A couple of months after opening, The Fish Company caters its fusion kitchen to full cellars (reserve ahead). Despite the name, it serves up both sea and land based raw materials. The portions are built around herbs and spices selected from all over the world, married to produce from the home base. The most popular choice on the menu is the Around the World (7900 ISK) surprise menu served for the entire table, but we chose to go a la carte.
Our meal was preceded by a little surprise from the kitchen, arctic char with coriander paste and a touch of orange served in a cute glass jar.
While German tourists were performing advanced Euro to Króna calculations at an adjacent table, we went on to the appetizers. My fish soup (1790 ISK), inspired by coconut milk from Fiji, came with bonito foam, water cress, mussels and lobster. Hearty, sweet and delicious with a glass of chardonnay (950 ISK) and freshly baked bread with skyr butter.
My date chose pork belly with Serrano ham, gnocchi and black olive sand (1870 ISK). The morsels of slow-cooked pork were buttery light and the black olive sand added a great texture contrast (think caviar without the ick factor). The only miss on the plate were the cubes of Serrano ham, saltily overpowering anything else in the mouth.
To go with the belly, he would’ve liked a nice local beer, but had to sip down a bottle of Víking. Why does the Fish Company bar not stock any of the Icelandic micro-brewery beers?
My truffle-inspired main course (4530 ISK) had a lot going on: the portion featured fried breast of duck, goat confit, foie gras, half-potato-mustard-mash-croissant, peach sauce and Camembert. The duck was excellent, the goat melted in the mouth, the fried foie gras was wonderful. Everything (except for the fun but not so tasty mustard-croissant) worked beautifully together.
My date sat opposite me in jealousy. His baccalo was more jelly than salt, the broth it swam in a lukewarm challenge. Luckily, the squid and accompanying vegetables were quite delicious, soft and toothsome.
The dessert—a shared plate of honeymoon cake—didn’t quite seal the deal: the enormous pile of deconstructed cake (=flakes of cake crust) lacked taste, as did the carrot ice cream. The plain cream cheese was not rich enough to work. To the portion’s rescue were the lovely wild strawberry ice cream and fresh strawberries. Greedy as I am I ate anyway—and spent the night with my bursting belly as punishment.
- Fiskifélagið Vesturgata 2a
- What we think: Fun, interesting and ambitious
- Flavour: Fusion with focus on ingredients
- Ambiance: Upscale cosy
- Service: Polite
- Rating: 4/5
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