Reykjavík Grapevine - 05.07.2013, Qupperneq 26

Best cheap meal
‘SUB OF THE MONTH’
AT SUBWAY
Subway left 101 Reykjavík a couple of
years ago and we had no idea where
to go for a cheap lunch. And then they
came BACK! And we are thrilled. Now,
listen: As almost any working man
or woman in Reykjavík will attest,
Subway’s ‘sub of the month’ sandwich
is a real lifesaver for when you need
to a quick, satisfying lunch. OK, it’s
Subway. But still—450 ISK will get you
a sandwich featuring some meatstuffs
(that can be easily foregone) fresh
veggies and a sauce of your choice.
The price can’t be beat, and if you
figure out a nice combination for the
sub, it’s pretty damn tasty.
Runner-up: Noodle Station (“damn
tasty, and filling.”)
2012: Íslenski barinn
2011: Noodle Station
2010: ‘Sub of the month’ at Subway
Bankastræti 14
Best Seafood
FISKIFÉLAGIÐ
It can be hard to keep them straight—
Fish Company, Fish Market, and
Seafood Grill—they all have fairly
similar names, some of them are locat-
ed very near to each other, and they
all serve, yes, fish and more gener-
ally seafood. It was a tough choice, as
they are all pretty good too, but once
again we think The Fish Company, also
known as Fiskifélagið, takes the cake.
“They are consistently good,” our
food critic said this year, just like last
year. “The food is exceptionally good,
the dimly lit basement is cosy and
romantic, and the service is excellent.”

2012: Fiskifélagið
2011: Við Tjörnina
2010: Fiskifélagið
Vesturgötu 2a

Best Brunch
VOX
If you’re willing to spend north of 3,000
ISK, VOX has the best weekend brunch
in town. But you’re getting your
money’s worth. It has an expansive
buffet with all kinds of must-try Icelan-
dic foods. And, as our former food crit-
ic notes, it comes with a free reminder
that Icelanders have very poor buffet
etiquette, so if you're looking for some
aggression with your smoked salmon
you're in luck. You’ll get a lot of Iceland
stuff, all of your classic brunch stuff –
eggs, bacon. If you’re hungover, you
might feel more comfortable at Prikið
or Grái kötturinn though.
Runners-up: For something more
affordable, Bergsson is a great option.
It serves your classic American brunch
items with an Icelandic twist—skyr of
course.
2012: Vox
2011: Vox
2010: Nítjánda
2009: Vox
Suðurlandsbraut 2
Best Place to go With a
Group of Friends
KEX HOSTEL
Since opening a couple of years ago,
KEX has firmly planted itself as one of
the coolest places for casual evening
beers and easy-going concerts. But
most impressively, it’s one of the few
places in town with really, really big
tables. Like, many of them, that you
don’t need to reserve. It’s a huge,
comfy, stylish space with a super
social atmosphere too, so our panel
had no trouble agreeing that this is
ideal for a big group of people.
2012: Tapas Bar
2011: Tapas Bar
2010: Tapas Bar
Skúlagata 28
Best Must-Try Dining
Experience
ICELANDIC FOOD AT
KAFFI LOKI
Nestled on top of the hill, next to Hall-
grímskirkja church, Kaffi Loki offers
a rare treat for travellers and locals
alike. Specialising in nice tasting
Icelandic food, they make the kind of
homemade rye bread and meat soup
that your mother wishes she could.
If you order the 'Icelandic treats' set
dish, you’ll get a taste of everything.
Top it off with Icelandic pancakes and
you’ll have a royal meal. Or if you
are feeling adventurous, try the rye
bread ice cream—it’s something else
entirely!
2012: Home-Style Food at
Mamma Steina
2011: The svið at Fljótt og Gott,
BSI
2010: Moby Dick on a Stick at
Sægreifinn
2009: Bæjarins Beztu
Lokastígur 28
Best Kept Secret
LUNCH BEAT
Having emerged during the last
edition of the Reykjavík Dance
Festival, this secret sensation has
been roving around our fair city for
almost a year and still remains a near
mystery! What started as an eat-
and-dance-your-ass-off lunchtime
party in Sweden a few years back has
gone all over the world, and our local
chapter has held parties at Hemmi &
Valdi (RIP!), Bravó (formerly Litla Gula
Hænan) and Harpa. There’s a healthy
smorgasbord for 500 ISK to sustain
you through the beats and DJs to
get you shaking. But we don’t know
where the next one will be! Maybe
that’s why it’s such a secret.
2012: Icelandic Home-Style Food
at Mamma Steina
2011: The svið at Fljótt og Gott, BSÍ
2010: Moby Dick on a Stick at
Sægreifinn
2009: Bæjarins Beztu
All over town
NEW: Best Lunch
OSTABÚÐIN
This cheese and deli shop on
Skólavörðustígur offers a daily
lunch that is certainly no secret at
all. Although some of our people
had only just been converted to their
quick and plentiful dishes, includ-
ing a catch of the day and fresh
bruschetta, others were afraid that
giving it this award would make the
place even more crowded in the two
short hours it serves the mid-day
meal. Hopefully our devoted Osta-
búðin-lunching readers won’t lose
their spots, but damn, this place is
deeeelish!
Skólavörðustígur 8
NEW: Best Late
Night Bite
NONNABITI
A Nonni boat (or sub, hoagie or
grinder for non-local readers) is one
of those incredible late-night foods
that inspired impassioned responses
from our respondents—some enam-
oured, some disgusted, and others
wallowing in self-loathing. Still, it was
unanimous that shoving one of these
in your food-hole at 2am is basically
unbeatable. By the time you get to the
end of one, you’re just drinking down
all those delicious sauces. Plus, sever-
al folks also pointed out that Nonni
himself is a total hunk and super nice
to chat with. Now that’s a late night
treat!
Hafnarastræti 9
DRINKING
AND
NIGHTLIFE
Best Mainstreamer Bar
THE ENGLISH PUB
If you’re wondering what we mean by
‘mainstream,’ a lot of us did as well!
We agreed that this is neither a posi-
tive or negative qualifier, but a neutral
catch-all; a place where you could pop
in for a single beer or a long rowdy
night whether you are a Kenzo clad
fashion maven or a Goretex layered
stopover tourist. The English Pub fits
this to a T, as we all learned by hold-
ing a booze-soaked Best Of meet-
ing there, with a panel comprised of
hipsters, dads, clean-cut profession-
als, goths, football fans and slobs.
Thanks, English Pub!
2012: The English Pub
2011: The English Pub
2010: Austur
Austurstræti 12
Best Place to
Start the Night
SLIPPBARINN
We judge a good place to start the
night as a place to be able to chat with
your companions, drink something
that tastes good and maybe be able to
get something to eat. Kind of like KEX’s
west-side counterpart, Slippbarinn in
the Hotel Marina, which swept this
category with their gorgeous, central
harbour location, comfortable and
spacious atmosphere and a superb
selection of well-priced cocktails and
pub grub. We have started many a
night there, with great success, and it
sort of makes losing Hemmi & Valdi a
little less painful.
2012: KEX Hostel
2011: Nýlenduvörverzlun
Hemma & Valda
2010: Nýlenduvörverzlun
Hemma & Valda
Mýrargata 2
NEW: Best Place To
End The Night
HARLEM
At the end of the night, we’re talk-
ing the very end of a very long night,
you’re usually looking for something
special, an extra dose of magic to
help you reach previously unattained
peaks. Something for the books.
Lately, that special something can
often be found at Harlem. As clos-
ing time draws near, you can expect
the patrons to go all in, dancing on
any flat surface, smashing glasses,
and getting sloppy. The music is the
kind that everyone can shake to, and
even if your dancing sucks, you don't
have to worry, what you’ll be doing is
neither technically nor legally danc-
ing anyway! Take our hint: go shake,
pivot and pulsate your way into the
morning at Harlem!
Tryggvagata 22
Best Cheap Bar
ÖLSMIÐJAN
When it comes to the best cheap bar,
we’re of course considering the price
of beer, but that cheap beer has to
taste decent and you have to be not
especially afraid while consuming
that cheap beer. Thus, Ölsmiðjan
wins best cheap bar. It doesn’t have
the cheapest beer in town (we think
this is Glaumbar, for 390 ISK), but it
has pretty cheap beer (450 ISK), and
the atmosphere is nicer than you’d
maybe expect for the price.
2012: Ölsmiðjan
2011: Den Danske Kro
2010: Kaffi Zimsen
2009: Nýlenduvöruverzlun
Hemma & Valda
Lækjargata 10
Best All Around Bar
DOLLY
Dolly is a great bar to have some
post-work beers when the place is
still mellow and quiet enough to have
conversation. As the night goes on, it
becomes far more upbeat. You’ll find
it’s a great place to go dancing or get
in that one last round on your way
home, that is if you’re not too late, as
the queue gets pretty long as the hour
grows late.
2012: Faktorý
Hafnarstræti 4
Best Bar To Go Dancing
HARLEM
Harlem has Reykjavík’s busiest
dance floor, and it attracts the very
cool and fly young artsy crowd that
loves to—you guessed it—get down
and boogie! In between showing
off dance moves they learned from
YouTube, you can admire the beauti-
ful interior art decorating the venue,
fight your way to the bar and enjoy
being ignored until someone takes
pity on you and serves you a beer.
The music is cool and the dance floor
usually ends up taking over the tables
and booths, too.
2012: Bakkus
Tryggvagata 22
Best Newcomer Bar
KALDI
Kaldi serves excellent beer (...Kaldi)
and their happy hour lasts until 20:00.
And guess what: they have an actual,
tuned piano that people can play,
which is really nice. Oh, and not only
do they have Kaldi, but they also have
unfiltered Kaldi on tap, which you’re
probably not going to find elsewhere.
2012: Slippbarinn, Hótel Marína
2011: Faktorý
2010: Sódóma
Laugavegur 20b
Best Place To Watch
Sports Over Beer
BJARNI FEL
Sports bars in Reykjavík seem to come
and go, but one in particular is always
there. That’s Bjarni Fel. If it’s sports
on big TVs that you’re after, you can
count on this bar, which won this cate-
gory back in 2009, to provide you with
exactly that. They’ve got the burgers,
the beer, the all sorts of weird sports
from all over the world on TV--and
they’re conveniently right downtown,
should you be in the mood to engage
in further recreational drinking once
the vuvuzelas die down.
2012: Úrilla Górillan
2011: Hvíta Perlan
2010: Hvíta Perlan
2009: Bjarni Fel
Austurstræti 20
Best Beer Selection
MICRO BAR
If it’s variety you’re looking for,
then look no further--as far as sheer
number of different beers available,
Micro Bar is simply unbeatable. They
always have eight beers on tap (no
Viking or Gull, either!) and dozens of
bottled selections, constantly getting
new and more exciting kinds from
all over the world. The staff is also
knowledgeable, and can tell you all
about it should you wish to turn your
getting sloshed into an educational
experience. This place is all about the
variety, not the volume.
2012: Micro Bar
Austurstræti 6
Best Place To
Get Cocktails
BORG, HOTEL BORG
When it came time to pick this year’s
best place to get cocktails, our choic-
es came down to Hótel Marína’s
Slippbarinn and Hotel Borg’s Borg
(last year’s winner Kolabrautin sadly
having lost its mojo for some reason).
While Borg is perhaps slightly less
inventive than Slippbarinn, it is
extremely solid in the classics. They
go the extra mile, burning that strip
of orange peel and dropping it onto
the egg white foam of your cocktail
to give the slightest flavour... The
Borg room itself is beautiful and has a
sense of occasion, which is important
for cocktails. Plus, the service is just
incredible.
Runner-up: Slippbarinn. They are
super inventive and that’s definitely
part of the reason we’ve voted it best
place to start the night.
2012: Kolabrautin
Pósthússtræti 9-11
NEW: Best Bar
For Smokers
REYKJAVÍK BEATS
In the smoker’s world, a bar has to
meet certain criteria that the rest of
us probably couldn’t care less about
(although it should be said that the
smoking area of a bar is a great way to
meet people). Reykjavík Beats takes
the cake with the only “indoor” smok-
ing area. There’s nice seating there
where you can drink your beer, which
is essential, the smokers say, as they
quite enjoy drinking their beer while
they smoke. Be warned though, Reyk-
javík Beats kind of makes you want
to stay in the smoking area all night
long, which will wreak havoc on your
clothes and lungs.
Hverfisgata 46
Best Late Night Bite: Nonnabiti
26The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 9 — 2013