Matur og Drykkur — Restaurant in Reykjavik

What an amazing experience; tasting each menu was like reading a keen essay of every ingredients that Icelandic season has to offer. My husband and I almost had to miss this experience due to scheduling conflicts, but what a mistake that would have been. It was a perfect summary of the end of our trip to Iceland. I love to take notes and learning about the new flavors, and the staff was so accommodating and eager to teach me!

Service/Staff: Hania was my absolute favorite and a gem to the restaurant's entire vibe. She taught me of so many new herbs (chervil, angelica, lovage, etc.), and let me try them along with delightful stories for each; she even told me that she often picks chervil on her way to work, which was very cool to me. I highly recommend her Chervil Gimlet! She was so considerate and made us her specialty drink that was off the menu to celebrate our anniversary- based on her first drink recipe "Pink Panther." I highly recommend asking her for it if you are fortunate to spot her during your visit. I've been to some of the finest restaurants around the world, but the service I got from Hania was the absolute pinnacle of restaurant hospitality :) She was so personable, funny, knowledgeable, and passionate! She was the one who told us that we would've made such a mistake had we cancelled our reservation, and she was absolutely right.

One of our servers, Sam, was amazing and memorable as well. When I asked about the black lime, she kindly brought out a jar of lime that was dried slowly to give it a black color and rich flavors. I highly recommend asking the servers or staff on any foreign ingredients you see on the menu. They are so knowledgeable and passionate about what goes into the tasting menu. Hania told me that the staff often forage together to find the natural herbs and ingredients, so they are integral authors to the beautiful story and intent told in every bite.

I would come back to Iceland for vacation or for a layover just to come back to this restaurant and to laugh and learn about new things with Hania and the rest of the staff while eating the best food I've had in Iceland.

Food: Each season, the restaurant features a 10-course tasting menu. Autumn 2025 menu's appetizers featured (1) Ricotta, dulse (seaweed), and capelin roe; (2) cured halibut and angelica - this menu was amazing because it featured all the parts of the Angelica herb: seeds, pickled stems, leaves; (3) horse fillet, sea truffle, roast pumpkin seeds, and black currents; and (4) rutabaga and cheese. What was the most amazing about this selection of food was its wine pairing. It must have been so hard to curate a single glass of wine that marries all of the diverse flavors/textures together, and the selection was perfect.

Entrees were filled with flavors that I hadn't tried before. The black lime with the cured egg yolk and scallops was one of my husband's favorites. The cod dish with carrots was divine; I didn't know that carrot had this diverse of texture and flavor, and the presentation of the carrot slices to mimic the fish scale was genius. Lovage/goat was a new discovery for me as well, but its pairing with the selected white wine was absolutely my favorite. Sheep/liver/pine jelly showed interesting combination with the clear pine jelly (also something I've never tried).

If you visit, I absolutely recommend getting the wine pairing. They compliment and enhance the flavors so well, with some of the pairings being mind-blowing...

My wife and I went here for dinner on our final night in Iceland and were disappointed. We have been to lots of nice restaurants in many different countries - from rustic trattorias in Italy to London’s top Michelin starred establishments - and relished the opportunity to try Icelandic fine dining.

The concept of the 6 course menu is seasonal Icelandic produce; however, as the waitress explained as we sat down, very little grows in Iceland in winter. Therefore, we experienced the chef’s attempt to make various underwhelming ingredients into interesting dishes. And here is what we thought:

The Homemade bread and butter was absolutely delicious and a genuine highlight of the meal.

The platter of starters was more style than substance. Cured sheep fillet and horseradish was tasty but there was only bite or two. Cod skin and sea truffle butter sounded nice but neither of us could taste the sea truffle and therefore we were just scooping up butter on a crisp. The rutabaga - a fairly bland root vegetable - was indeed bland.

This was followed by a cod cheek dish. The lamb fat and salted lemon was nice but the fish was a bit bland and there was too little sauce for it to compensate.

Barley porridge, lamb and potato skin was one of the most forgettable dishes I’ve ever eaten in a restaurant. It was shockingly under-seasoned (this was a bit of a theme) and therefore largely tasteless.

For main course, I had lamb sirloin with rutabaga mash and fermented cabbage. The rutabaga mash was the highlight (largely as it was 50% butter) and the cabbage was comfortingly salty. However, the lamb was, again, almost tasteless.

My wife had cod for her main course and it was over cooked and under-seasoned.

The desserts were the best part of the meal. The whey granita and aquavit was an interesting combo (representing the snow capped glaciers of Iceland). But the baked yoghurt with caramelised whey was the dish of the meal - creamy, sumptuous, everything a dessert should be.

The service was pretty good and the two glasses of wine I had (a Sancerre and a Cote du Rhone) were very nice, and paired with the meal well. My wife ordered a mocktail, which she also really enjoyed.

Overall, the idea of the restaurant is interesting but the execution was lacking. Perhaps they need to rethink the seasonal concept during winter to offer a tastier menu. That being said, a bit more seasoning would have gone a long way.

I was torn between two stars and three stars but considering the cost of the menu I struggled to justify the higher score. Maybe it was just an off night, but I think the menu itself is just a bit too boring to compete with other top fine...

A must while in Reykjavik! Great food, best-ever cocktails, wonderful staff, and cozy atmosphere.

• Venue * I dined here on a Friday evening and was glad to have made a reservation well in advance. While the dining area is rather small–and it was full–it did not feel crowded.

• Menu * The menus presented included the chef's prefix meal (ten very manageable courses) and the drink menu. I was not given another, al a carte menu, nor did I ask for one.

• Drinks * As an aperitif, I ordered from the cocktail menu. There were four (4) house specials; the one I ordered was so delicious I knew I wanted to try another. With the prefix dinner, though, I ordered the drink pairing (wines with dinner and cordials with dessert). So the second cocktail would have to wait. The drink pairings were perfectly selected for each course and the sommelier introduced each with warmth and detail. After dinner, I did enjoy a second cocktail from the house menu and it, too, was delicious. In fact, I ended up returning to Makur og Drikkur just to enjoy another cocktail that Sunday after a contemporary jazz show at Harpa Concert Hall. The bartender was a an incredible hostess, making me feel like I was her only customer. I will schedule an extended layover during my next flyover just to stop in for cocktail! So good!

• Dinner * Dinner was ten (10) courses. Four (4) of these were single-bite appetizers all presented together. Two (2) were small-serving desserts. That leaves the four (4) entrees, all of which were maybe three to five bites each. It seems like a lot of food but the portions were manageable overall (fyi I'm occasionally chided for having a small appetite... I tend to eat in half portions and yet this meal was perfectly satisfying). That's how much food...now how good was it. The meal demostrated the Michelin star earned the year prior. It was as much an experience as it was a meal. The food was delicious, well-presented, and each contributed to a cohesive meal. I would happily enjoy the same meal again.

• Service * The GM and the bartender changed my entire experience with Icelandic people. Having spent a week circumnavigating the entire island, I had come to know the natives to reflect the cold and harsh climate. The people are not pleasant. While at Matur og Drykkur, though, I was treated as a welcomed friend. It was the single best experience I had while in Iceland, beating out majestic waterfalls, breathtaking canyons, otherworldly landscapes, even the luxurious lagoons. This came at the end of my visit and I will be forever grateful for these as my final and lasting memories of this trip (yes, the overall experience was...