Reykjavík Grapevine - 05.12.2014, Page 51

“ 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 “
top ten the best restaurants in Iceland
the finest thai restaurant in Iceland
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NEW AWARDS
BEST THAI FOOD
2 0 1 4
also. . . .
DV.17.07.11
best goddamn restaurant 2011
the best thai food
FOOD
FOR YOUR MIND BODY AND SOUL
Skrúður is an institution in family-friendly
Christmas buffets. There are fancier buf-
fets, there are more innovative buffets,
but I was interested in this one because
of how resolutely decent and representa-
tive it is. And it doesn’t hurt that it holds
some personal nostalgic memories for me.
What is Christmas if not blatantly maudlin
nostalgia? Skrúður is a place where grand-
parents take their grandchildren: when I
went, there were no less than five separate
groups consisting of three generations of
Icelanders. But the median age was gen-
erally a little higher than at your average
buffet.
Hótel Saga contains three restaurants
in total: Skrúður, Súlnasalur, and Grillið.
There are two Christmas buffets on offer,
one in Skrúður and one in Súlnasalur, the
latter being the more elaborate one, and
paired with some dinner entertainment.
The space is enormous, with enough
ceiling height to stack up a couple of tour
buses, and the ambience is a little like a
Vegas dining hall without the crushing
claustrophobia. It’s self-serve and all you
can eat, with the cold dishes and appetiz-
ers set aside, a dessert area and ice-cream
bar and a section where the chefs carve up
your meat of choice.
Cold dishes included a delicious Akva-
vit-cured salmon, lightly smoked Green-
land halibut and a selection of pickled
herring. It also included cold, white-wine
boiled mussels layered on a steel serving
tray sans ice, which seemed like a risky
choice and tasted like you would expect.
In addition to that, they had cold cuts of
Hangikjöt (smoked lamb) and Hambor-
garhryggur (smoked glazed ham).
Standouts from the hot dishes were
the lemon-chilli turkey breast and the
pork roast with crackling. The marinated
lamb was well cooked but completely
under-seasoned, and did not seem to have
seen much marinating. The rib-eye came
in an enormous lump that brought tears to
the chef’s eyes and saliva to our mouths.
The only thing missing form the hot
dishes was a greater selection of sauces—
all we had to go with was a single brown
stock sauce for four kinds of meats.
Sides included the classic Waldorf sal-
ad, “gular baunir” (literally “yellow beans,”
actually sweet corn), “grænar baunir” (lit-
erally “green beans,” actually green peas),
shredded red cabbage, red onion jam, red
beets, potato salad and greens.
The dessert bar included three types of
buttery, creamy desserts in shot glasses: a
Risalamande, a white chocolate cream and
a chocolate mousse. It also offered a selec-
tion of cookies and a Pavlova, which could
have used some of the whipped cream that
went into the other three (and we ended
up fixing that ourselves, turns out white
chocolate cream Pavlova is pretty damn
good).
Overall, Skrúður offers a nice, tradi-
tional, Icelandic holiday buffet. The food
was a bit hit and miss, as is always the case
with those sorts of things, but this was
more than made up by the great value for
money, and the solid introduction to Ice-
landic Christmas traditions it offers.
Icelandic Christmas Buffet at Skrúður
RAGNAR EGILSSON
ART BICNICK
What We Think:
Happy holidays
Flavour:
Salted, smoked, creamy
Ambiance:
Cavernous, quiet, surprisingly
casual
Service:
Sparse but good (we were
there very early)
Price for 2 (no drinks):
3,900 ISK (lunch), 6,300 ISK
(dinner), 50% off for children 12-
16 years old, free for under 12s.
Skrúður at Hótel Saga
Hagatorg, 107 Reykjavík
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