Reykjavík Grapevine - 24.08.2012, Síða 67

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
R E V I E W
Fresh Meat in Reykjavík Three new bars in Reykjavík and
more restaurants than you can shake a wind-dried cod at
THE BARS
Dolly just opened at Hafnarstræti 4
and is already vying for/clambering up
the shitheap towards... the title of the
hippest place in Reykjavík. Two floors
with an electronic bent, slightly more
bar than club, patrons of Faktorý, Bak-
kus and Kaffibarinn should feel right at
home. Will this be the new Sirkus? Only
time and the number of vomit-stained,
sequined masks of the Aztec god of
death Mictlantecuhtli will tell.
The club Mánabar (The Moon Bar)
opened in the nick of time, with the car-
penters throwing their tools out the back
just as the first punters on Culture Night
started pouring in. Located at Hverfisga-
ta 20 where Buddha Bar used to be (and
Hverfisbarinn before that), Mánabar has
gotten a major make-over with a more
sensible lay-out and explicit references
to outer space.
Gay bar Kjallarinn opened on Gay Pride,
which means we now have two brand-
spanking new gay bars (for branding
and spanking!). It’s located quite far
up Laugavegur, at number 73, below
the beef floggers at Restaurant 73. The
main gay rights advocates in Iceland are
called “Samtökin 78,” so it’s an opportu-
nity missed by only 5 houses.
THE RESTAURANTS
Steikhúsið or “The Steikhouse” (sic) is
the first house in Reykjavík to be made
entirely out of beef. Lady GaGa is ru-
moured to have bought it with a check
made of prosciutto. Also, they seem to
serve steaks and are located somewhere
by the old harbour opposite The Burger
Joint. Now you have two choices for
fucking up your arteries!
For the more health conscious we have
Bergsson Mathús at Templarasund
3. Possibly named after the celebrated
feminist writer Guðbergur Bergsson,
but more likely a relative of celebrated
entertainer Felix Bergsson. No fixed
style of cuisine other than organicish-
freerangeish-localish-rawish. You get
the picture. Slip out of those lycra pants
and windbreaker and head there after
your morning jog for a detox smoothie
or whatever you non-smokers do with
your free time.
Sakebarinn recently opened above
Sushibarinn so customers will now be
forced to stand in the doorway between
the two places with a maki in one hand
and a sake in the other. It’s a devilish
scheme that might be just crazy enough
to work. It’s located at Laugavegur 2 and
seems like a pretty nice place (see, I’m
not always mean).
Then there are the two wild cards. Bud-
dha café on the other side of the street
from Sakebarinn. Not to be confused
with the bar formerly known as Buddha
Bar up on the corner or Gautama Bud-
dha, who was a mild-mannered vegetar-
ian who disapproved of alcohol. It is only
a matter of time until the owners of the
Indian restaurant Gandhi (www.gandhi.
is) learn of their existence and the two
duke it out in an orgy of mindless vio-
lence.
Finally, some maniac decided to open up
a sushi fast food place in the Iða build-
ing at Lækjargata 2a. It’s called Soya
Makibar. And I’m talkin’ Subway-style
fast food with a sauce of your choosing,
not conveyor belt sushi. It’s so wrong it
just might be right.
THE WISHBONE
First there was Eldsmiðjan (The Forge)
and then there was Gamla Smiðjan (The
Old Forge), Ölsmiðjan (The Ale Forge),
Kaffismiðjan (The Coffee Forge) and Su-
shismiðjan (you get the idea). Now get
ready for Vatnssmiðjan, where water
is lovingly crafted out of base metals
using nothing but iron ore and a blast
furnace! Those who have tried it swear
by its faint aroma of cast iron and sweat
from the blacksmith’s brow. Mmmm,
how quenching!
The inventive people behind Su-
shiSamba continue their chain of in-
genious fusion restaurants. First was
the Austrian-Indonesian restaurant
Javaltz, with their signature dish the
“Bika Ambonstrudel.” Then we got the
Japanese-Easter-Islandic place Rapa
Nori with their line of endangered palm
trees wrapped in seaweed. Last year
they opened the anachronistic Texan-
Palaeolithic place Tex-Mex-T-Rex, which
is slowly gaining a foothold after some
initial setbacks with their selection of
raw buffalo wings.
This year they have outdone themselves
with the family friendly Inuit-Italian joint,
Pastablubber. There the kids can take
a ride in a slide set inside a putrefying
whale carcass while mommy and daddy
get to pick their own baby seal and club
it with an espresso machine. Fun for the
whole family, carefully modelled on ex-
isting chains for quality insurance and
sure to be a hit like their other wonder-
ful fusion places!
I probably don’t need to tell you guys
about it, seeing as it was all over the
news last week, but they have caught the
mythical serpent Lagarfljótsormurinn in
the east of the country. Only an hour af-
ter the news got out, the mad scientists
at Roadhouse had already designed the
perfect hickory smoked dipping sauce
to go with the crunchy cryptid. Those
who have tried their finger-licking Hi Ho
Serpent burger know what I’m talking
about.
Mánabar
Hverfisgata 20
manabarrvk
Kjallarinn
Laugavegur 73
/pages/
Kjallarinn/335476313202487
Dolly
Hafnarstræti 4
dollyreykjavik
Bergsson Mathús
Templarasund 3
BergssonMathus
Sakebarinn
Laugavegur 2
Sakebarinn
Buddha Café
Laugavegur 3
/pages/Buddha-
Caf%C3%A9/436257679728387
Soya Makibar
Lækjargata 2a
/pages/Soya-
Makibar/340141289397473
Steikhúsið
Tryggvagata 4
steik
Ragnar grills some sausages. Read about it
on page 30