TIDES Restaurant — Restaurant in Reykjavik

Unfortunately this was my least favorite meal of the 3 weeks in Iceland. We stayed at the hotel and I was really excited to try out their Michelin recommended restaraunt. The dinner actually started off great and they were really sweet and left us a card on the table congratulating us on our anniversary and brought over Rosé. However, we sat there for about 20 minutes and no one ever came over. A gentlemen walked by and before I could say anything he said "do you know what you want?". At a restaurant labeled fine dining it's I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a greeting or introduction nor do I think it's unreasonable to expect someone would come and take our order rather than having to flag someone down. We ordered three appetizers and two entrees, but unfortunately he scurried away before we could order drinks. I had to flag him down again just to get drinks ordered :/. As for the appetizers, the Braised Lamb Croquettes were really good, not amazing, but we did enjoy them. I also really liked the Beef Tartare. The Yellowfin Tuna Crudo could have been skipped entirely. They use a green oil/emulsion that's citrus and coriander in flavor and it completely overwhelmed the fish so the only distinct flavor was that oil mixture. We left most of it on the plate, unfortunately. The Beef Tartare had the same oil but in less quantity so it wasn't as overpowering. Once we finished our appetizer it was about 75 minutes before the entrees came. No one stopped by until about 5 minutes before our entrees came out to apologize or explain the wait time. We weren't offered drink refills or asked if we wanted more bread or anything while we waited. We just sat, albeit somewhat confused, as to why certain tables seem to be served quicker and others were waiting just as long. The Ribeye arrived & was cooked perfectly, had a great sear on it, and he said he enjoyed it. The crowberry sauce they put on top could be skipped as the berries tasted underripe and pretty sour, but, to be fair, crowberry isn't something we have often and perhaps that could just be the taste. I have the lobster ravioli which I really like, but again they used the green oil emulsion so after a while the flavor becamed overwhelmed by that. The ravioli was actually great and I wish they had let that shine without adding unnecessary ingredients. I'll be the first to admit I am not a chef and every restaraunt has their own flavor profile, but this feels like forced fusion. I am not sure if the green coriander/citrus oil used to garnish/enhance nearly every dish is meant to create a sense of cohesion among the dishes, but in my (humble) opinion, it just makes every dish taste relatively the same and nothing stands out nor does it allow the main ingredients to shine. After dinner our server (or at least whoever took our order, we still aren't sure who the actual servers were as it seems most people performed hosting, serving, and bussing duties) was chatting with coworkers (totally ok and understandable, but I do wish he would have looked up to see if anyone needed anything) and we waited about 15 minutes before we could waive him over and ask for the check. One of the women who worked there (I believe the actual host?) was actually really kind and offered us a free dessert for the wait times and even agreed to box it up as we were staying at the hotel and we also didn't want to wait another unknown time period for it to come out. The dessert was actually fantastic and my favorite part of the meal. When the check arrived it was a bit awkward as the server stood over us the entire time waiting and watching as I filled it out and I had to get my calculator out to figure out the ISK conversion for tip and he leaned in and watched. This may be customary, but every other restaraunt you either paid beforehand for fine dining prefix meals, paid at the counter, or they left it on the table and came back a few moments later. This felt both rushed and awkward. Overall just really disappointed our last meal of our honeymoon in Iceland was our worst. My honest...

My review in two words: Absolutely Horrible!

We made a reservation for 2130 due to a long day of sightseeing. That was the latest reservation their system offered. We arrived early and were seated by 2115. They seated us and gave us menus and then left us. One of the chairs did not have the cushioned back like the others in the restaurant so we had to take one from another table. When we arrived there were 4 tables with customers.

After ignoring us they finally came over to ask about drinks. Only one person in our party of 5 drank so we asked for water for everyone else. That seemed to upset them. They left us again. After waiting and not getting any attention we flagged a waitress down and stated we were ready to order. She left and then sent the bartender to take our order. He came and when I asked for the pre-set menu he stated he'd have to ask the kitchen if they were still making it as it was getting late. I told him we had taken the last reservation they offered and arrived early and we expected to be able to order any item from the menu. Fortunately the kitchen agreed to make it otherwise we were going to leave.

Two of us ordered the pre-set menu, one ordered lamb, one ordered lasagna, and one ordered tenderloin. The pre-set menu was over $120 and wasn't worth $40! The lamb was good, but no better than what you can get at Costco. The lasagna was unimpressive, but the tenderloin was the best meal anyone got at TIDES. The food was absolutely pathetic except for the tenderloin. Tasteless at best and expensive to boot. I might go there for a drink, but certainly not for dinner! The service never got better even though we ended up being the last table for the four waiters left. Again, absolutely pathetic! You can getter better food and much better service at a much better price at any other restaurant in Reykjavik.

When we finally got up to leave there was no one around to give us our coats from the coat-check. We had to go back into the restaurant to get someone to help us.

Usually, after I've waited a few days, I find that I am not as critical as I was when things happened. However, for this restaurant my attitude and review has only gotten worse. I implore you to not go to this restaurant. It is way overpriced even for Iceland. The service is horrendous. The food is tasteless. It does not deserve...

Four of us came here for dinner on a Saturday evening as the capstone to our 9 days in Iceland, expecting the Michelin-recommended experience to be a worthy finale to our amazing trip. Sadly, that was not the case. While the food was excellent, the service was genuinely quite bad, and I don't say that lightly. Basic slowness turned to outright rudeness by the end of the night, a comically antithetical twist on the Michelin recognition proudly displayed on the wall near our table.

It took 30 minutes before we even received our starter popovers, and another 50 minutes after that before we were served the first course. Nearby us, other tables were being compensated with additional popovers for the restaurant-wide delay. For us, nothing, not even acknowledgement of the delay from our waitress except to say it was "being plated" when we finally, desperately, asked her when we could expect the food to arrive, about 10 minutes before it actually came. The only thing that came at a reasonable interval was dessert, a decadent slice of basque cheesecake with the smoothest mango sorbet and thinly sliced orange garnish.

After our dessert, the waitress brought us our check, and I started to ask if she could split it for us for convenience, but she abruptly left after I'd gotten only a few words in, and went to the table next to ours to converse with them for several minutes. I don't mind that she was more attentive to other tables, but it highlighted the mediocrity of our own treatment, especially in light of the chronic delays. The rudeness to us at the end of an unacknowledged painfully slow meal was one final nail in the coffin.

When we finally paid our bill and were ready to leave, they interrupted our exit to have us join them at the counter to resolve a 2000 ISK gap in their calculations, an awkward and hilarious gaffe at the end of our inglorious experience.

At this price point and given their Michelin recommendation, we were disappointed at how lackluster our experience was. I would recommend spending your...