From Iceland — Go For The Fish

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If you like fish, and you like fish a lot, Kitchen is the place for you. It might be an added joy to know that you are given a bottom-less plate. Hopefully you also have a bottom-less stomach – and a taste for fish, the only item amidst the other choices in the buffet worth eating for your midday meal. If this meets your criteria, loosen your belt a notch and get ready for some all you can eat buffet lovin’.
   Kitchen features a lunch buffet every day that is a variation of Nepalese and Indian fare. This includes mixed vegetables, rice, chicken methi, chana daal, and the delicious, mouth-watering, fish masala, which is the reigning king of all the buffet items. Soup, made fresh every day, is also part of the menu. All of the options for the buffet change each day. The dishes all have their own sauce made up of completely different herbs and spices. The food shifts between sweet and spicy, which is a nice change of pace for the diner who is tired of food soaked in a restaurant’s “signature sauce.”
   Yet some of the dishes, although they are certainly aromatic with herbs and spices, fail to impress. The chicken mehti seemed so heavily covered with herbs that it was a little overwhelming. As my grandpa used to say, “I can’t eat it if I can’t get it past my nose.” The chana daal dish did what seemed impossible; it presented a variation of spices so strangely sweet that it ended up being slightly bland. My lunch date and I politely acknowledged the differing tastes, then politely put our forks down.
   The fish masala, prepared with sauce that isn’t an onslaught of herbage, trumps all other dishes. A tender piece of perfection, it is satisfying enough to pick the fish as a main and solo item for lunch. As I was left pushing other strange concoctions around my plate, a clean spot quickly developed where the fish masala had previously lain. And you can get all the seconds you want. The lunch buffet costs 1550 ISK and runs from 11:00 to 15:00 during the week, 12:00 to 15:00 on Saturday, and 12:30 to 15:30 on Sunday. The dinner menu is a little more pricey, with the main dishes ranging from 1890 ISK to 3590 ISK. There is also an extensive wine list on offer.