Reykjavík Grapevine - 04.03.2016, Side 51

FOOD
PULSA? PYLSA?
Hverfisgata 12 · 101 Reykjavík
Tel. +354 552 15 22 · www.dillrestaurant.is
Lífið er saltfiskur
#109 Dill is a Nordic restaurant with its
focus on Iceland, the pure nature and
all the good things coming from it.

It does not matter if it’s the
ingredients or the old traditions, we
try to hold firmly on to both.
There are not many things that make
us happier than giving life to old
traditions and forgotten ingredients
with modern technique and our creative
mind as a weapon.
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F R E N C H O N I O N S O U P
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M O U L E S M A R I N I È R E S
s t e a m e d m u s s e l s f r o m B r e i ð a f j ö r ð u r
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E s t . 2 0 1 2R e y k j a v i k
23
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 3 — 2016
There were
three of us there
that night and
all we realized
that during our
lives, we had
approached the
Icelandic restau-
rant scene from
many different
angles. We had
worked as serv-
ers, food truck
vendors, cooks,
managers, part-
owners, restau-
rant reviewers,
restaurant pro-
moters, event
managers, ca-
terers, hoteliers,
restaurant app
developers, res-
taurant marke-
teers—basically
everything from
dishwasher ups.
Needless to say,
we have eaten at
a metric fuckton
of restaurants.
So I think it’s
with some au-
thority that we
can state that Pylsa-Pulsa is the weirdest
damn restaurant in Reykjavík.
The first thing you’ll notice is the
design and flow of the room. The ambi-
ence is like a community theatre produc-
tion of ‘Twin Peaks’ set in a bus terminal.
(Perhaps helped by Reykjavík’s former
main bus terminal located opposite, from
which the restaurant's hotel derives its
name.)
The room is airy, with little but velvet
drapes separating the restaurant from
the lounge, and softcore pornoesque gos-
samer curtains separating the restaurant
from the front desk. On this occasion, we
shared the greater space with a large boy
scout troop, the current mayor and his
entourage, and a live performance from
an indie-electro band.
Thematically, Pylsa-Pulsa is confus-
ing. It is a sort-of-biergarten, but with
few communal tables, upholstered furni-
ture, chandeliers, gilded mirrors, elegant
cocktails, cheap tan wooden floors, and a
wooden sign swinging from a chain bear-
ing the restaurant’s name—both variant
spellings for “hot dogs” in Icelandic. It’s
hard to say what they are going for, ex-
actly, but this lack of barriers, themati-
cally or otherwise, didn’t intrude on the
experience in any major way.
That is because the restaurant nails
it in so many other ways. The menu is ex-
traordinarily heavy on animal protein (and
heavy overall) but everything we tried was
executed with a thoughtful touch.
We started with the sausage tasting
plate (2,700 ISK). On this occasion the
platter included a delicious merguez
with a pronounced lanolin flavour, ac-
companied by sourdough and frisee sal-
ad, a divisive piece of duck sausage with
red cabbage and a fruity sauce (which I
happened to like, and I’m writing this so
who cares what my tablemates thought),
and a sehr gut bratwurst with brown
mustard and sauerkraut.
We followed that with two mains.
Firstly, the fish of the day (2,500 ISK), an
excellent arctic char with crispy-AF skin,
mashed potatoes and salad (people who
leave a well-cooked piece of arctic char skin
uneaten should get fish-slapped off a pier
on general principle). Secondly, we tried
the thoroughly wonderful mushroom and
beef burger (2,100 ISK), which was only let
down by a dull side of fries and aioli.
The service was stupendous. We got
some attention from the German wizard
running the show from behind the vel-
vet drapes, but mostly we were managed
by a waitress who moved so fast we had
honestly begun to speculate that we were
dealing with twins running a relay race
with the plates. And it certainly didn’t
hurt that the bartender whipped up some
of the best cocktails I’ve tried in Reykja-
vík: The Smokey Don (Grand Mariner,
Don Julio Añejo, smoked syrup, lemon,
mole bitters, 2,100 ISK) and Earth, Wind
& Mescal (mescal, fennel, grapefruit,
lime, sugar, tiki bitters, 2,000 ISK). This
and some strong coffee counted as des-
sert because we’re old bros and sweet
things go straight to our hips.
So that’s it. Not the most wildly in-
novative menu in the world and none of
what I described makes a lick of sense but
with good food, good service, and good
cocktails I think I’ll survive.
- Ragnar Egilsson
SHARE: gpv.is/pylsa
Pylsa-Pulsa
Hlemmur Square
Laugavegur 105
105 Reykjavík
hlemmursquare.com/
pylsa-pulsa
Mon-Sun: 12 pm - 5
pm & 5 pm - 10 pm
What we think
A free-flowing
restaurant with
bravura forcemeat
and mescal
Flavour
Ger-manish
Ambiance
Community theatre
production of ‘Twin
Peaks’ set in a bus
terminal
Service
Top marks
Price for 2 (with
drinks)
8-10.000 ISK
Servers Squared,
Peaks Squared