Sjávarkjallarinn Seafood Cellar Restaurant

Description:

• If you distrust "concept food," just give this wildly popular restaurant a chance. The decor may be silly (you expect mermaids to appear in the fish tanks), the menu may be alienating (filet of salted cod "yellow brick": limequat, shiitake, beet root), and the presentation may be melodramatic (even the sorbet arrives in bamboo and a plume of dry steam). But no one is trying to distract you from the food, which will likely be the best you'll eat in Iceland. The menu changes every 3 months, though one consistent item is the lobster pick-me-up: the most delicate steamed langoustine in a foie-gras sauce with cauliflower, truffles, and black pepper. Plenty of non-seafood choices are also on-hand. If you have the money and 2 hours to spare, by all means get the chef's tasting menu and sample several dishes, with a few surprises thrown in. The head chef is 26-year-old Hrefna Jóhannsdóttir, the youngest member of the team and the only woman -- we'd give her 10 stars if we could.

• © Frommer's 2013

Awards:

Frommer's

•  Very Highly Recommended 2010