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FrançaisIcelandic food grew out of a need to survive a harsh climate with limited crops, which is why the cuisine leans so heavily on dairy, lamb, and fish that’s been dried, smoked, salted, or fermented to keep it edible through the winter. The dishes below range from everyday staples such as skyr and rúgbrauð to the more unusual, fermented and organ-based dishes that show up at Iceland’s midwinter Þorrablót feast.
Skyr
Skyr is a thick, cultured dairy product made from skimmed milk, and despite how it’s marketed, it’s technically a fresh, soft cheese rather than a yoghurt. Traditional skyr is made by adding rennet to skimmed milk along with a live culture, which coagulates the milk and separates the curds from the whey, the same basic technique used for cheese; it’s the addition of rennet that puts skyr in the cheese category even though its texture and tang are closer to thick Greek yoghurt, which is why many producers outside Iceland market it as a yoghurt instead. Icelanders have made and eaten skyr for centuries, traditionally at breakfast, and it’s now sold worldwide in a wide range of fruit flavours as well as plain.
Plokkfiskur
Plokkfiskur is a mashed fish and potato dish, usually made with boiled cod or haddock folded through mashed potato, a white sauce, and sautéed onion. It’s a warming, everyday dish rather than a special-occasion one, closer to comfort food than a delicacy, and nearly every Icelandic household has its own version of the recipe. Plokkfiskur is typically served with a slice of dark rye bread for mopping up the sauce.
Hákarl (fermented shark)
Hákarl is fermented Greenland shark, and it needs the fermenting because the fresh meat is genuinely toxic, not merely an acquired taste. Greenland shark flesh carries very high levels of urea and trimethylamine oxide (TMAO), compounds that help the shark survive in cold, deep water but that make the fresh meat dangerous to eat: bacteria in the gut convert TMAO into trimethylamine, which can cause symptoms similar to severe intoxication. Curing breaks these compounds down. The shark is gutted, buried in a shallow pit under sand and gravel for a few months to press out fluid, then cut into strips and hung to dry for several more months, a process that lowers the toxic compounds to safe levels and gives the meat its strong ammonia smell.
Contrary to a popular story repeated on plenty of travel sites, hákarl is not fermented in urine; the head of Iceland’s Bjarnarhöfn Shark Museum has stated plainly that human urine has never been part of the process, and the myth most likely grew out of the meat’s genuinely urine-like ammonia smell, which comes from the same urea that made the fresh meat unsafe. Hákarl is usually served in small cubes as an appetiser, often alongside a shot of the schnapps brennivín, and it remains one of the more polarising things to eat in Iceland rather than an everyday food.
Kjötsúpa (lamb soup)
Kjötsúpa is a hearty lamb soup built on lamb shank or shoulder simmered with root vegetables. Most families and restaurants have their own version, but the soup typically includes leeks, onions, swede, carrots and potatoes alongside the lamb, simmered until the meat is tender enough to fall off the bone. It’s a common everyday meal rather than a festival dish, and it’s one of the easiest Icelandic dishes for visitors to find on a regular restaurant menu.
Pylsur (Icelandic hot dogs)
Pylsur, Iceland’s hot dogs, are made from a blend of lamb, beef and pork, which gives them a milder, slightly sweeter flavour than an all-beef hot dog. They’re one of the most affordable things to eat in a country where dining out is otherwise expensive, and they’re eaten by locals and visitors at any time of day. The best-known place to try one is Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur, a small stand in Reykjavík that regularly draws a long queue; the classic order comes “with everything,” meaning ketchup, sweet brown mustard, remoulade, and both raw and crispy fried onions.
Rúgbrauð (rye bread)
Rúgbrauð is a dense, dark rye bread, and its most distinctive version is baked underground using geothermal heat rather than an oven. At Laugarvatn Fontana, a geothermal spa on the Golden Circle route, bakers bury a pot of rye dough in the hot black sand beside a hot spring, where it bakes slowly for about 24 hours before being dug up. The geothermal method produces a soft, dense, almost crustless loaf with a slightly sweet, malty flavour, most often served with butter, or with smoked fish and cream cheese.
Harðfiskur (dried fish)
Harðfiskur is wind-dried fish, usually haddock or cod, eaten as a snack much like jerky. Icelanders have eaten dried fish since the Viking age, and in centuries when imported grain was scarce and expensive, a piece of harðfiskur often stood in for bread at lunch. Today it’s still commonly eaten with a smear of butter, and it’s one of the most widely available snack foods across the country.
Svið (sheep’s head)
Svið is a whole sheep’s head, typically singed, boiled or smoked, sometimes set in a savoury sheep’s-head jelly. It isn’t part of most Icelanders’ daily diet today, but it remains a fixture of Þorrablót, Iceland’s midwinter feast, where the meat from the cheeks and tongue is considered the best part.
Icelandic ice cream
Ice cream is eaten year-round in Iceland, including late at night, and it’s sold everywhere from dedicated parlours to petrol stations and supermarkets. Bragðarefur is a well-known way to order it: pick one flavour and up to three toppings such as sweets, fruit or sauce, mixed together into one large serving. Rúgbrauðsís, a rye-bread flavoured ice cream that plays on the rúgbrauð above, is another distinctly Icelandic option.
Humar (Icelandic lobster)
What Icelanders call humar is closer to langoustine than to true lobster, since only the tail is eaten and the animal is considerably smaller than a North Atlantic lobster. It’s caught mainly off Iceland’s south coast, and while it’s an expensive dish in restaurants, you’ll find it grilled, fried, baked, in a bisque-style soup called humarsúpa, or even as a pizza topping. Frozen tails are also sold in supermarkets for cooking at home.
Pönnukökur (pancakes)
Pönnukökur are thin, crepe-style pancakes eaten at breakfast, lunch or with afternoon coffee. They’re usually rolled or folded around rhubarb jam and whipped cream, and many Icelandic families use a dedicated pancake pan handed down through generations, since the thin batter needs even, well-seasoned heat to cook properly.
Brennivín (schnapps)
Brennivín is Iceland’s signature spirit, distilled from fermented grain or potato mash and flavoured with caraway. Its nickname, “svartidauði” (“Black Death”), reflects its old black label rather than its strength, and it’s a clear, unsweetened schnapps traditionally drunk as a shot alongside strong-flavoured foods such as hákarl.
Hangikjöt (smoked lamb)
Hangikjöt is smoked lamb, traditionally hung from rafters to cure, which is where its name (“hung meat”) comes from. It’s boiled after smoking, then sliced and served hot or cold with green peas, red cabbage, potatoes in white sauce and Icelandic flatbread, and it’s a fixture of Icelandic Christmas meals in particular. Two traditional smoking methods exist: “birkireykt,” using birch wood smoke, and “taðreykt,” which uses smoke from burning dried sheep dung mixed with hay.
Icelandic beer
Icelandic beer tends to be light, often in the 2-5% alcohol range depending on the brew, and it’s widely drunk today after a long gap when it wasn’t legally available at all. Beer over 2.25% alcohol was banned in Iceland for most of the 20th century, and the ban wasn’t lifted until 1 March 1989, a date still celebrated annually as Beer Day (Bjórdagurinn). Iceland’s brewing scene has grown substantially since then, with breweries now running their own tasting tours in several towns.
Kókómjólk (chocolate milk)
Kókómjólk is a popular chocolate milk brand instantly recognisable by the cartoon cat on its packaging, made by the dairy cooperative Mjólkursamsalan. Some Icelanders swear by a cold Kókómjólk as a hangover remedy, which is part of why it has such a devoted following alongside its status as a childhood staple.
Flatkaka (flatbread)
Flatkaka is a thin, round flatbread made from a simple dough of flour, water and baking powder, cooked on a dry, hot griddle rather than baked in an oven. It’s typically eaten warm with butter or smoked salmon at breakfast, though it also works as a snack or side at other meals, and it’s simple enough that it’s one of the easier traditional Icelandic recipes to make at home.
Coffee
Coffee has been drunk in Iceland since it was first imported from Denmark, and today the country has a strong independent coffee-shop culture with few international chains. Icelandic roasts tend to run darker than in many other countries, and coffee is usually taken black or with a splash of milk rather than sweetened. A traditional variation adds a shot of brennivín to the cup, typically drunk after a meal.
Kleinur (twisted doughnuts)
Kleinur are crisp, twisted doughnuts flavoured with warming spices such as cardamom and nutmeg, dusted with sugar rather than glazed. Once mainly a Christmas treat, they’re now eaten year-round alongside coffee. Kleinur are often confused with kleina, a related but distinct fried pastry cut into rectangles and knotted before frying; kleina is thicker and denser, while kleinur has a lighter, more delicate crumb.
Puffin
Puffin is a controversial dish precisely because the birds themselves are widely loved: puffins have traditionally been hunted in Iceland for meat, and smoked puffin, served thinly sliced like pastrami, still appears on some tourist-facing menus today. Whether to try it is a personal call, since puffin hunting and its place on menus remains a genuinely debated topic in Iceland rather than a settled tradition.
Malt og Appelsín
Malt and appelsín are two separate non-alcoholic Icelandic soft drinks, usually served mixed together as one. Malt is a dark, sweet, non-alcoholic malt drink with a faint liquorice note, and appelsín is a fizzy orange soda similar to Fanta; combined, Malt og Appelsín is strongly associated with Icelandic Christmas but is sold and drunk year-round.
Tap water
Icelandic tap water is worth drinking straight from the tap rather than buying bottled, since most of it comes from natural springs and needs no chemical treatment. It’s unchlorinated and naturally low in minerals like calcium and nitrate, and bringing a reusable bottle to refill around the country is both cheaper and more practical than buying bottled water everywhere you go.
Snúður (cinnamon rolls)
Snúður are individually baked cinnamon rolls topped with a coating of chocolate, vanilla, caramel or a plain sugar glaze, sold in bakeries across Iceland. They’re a straightforward, popular bakery treat rather than a dish with a long-documented history.
Hrútspungar (pickled ram’s testicles)
Hrútspungar are ram’s testicles, usually preserved in whey or gelatin and flavoured with garlic, often served as a pâté-style starter. Like svið, hrútspungar are mainly eaten during Þorrablót, Iceland’s midwinter feast, and have a tangy, pickled flavour and chewy texture comparable to other pickled or cured meats. Fewer Icelanders eat it regularly today than in the past, and it’s now more of a novelty at the feast than an everyday food, though it remains tied to Iceland’s rural, farming history.
Slátur (blood pudding)
Slátur is a blood pudding made from sheep’s blood, suet and oatmeal, stuffed into sheep intestine casing and boiled, similar to dishes found across the wider Nordic region. It’s traditionally made and eaten in autumn and winter, around the time sheep are slaughtered, and it’s typically sliced and pan-fried before serving with mashed potato, turnip and a lamb-stock gravy. Slátur remains a genuine seasonal tradition for many Icelandic families rather than a tourist novelty dish.
Planning your trip
If you’re building a trip around trying these dishes, comparing places to stay in Reykjavík is worth doing early, since the city has the widest range of restaurants serving both everyday dishes like plokkfiskur and kjötsúpa and the more unusual Þorrablót specialties. Checking flight options to Iceland before you commit to dates also helps, since prices can vary significantly by season.
Our guides to Iceland, Reykjavík and where to see puffins cover more of what to plan around alongside the food.
About the author. This guide is written and maintained by the Wonderful Wanderings editorial team. Wonderful Wanderings was founded in 2012 by Sofie Couwenbergh. The team covers Iceland for independent travellers, including the food, sights and places to stay worth booking, and updates this page when facts change.
