What Have We Won?: One Muthafuckin’ Michelin Star

Iceland has never been known for its culinary prowess. Let’s be frank, when most foreigners think of Icelandic ‘matur’—that’s food in Icelandic for all you idiots—they probably think of acidic piss-soaked shark meat and bleeding sheep heads. Most don’t expect a superb life-changing dining experience in the tiny town of Reykjavík. Well, just like the beliefs that Iceland jailed their bankers and is a feminist paradise—it’s a stereotype that’s just plain old wrong.

Superfood stars

In February 2017, the Icelandic dining community showed its stuff on the worldwide sustenance stage by being awarded their first Michelin Star. The culprit? Reykjavík’s own high class haunt Dill. It was a revolutionary moment for the Icelandic dining scene, and the country as a whole. Sigur what? Blue Lag-who?

The Michelin committee praised the restaurant’s intimate dimly-lit interior, innovative take on New Nordic cooking, and skilful complexity in texture and flavour. It’s well-deserved praise. While many restaurants in Iceland have embraced some principles of New Nordic cuisine, Dill goes all in, carefully sourcing and foraging ingredients and reworking them in renegade ways. Go for a meal you’ll never forget, or perhaps be able to afford again.

Foodies beware

For the record, the Grapevine has been on the Dill train way before the tyre man even knew about it. Dill won the Grapevine’s Best Of Reykjavík award for the best place to go for a fancy meal as early as 2010, and many of our food reviewers have gone orgasmic over their fare. So obviously, the Michelin community should be consulting us on food related matters. We’re hip and tasty.