Vox restaurant is located on the first floor of the Hilton Reykjavík Nordica hotel on Suðurlandsbraut. It is actually a two-for-one kind of package, with a less formal bistro operation in the front of the large dining room, separated from the more elegant and official Vox Restaurant by a huge glass room that serves as a wine cellar. On this visit, we dined at the more casual bistro, which has its own separate menu.
The menu is divided into light courses and main courses. The light courses range from around 1000 to 1600 ISK and include dishes such as Icelandic meat soup and Nordic tapas, with more traditional light dishes such as chicken and Caesar salad available as well. The main courses are in the 1600 to 3000 ISK price range, with beef tenderloin topping the chart at 2990 ISK. Considering the attentive and professional service, the quality of the food, and the prestigious Hilton affiliation, the prices are surprisingly low.
We started with dishes from the light course menu; chicken, served in tempura with basil and ruccola for my date, and classic Icelandic meat soup for yours truly. The chicken fell somewhere between the unsurprising and the indifferent, but the meat soup was instantly placed in the category reserved for extremely tasty and memorable meat soups. Although sparse in ingredients, the clear meat soup was rich in flavour and free from the oily residue of lamb fat that sometimes ruins the pleasure of this popular Icelandic dish.
For a main course, she ordered the beef tenderloin, while I selected another Icelandic traditional favourite: lamb chops. The beef tenderloin was an instant success. Served with fries and béarnaise sauce, it was both tender and tasty, and the portion surprisingly hefty. The lamb chops followed strict guidelines, perfected through the decades by Icelandic housewives, served with brown sauce and browned potatoes. It passed the test with flying colours.
With little stomach room to spare, we decided to share a chocolate cake for desert. That proved to be a mistake – it was far too good to share.
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