Reykjavík Grapevine - 13.07.2012, Page 67

R E V I E W S
Iceland’s
Restaurant of the year
2009 & 2010
by the Nordic Prize
Nordic House Sturlugata 5 101 Reykjavik tel. +354 552 1522 www.dillrestaurant.is Open for lunch every day from 11.30 and for dinner wednesday to sunday from 19.00. Ó Ð I N S T O R G 1 0 1 R E Y K J A V Í K Í S L A N D S N A P S B I S T R O . I SS n a p s b i s t r o @ s n a p s b i s t r o . i s + 3 5 4 5 1 1 6 6 7 7
Wings of lovE
Úrilla Górillan (“The Grumpy Gorilla”)
is a bar with two locations, specialising
in small groups, American grub, too
much beer and finding an outlet for our
inner cannibal necrophiliacs through the
ritualised watching of organised sports.
After proving reasonably successful
with their American sports bar at their
Stórhöfði 17 location, The Gorilla decided
to swing over to 101 Reykjavík a couple of
months back. The Gorilla planted itself
right next to The English Pub, sure to
provide a stream of lively conversations
through a cloud of halftime cigarettes in
the outside common area about what ex-
actly constitutes “football.”
Downstairs there are more moni-
tors than you can throw a disapproving
banana at. There are monitors inside
monitors and those monitors have tiny
iPhones of their own broadcasting a live
stream of a stack of monitors in a post-
apocalyptic future where monitors have
conquered the human race (next Thurs-
day?). The upstairs area is mostly rented
out to college kids or small business
groups and I have been told it will even-
tually be fitted with retro arcade games
and a 3D projector.
So what’s the food like? The Gorilla
has the standard burgers, fries and wings
fare. Having said that, this is probably
the best sports bar food I’ve had in Ice-
land. My male escort for the evening had
the burrito with large oat flakes (1,990
ISK dinner / 990 ISK lunch) and I had
the peppercorn cheeseburger (1,990 ISK
dinner / 990 ISK lunch) and we split a
large side order of hot wings (1,790 ISK).
The burger was surprisingly good:
juicy without dripping with grease, fresh
bun, medium rare and tasted of green
peppercorns. The burrito was less ex-
citing; they should focus on the grease
and leave out the “healthy” additions.
To liven it up, my male escort make the
mistake of adding a pint of habanero Ta-
basco and I had to listen to his whimper-
ing for the rest of the meal.
The star of the show were the wings,
although wings in name only, seeing as
what you get are thin deep-fried chicken
fillets with a breadcrumb coating served
with a lacing of hot sauce and a side of
mild blue cheese sauce. But those faux
wings still managed to soar above any
wings I’ve had in Iceland up to now—
custom-made breadcrumbs and tender,
juicy fillets.
Top marks for the service as well. A
small mistake was made with the burger
order but they whipped up the right or-
der in what seemed like five minutes and
they split the order of wings without us
asking.
My main complaint is that Úrilla
Górillan needs to get a proper website.
They might think it’s rad to rely on so-
cial media for the heavy lifting (how
Web two-point-whoah! of them), but a
barebones Facebook page with no menu
is like handing out business cards while
not wearing any pants (which might ac-
tually work if you’re a bar-hopping goril-
la). Get some college kid to do it for you
in exchange for some free beers.
RAGNAR EGILSSON
ALÍSA KALYANOVA
What We Think: Good burgers,
great hot “wings”
Flavour: American sports bar by
the numbers
Ambiance: Gets louder as the
night goes on but not as fratty as
the other sports bars
Service: Fast and friendly
Úrilla Górillan
Austurstræti 12, 101 Reykjavík