Bookstore employees in the city centre complain about the bothersome tourists that bump in from the rain, one after the other, wet, confused, with a map in their hands, asking the same question over and over again: Where can I find a cheap Icelandic restaurant? And the employees have been forced to answer, again and again: you cannot. Of course Icelandic cuisine does not exist. Tasty food is a new thing in Iceland, just like in most other Northern European countries. Some fusion kitchen artists have been known to create avant-garde dishes from typical Icelandic raw material, that being fish, lobster, lamb and bird – but mostly in a price range out of reach for law-abiding people.
But to those bookstore employees and their annoying tourist clientele we bring some good news. A well kept secret indeed: Not only is there a restaurant in Ostabudin – the Cheese store – by Skolavordustigur, and not only is it better than its prices would indicate, it is actually that Icelandic restaurant you have all been looking for.
Go there for a Friday lunch and have the blackbird salad. If you,re starving, add a fish steak. Praise the chef. Think about buying some blackbird meat in the cheese store on the way out, because you simply can,t have enough of that, but think twice when you see the price of 5000 ISK/kg. Change your mind but decide to come back and get a bird like that when you intend to seduce someone, preferably some raspberry vinaigrette and a secret recipe, too. Even hope you might seduce the chef and secure your future.
Ostabudin, Skolavordustigur 8, 101 Reykjavik. Phone: 562-2772.
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