Sjávargrillið — Restaurant in Reykjavik

Unfortunately the food we had was really poor (the seafood pasta), the scallops were very small and what I would expect to buy cheap and frozen from a budget supermarket, they also had a couple of tough bits I pulled out of my mouth? The prawns & langoustines were gritty and not anything to get excited over - with veins still in some. These were all dumped on top with a load of rocket (I assumed to his how terrible it looked). The dish used penne pasta which when you’re paying almost £30 for one dish of it you expect some thing a little better. There was too much sauce, which had too much cream/fat in it, the pasta should be coated in the sauce, not swimming. It really was the worst quality pasta dish I’ve ever eaten out and we had the displeasure of paying almost 5000 ISK each for this main course (4980 ISK to be exact). It felt VERY cheap and thrown together.

The bread and butter served at the beginning was tasty, and served interestingly with the lava rock. The parmagiano potatoes side dish was average.

I was really excited for the last dinner/restaurant booking for our trip but this really let it down, it just wasn’t what I expected at all food wise.

The waitresses were lovely and attentive.

The waiter who seated us asked how our meal was at the end and when we mentioned our thoughts he explained that this restaurant is ‘cheap/mid price’ for iceland. I beg to differ! I had a delicious icelandic char main course dish at Skal inside the food hall for the sum of 3350 ISK, and it was 100x better than the food we had here. I understand it’s a different dish but the standard of the seafood was nowhere near the same at Sjavaegrillid as it was at Skal!

We came away having spent over 18000 ISK for 2x drinks, mains & sides and we regret every single penny of it, there is no worse feeling than wasting money on a terrible meal.

The waiter we spoke to at the end offered us a 15% discount voucher if we wished to return tomorrow for lunch, which we do not intend to do after wasting our money...

Inventive food with wonderful service

For the fish course The lobster and mussel broth had a rich and umami sea flavor, with prawns, mussels and fennel.

The main course was salmon with atlantic fish served with mashed potato, basil veloute and celeriac, which were cooked perfectly and flavors worked well together, but the mashed potato could be more buttery and smoother for improvement.

The creme brulee is a little too firm, but was creamy and has a nice thin crackling, served with a refreshing strawberry sorbet and vanilla whipped cream

For the meat course The fish appetizer had a wonderful veloute and sauce with perfectly cooked moist fish, really amazing. The second appetizer had a tender and moist pork belly, served with basil gnocchi and garlic aioli. The gnocchi was a little doughy and tasted flat, would be better if it is al dente

For the main course, the lamb was moist and tender, pulled lamb neck was seasoned perfectly, served with mashed potato, creamy beetroot puree and sweet beetroot. It was very delicious, with some innovative elements to it. The mashed potato could be made more buttery and creamy for improvement

For dessert, the peanut crumble with caramel sauce, and white chocolate mousse and raspberry sorbet and chips, taste wonderful as well

The female staff was polite, and attentive to our needs. Grateful to the host who accommodated us eventhough we didn't have a reservation.

All in all, I would proudly said this was our best meal in Iceland (probably in Europe) and we will definitely returned to dine here again in the future

Keep...

This 1-star rating is a reflection of overall experience, which was full of bad food, then worsened by the burn of an expensive bill. Would award 0 stars if I could.

We went here for the local specialties – shark, puffin, fish stew – but quickly learned that they were cultural novelties rather than culinary revelations. The fermented shark was not for me; it is definitely an acquired taste, heavy on the ammonia as Wikipedia suggests. The puffin tasted like dark duck, but the dish altogether didn’t work well; too many ingredients that didn’t add to a cohesive taste. I was looking forward to the fish soup, but to my dismay, it didn’t even taste like fish! It looked like a pumpkin spice latte and smelled like powdered chocolate milk. It was not only disgusting, but really disappointing considering all the hype that led up to it. My date and I were itching to wash away the taste of pitiful appetizers with our main, the Juicy Pasta, but it took more than 30 minutes for it to arrive. By then, our palettes were stained, and not even the mediocre over-sauced penne could save us. I wish we cancelled it when we had the chance.

Save your money and skip this spot. Go to Skal, the Michelin star restaurant down the street instead. It’s more affordable, serving significantly better food, service and experience.

UPDATE: I tried the same fish soup at Lava, the restaurant at Blue Lagoon, which tasted a thousand times better. I recommend the soup at Lava, but definitely skip...