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Iceland Foods I Wish Someone Warned Me About Before My Trip
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items Spent a week in Iceland eating gas station hot dogs and overpriced tourist traps before I figured out where the actual good food was hiding. If you're planning a trip and don't want to blow $90 on a mediocre bowl of soup, this is everything I ate tha...
Sections
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Icelandic Lamb That Ruined All Other Lamb For Me
Seafood Straight From Arctic Waters
Rúgbrauð: Hot Springs Bread You Bake Underground
Skyr That Puts Your Yogurt To Shame
Brennivín and Drinks That Warm You From Inside
Icelandic Chocolate and Sweets Worth Packing Home
Icelandic Lamb That Ruined All Other Lamb For Me
Icelandic sheep free-roam on wild herbs and grass all summer, and you can taste it immediately. After my first bite at a farmhouse dinner, I literally couldn't go back to regular lamb chops at home without being disappointed.
Grab this before your next dinner party — the flavor is so clean and herbaceous that you barely need seasoning. Anyone who thinks they don't like lamb hasn't tried this.
Certified organic grass fed Icelandic rack of lamb
Try one with everything (raw onion, crispy onion, ketchup, sweet mustard, remoulade) at the Bæjarins Beztu stand. Sounds weird but I ate four in two days and regret nothing.
Icelandic Hot Dog: Toppings, Recipe & the Kit (Pylsur)
Keep a few of these in your pantry for cold nights — it's the soup every Icelandic grandmother makes and it tastes like being wrapped in a wool blanket during a snowstorm. Perfect if you're the person who craves comfort food from October through Marc...
Icelandic Lamb Soup (Kjötsúpa)
Seafood Straight From Arctic Waters
The fishing boats come in daily and some restaurants are literally on the harbor. Coming from a landlocked state, eating cod that was swimming six hours ago rewired my brain about what fresh fish should taste like.
Swap your sad weeknight fish sticks for this traditional mashed fish and potato dish — it sounds humble but the flavor is ridiculously comforting. Stock up because once you try it, regular fish dinners feel incomplete.
Icelandic fish stew - Plokkfiskur
Toss a bag of this in your work bag instead of jerky. It's pure dried cod with zero additives, and Icelanders eat it with butter like chips. Weird? Yes. Addictive? Also yes.
Dried Fish fillets - Harðfiskur - Cod (200g)
Get the catch of the day and sit by the window — the arctic char there made me cancel my reservation somewhere else so I could go back the next night. Worth it if you only do one nice seafood dinner.
Sjávarpakkhúsið
Rúgbrauð: Hot Springs Bread You Bake Underground
They literally bury rye dough near geothermal springs and let the earth bake it for 24 hours. The bread comes out dense, dark, slightly sweet, and unlike anything from a normal oven.
Bring your camera because they dig the bread out of black sand right in front of you. Tasted it warm with Icelandic butter and honestly nothing at any bakery has hit the same since.
Fontana Geothermal Bakery
Use this as your gateway if you can't make it to a hot spring bakery — slice it thin, add smoked trout and cream cheese, and you've got the snack that got me through every Icelandic road trip afternoon.
Rúgbrauð Icelandic Rye Bread
Pair this with any rúgbrauð and the combination is stupid simple but unforgettable. Regular butter started tasting like nothing after a week of spreading this on everything.
Icelandic Skyr Butter
Skyr That Puts Your Yogurt To Shame
Before Iceland I thought Greek yogurt was the pinnacle. Then I tried actual Icelandic skyr at a farm and realized the stuff sold in American grocery stores is a watered-down imitation.
Switch from your usual yogurt and you'll notice the difference on day one — it's thicker, tangier, and actually fills you up until lunch. For anyone tired of yogurts that taste like dessert.
Icelandic Provisions
Grab the plain version and add your own blueberries — the texture is almost like cream cheese but lighter. Took me three brands to find one this close to what I had in Reykjavik.
What Is Skyr and How Is It Made?
Try this in person if you're in Reykjavik — crowberries are tiny, tart, and grow wild all over Iceland. Eating this on their second floor overlooking Hallgrímskirkja was one of those perfect travel moments.
Kaffi Loki Iceland
Brennivín and Drinks That Warm You From Inside
Walking around Reykjavik in January wind that cuts through every layer, I ducked into a bar and someone handed me a shot of Brennivín. Instantly understood why Icelanders call it Black Death — in the best way.
Sip this ice cold after a bite of fermented shark if you want the full Icelandic initiation. It's caraway-flavored, sharp, and honestly grew on me by the third night. For anyone who likes spirits with actual character.
Buy Brennivin Aquavit 1L Online - Icelantic Spirit
Keep a six-pack around for when friends come over — brewed with Arctic water and it's crisp without being boring. Way more interesting than reaching for the same IPA every weekend.
Einstok Icelandic White Ale 12oz Can - Viking Olgerd
Bring a few cans on a road trip around the Ring Road. Nothing fancy, just a clean Icelandic lager that pairs with gas station pylsur at midnight when the sun still hasn't set. That specific vibe.
Egils Gull 0% Icelandic beer - 10 pack (Non-alcoholic)
Icelandic Chocolate and Sweets Worth Packing Home
Nobody told me Iceland had a serious chocolate scene. Found out by accident when I wandered into a Reykjavik shop and walked out with six bars and an empty wallet.
Toss one of these in your bag before a long hike — the salt-to-sweet ratio is perfect and the packaging is almost too nice to open. For anyone who collects fancy chocolate bars from every country they visit.
Omnom Sea Salted Almonds + Milk 45% Chocolate Bar
Snag a handful of these at any Icelandic gas station — they're crunchy, chocolatey, and weirdly impossible to stop eating. Think Kit Kat's cooler Scandinavian cousin.
Nóa Kropp Chocolate bar
Get one just to say you tried it — it's nougat, caramel, and rice crispies covered in chocolate, and every Icelander I met had strong opinions about whether it's better than Snickers. (It is.)
Sambó Þristur - Chocolate bites with Licorice (220g)
Fermented and Funky: Adventurous Icelandic Eats
Someone dared me to try hákarl at a market stall and the smell alone almost ended me. But pushing through the weird stuff gave me some of the most memorable food moments of the whole trip.
Bring mints because your breath will be a crime scene for hours, but trying this at least once is a rite of passage. Watch the vendor's face — they live for tourists' reactions.
Kolaportið Market
Ditch the idea that dried fish is punishment food — spread cold butter on a piece and let it soften for a second. Icelanders have been snacking on this for a thousand years and they're onto something.
Smjör - Icelandic butter (250g)
Use a fork and start with the cheek meat, which is genuinely tender and delicious. The eyeball is optional. Honestly the hardest part is getting past what it looks like — the taste is milder than you'd expect.
The Day We Ate Svið (Sheep Head) in Iceland
Kitchen Tools to Cook Icelandic Food at Home
After coming home I spent two weeks trying to recreate everything I ate. These are the specific things that actually helped me get close instead of just staring sadly at my regular kitchen.
Use this for kjötsúpa and slow-braised lamb — it holds heat the way you need for those low-and-slow Icelandic recipes. Bought mine before the trip ended because I knew I'd be cooking lamb soup weekly.
Cast Iron Dutch Oven | Shop All Sizes Online
Grab this if you're going to work with fresh fish at home — it flexes perfectly along the bone and made me feel slightly less clumsy filleting arctic char for the first time. Sharp right out of the box.
Victorinox Fibrox 8-Inch Flexible Fillet Knife
Switch to this for baking dense rye bread at home — it traps steam like a mini geothermal oven and the crust comes out dark and crackly. Closest I've gotten to that hot springs rúgbrauð without burying dough in my backyard.
Ceramic Bread Cloche | Made in France