Kopar — Restaurant in Reykjavik

Hinrik, our tour guide, could not say enough great things about Kopar. We decided to go check it out for ourselves.

We called for a reservation and were happy to hear they could seat us that same evening. After sightseeing, we were hungry.

They brought us a small basket with 4 slices of perfect artisan bread. I am a baker, and they have my respect... the crust was crunchy, and the crumb was airy, fluffy, and delicious. The kind of bread that makes you moan when you eat it. Kopar paired it with the tiniest mound of violet flower flavored sweet butter with sprinkles of salt flakes on top.

We could not help ourselves and polished a full basket off before we knew it. The butter is addictive and I'm a butter fiend.

We ordered 3 appetizers. The scallops, the fried camembert, and the rockcrab soup.

As you can observe by the photos, the aftermath of our enjoyment were very clean plates. The camembert had a lovely crust and was drizzled with honey and paired with fresh raspberries, blackberries, and properly toasted pecans. The honey was simply sweet without flowery notes, I do wonder if orange honey would have added a little something extra. As it was, it was decadent and scrumptious. We were exceedingly democratic about the bay scallops and ensured both of us had parity of tender vittles. So good!

The soup was lovely, not too heavy. Thus, our appetizers had a wonderful balance of flavors and textures as a grouping. This is worthy of note because it can be the case that they are all crunchy fried or all soft and bland. That is apparently not allowed at Kopar, and what a terrific approach that is!

We ordered the catch of the day (Salmon) and the langoustine risotto. Oh my!

The salmon was a teensy wee bit on the dry side, but that was likely a salmon issue because it had not been overcooked. It was served over a single eggplant sliced which had not been salted first to extract the piquant taste, and as a rule of thumb I like my eggplant to taste mellow, but in this dish, it added to the complexity of tye flavor profile. The roasted fennel was part of the veggies, and while a complementary part of the dish it shone on its own right.

Mmmmm, the risotto....Kopar has managed to produce a wonderfully balanced langoustine and crab risotto, and much like the bread and butter...it's simplicity made perfect. It's creamy, perfectly textured, cheesy enough without being salty, and it ran the risk of the plate being wiped clean with some bread, but after 2 baskets (and nearing the end of our meal) it didn't seem appropriate to ask for more bread. It was topped with an inspired granny Smith apple julienne topping. Yum!!

Max and I shared all the food, and his favorite by far was the risotto. Max LOVES great food as much as I do, and we agreed this meal was outstanding.! The Passionate mule was refreshing, and I crushed the generous portion of fresh mint provided with the drink. Just, lovely.

Amazingly, we still had room for a shared dessert, and we went with the piña colada cake. Which is delicious on its own right, with several textures within the domed presentation, but the star of the show here was the fresh raspberry sorbet with raspberry coulis. Rich, sweet, acidic, creamy, textured in all the right ways. You could have a sorbet shop and offer this one flavor only and you would have a success.

Hinrik, tak fyrir!!

Kopar, this meal was the best of our first trip to Reykjavik! Many congratulations to you all on providing a cozy place with gorgeous views, excellent service, and...

Visited for dinner.

We got a very good table with one the best views the restaurant can offer. We were looking at some Zodiacs.

Food- mains list was very short - 6 dishes in total. Starters list a bit better but with one not available (musels). Dessert list pretty boring. Wine list maybe good, maybe not, I cannot comment about. A few non alcoholic drinks. Ok fair enough.

We ordered some drinks and got served one with a dying mint. Mint is not native on Iceland, I assume. If your decoration is dying, please do not use it.

For starters, a small salad with no much excitement besides the Fennel root. Crab soup has always the issue that you can sink in a lot of things in it with a great variability on the outcome. Tuna was included in the other starter. The knife used to cut it though was not very sharp. It might be a nordic way of cuting fish filet. I dont know but I could see the edges of a "toothed" knife. Plus I had the impression of frozen and then taught fish taste. Chili on top of the tuna was not bad.

Mains😱: Risotto... a seafood cream can taste well anytime. Catch of the day- we got served a Ling. Seriously? A cheaper Cod? Freshness could be alright since Ling lingers around south Iceland. However, pan-fried Ling with plenty of butter? Is not what I would expect on a well rated restaurant. Then lets go to the salted Cod. Killed by chilly. Overwhelming a fish is easy but killing it with chilli is easier. A coconut froth does not help it either. I had to stop mid way.

The sorbet dessert was much better than anything else we ate on that day. Please ppl try the orange-carrot sorbet.

I need to mention that the waiting staff was amazing all the way. It compensated the lack of an interesting view. I would like to encourage the owner to embed a tiping option in the card payment.

In the summary, lessons to be taken: don't serve a dying decor, do not use the cheapest (though local) fish and do not kill a fish with chilli.

Wines help an experience and a business but a good restaurant cannot rely on them.

Overall: staff was great, food not so great, view a dissapointment. Price wise: outrageous but that is Iceland. I just wonder for how long good marketing can support this model of business. Glaciers dissapearing... but maybe a volcano...

We chose this restaurant based on proximity to the Northern Lights Cruise for which we already had tickets. The ratings looked good and it was right near the cruise office. We made a reservation for 1930 based on the cruise starting at 2100 and headed for the old hafnir (harbor) district.

Turns out the food was fabulous and the service topnotch. The restaurant overlooks the harbor so every table had a lovely view. We were shown to our table right away and we warned our server Emily that we were trying to make the cruise since our reservation was for 2.5 hours and we needed to board by 2045. Emily promised to do her best since most guests were there for leisurely dining.

My niece immediately picked out the most expensive dish on the menu - a 250mg steak for about $70 USD that both nieces agreed to share. We ordered a cheeseboard for starters and I got the mushroom Wellington.

We were served a lovely bread with a lilac and licorice butter that we all enjoyed. The cheeseboard had the obligatory bleu and camembert cheeses with a bit of ham and the usual accoutrements (nuts, jam, olives, and berries). The third cheese was our favorite - an icelandic white cheese with dill that reminded me of a Jarlsberg. Our mains were perfect. My nieces split the steak and each got about 3-4 oz. The mashed potatoes and broccolini sides were delicious. And they both said the meal was worth the price. The Wellington was amazing. It came with grilled asparagus and a dark gravy redolent with sage. I am not a fan of sage so ignored the gravy after tasting it, and enjoyed the generous portion of wellington, which I was too full to finish. I was disappointed to find a tough end on the asparagus that my fork could not cut. We had originally intended to have dessert but my niece got anxious as 2030 approached so we asked Emily for the check and departed.

We highly recommend this restaurant for a leisurely dinner so you can...