Iceland review - 2017, Síða 48

It’s the most talked about restaurant in Reykjavík.
Mica Allan and Áslaug Snorradóttir visit Dill to meet Head Chef
Ragnar Eiríksson and taste some of the Michelin star awarded
menu.
DAFT ABOUT DILL
The man opposite me is casually
dressed in a check shirt, jeans and a
baseball cap. He wears glasses and a
red Viking beard. If you passed Ragnar
Eiríksson on the street you’d reckon he
was heading to meet a friend for a beer or
to grab a few things at the grocery store.
RUSH HOUR TRAFFIC
This man, however, has put Iceland on
the culinary map. He’s brought great
acclaim to a small sized nation.
The most striking example of this
happened on February 22. This was
when Dill became the first restaurant in
Iceland to be awarded a Michelin Star
by the prestigious Michelin Guide. “The
whole staff grew an inch taller,” says
Ragnar.
As you can imagine, they’ve been
more than a little busy since then, and
the restaurant that hosts a maximum of
35 diners is fully booked for the next
four months. Given the splash that the
Michelin Star has created, the public is
going a bit daft about Dill. Their web
traffic got so overwhelming it crashed
the server and had engineers up until the
wee hours sorting it out. They now have
two servers to manage those ever-grow-
ing bookings.
FRESH AND SIMPLE
The menu at Dill changes every other
week and guests can choose to have the
natural and biodynamic wine pairings
with each course, and sometimes, says
Ragnar, “We break things up and give
them beer instead of wine.”
Their techniques with food are
extremely simple. “It’s about using the
weird stuff you get in Iceland,” Ragnar
explains. He recently visited the smoke-
house where they get their dung-smoked
trout. “I was in there for 20 minutes a
week ago and my jacket still has that
heavy smell,” he grins.
46 ICELAND REVIEW