is fried in black 'lava' batter and presentation of this meal is very interesting and original as it is served on a rock, so the whole thing has a volcano vibe. It is basically tempura, I didn't feel the lobster that much, just the fried batter, but overall looks cool. grilled whale steak - we didn't like the whale - we tried it for the first time and the taste is very similar to rare beef steak. Hard to chew but presentation was nice. grilled puffin - it was also our first time to try it and it was not the greatest taste, I tried it again in another restaurant and in another place I liked it more - I believe it is because in another place was sliced more thin and smoked, while here the pieces were more thick and it was hard to chew it. reindeer mini burgers - this was good but nothing special, the meal consists of two mini burgers that taste like plain boring beef burgers. beef tataki - absolute miss. Nothing special in this meal, just looks nice on the plate. grilled duck breast 'Mandarin' - honestly the duck was hard to chew, probably I'm just not that much into duck meat. It was still good, there were artichokes under the duck and tasted interesting but the meat is a bit dry. robota grilled salmon - beautiful and original presentation, salmon was perfectly soft and it had very interesting and different flavour from anything I tried before with a salmon, definitely my recommendation. beef ribeye - it was served with fries and vegetables, medium rare, the taste was very classic but it was better than most steaks I tried in Iceland grilled lamb chops - I'm not the biggest fan of the lamb but people praised them in the reviews so I wanted to try them and it didn't disappoint, it was served with sauces, nice presentation and the meat was soft and not difficult to chew which happens often with the lamb in my case. dessert platter (mix of all available desserts) - presentation looks spectacular but overall all desserts were very mediocre - warm 'Ástarpungar' were hyped in the reviews but they were just dry balls and the taste was boring, it is only the caramel sauce over the dry dough balls, the cakes were okay but nothing spectacular; the Grillmarket Chocolate Cake is with interesting coffee flavour and the Chocolate Tart reminded me of lava cake, tasted fine, nothing special. Sorbets and icecreams were also fine and fresh. Cocktails were amazing everytime, they seem high quality. The toilets are very beautiful with waterfall vibe, clean and tidy. Overall this place is with great service, big creativity in food presentation and it has great potential but it still needs more improvement when it comes to food taste as from all the meals barely anything stood up to the hype the restaurant has - only the food presentation, vibe, interior and atmosphere in the restaurant make it appear high end. Also the restaurant is on the more expensive side so if you indulge, expect a bit...

Summary: flavorless exotic meats prepared in unexciting or unappealing ways, poorly timed dishes (either so fast that you couldn’t finish before the next course or so slow that you wondered if they forgot you), dirty plates not removed between courses, staff was unknowledgeable about the food that they’re serving, waited extensively for bill - and eventually got up to find waiter so we could pay and leave, and management was uncaring about what was an altogether a terrible dining experience.

Long version: for context, it’s our last night in Iceland. We have traveled for a week from Reykjavík to Höfn, eating delightful food at every meal, including beef, lamb, seafood, pizza, and burgers prepared in many ways. Grillmarkadurinn had, by far, the worst food and worst service in Iceland.

We ordered the fixed menu with multiple courses. Starters/appetizers were: 6:38p - bread with three types of Icelandic butter (favorite) 6:42p - arctic char with pickled Icelandic thyme (second favorite) 6:45p - puffin with Icelandic blueberry (novel, but unexciting in its cooking) 6:50p - whale topped with chili straw with wasabi and soy sauce (with its very own human hair, which required a return to the kitchen). 6:56p - short ribs with whey onions and parmesan (cooked well, but meat lacked flavor) 6:59p - re-do of whale dish (before we finished ribs)

Main courses: 7:18p - halibut with sourdough crumbs and garlic potatoes (portion was huge for a multi-course meal, taste was average) 7:37p - horse with rutabaga purée, mushrooms, fried onion and chili (meat was good) 7:49p - lamb paté (over-spiced) and lamb shanks topped with mushrooms and sauerkraut (meat was entirely devoid of flavor - so bad that we could not finish it)

Dessert, at 8:08p: Chocolate cake, passion fruit sorbet (too sweet to eat), meringue with cream and strawberries (good), and caramel-filled chocolate shell with mocha ice cream (also too sweet). Fresh fruits on dessert plate, half of which TWO waiters could not identify, included: dragonfruit, mangosteen, cantaloupe, passion fruit, gooseberry, and red currant. We asked for coffee and a flat white to go with dessert. Waiter brought me a cappuccino because he didn’t know (or ask!) what a flat white was.

As I mentioned, dirty plates were not removed between courses. So we were eating new foods on same dishes half of the time.

After we were “done”, we waited for 15 minutes to spot one of our two waiters, neither of which was in sight. Wanting to leave, we got up to find one of them so we could pay. I spotted the male waiter, who said I should have asked him for the bill, though he had been nowhere in sight!

We paid and walked upstairs to leave, and were asked by the manager if we enjoyed it. I pulled him aside to give him thorough feedback, during which time he would open the door for other patrons leaving the restaurant. He responded to me by saying that is not the experience we should expect, but did nothing to make it up to us, which is the customary and ideal approach. To top it off, he did not open the door for us as he was doing for all other patrons.

Yes, the décor is nice. But, unless you intend to pay USD$115 per person to see rock walls while you eat, skip this place. There are much better restaurants within a few blocks and in various...

We ate here for dinner on our last full day in Iceland and were extremely pleased. All of the food and drink met or well exceeded our expectations.

We began with the grilled pork ribs and they are well worth the price. In fact, I think they're pretty on par for the cost for how good they are, by anyone's standards. Smaller in size than most of us would be used to for ribs as an entree but perfect starter, and better tasting than the majority of ribs I've ever had. There was such flavor in them and they really do just melt in your mouth as they should. These were the big player for us as they exceeded what we had read about them and how the menu sounded.

My wife and I were both very happy with our main courses. She got the 27-day dry aged beef rib eye and loved it. I tried it and it really was great, although this (as their most expensive beef option) is probably the only offered steak I would get to be honest unless you get one of the options that comes with beef and other main items (Meat Gourmet, etc.). There may be some phenomenal beef steaks in Iceland I haven't tried yet but comparing this particular one to SOME $20-30 cuts in the U.S., they're close. Still, very flavorful and super tender.

I got the Fish Gourmet dish, which comes very well laid out with good portions of their redfish, cod and salmon. In my opinion, the grilled salmon takes the top spot of the three with the most flavor and perfect garnishings to go along but they were all great, and salmon has kind of always been my personal preference over most fish. The potatoes served with them were also outstanding and if you get a dish without them you should really get them as a side.

Our waiter, Alexander, was very funny, personable, polite and knew the menu items better than I had seen in any restaurant in a long time (fine dining or not). He even got me a sample of their tender and delicious lamb (the main wrack not the skewer pieces) on the house since I was craving the Fish Gourmet as well!

The feel this place gives you inside is amazing too. From the lighting and decor to the tables and chairs and their arrangement and all the way to the design of the restrooms. It is very obviously very well thought out. It's also not much more expensive than eating out anywhere else in Iceland and you can definitely see and taste the quality. There were quite a few locals eating during the time we were and I think that also says something for it's quality in such a touristy area.

100% would go back and would recommend eating here due to the wait staff, quality of food, and overall...