Best Seafood Restaurants In Reykjavik
Where to eat langoustine, Arctic char, and the daily catch, from a no-frills harbour café to a formal dining room, with real prices and what to order.
Sægreifinn, the Sea Baron, is the harbour café to know for langoustine soup at an honest price. Messinn serves Icelandic seafood in sizzling cast-iron pans and is where locals take visitors who want to see what the fish can actually do. Kopar does a more formal langoustine at the old harbour, and Dill, Iceland's original Michelin-starred kitchen, builds tasting menus around whatever the coast produces that week. Arctic char is the most underordered fish on every menu in the city.
Use this guide for independent food stops, or add one guided tasting experience for local context. Explore The Guided Option
Affiliate links may earn us a commission at no extra cost to you. Restaurant prices in the original guide are dated estimates; confirm current menus.Quick Facts: Seafood In Reykjavik
| Category | What to Know |
| Budget seafood | Langoustine soup at a harbour café, roughly 2,000-3,000 ISK |
| Mid-range | Sit-down seafood main, 4,500-7,000 ISK |
| Fine dining | Dill (1 Michelin star): from around 13,900 ISK per person, tasting menu only |
| Signature dish | Langoustine (humar), the local name for the smaller sweet-tailed crustacean, not lobster |
| Underrated pick | Arctic char, a freshwater fish from Iceland's glacial rivers |
| Reservation needed | Yes for Messinn, Kopar, and Dill on weekend evenings; no for harbour cafés |
Where Do You Get The Best Langoustine In Reykjavik?
There is a naming detail that trips up a lot of visitors first. When an Icelandic menu says "lobster soup" or humar, it means langoustine, a smaller, sweeter-tailed crustacean fished in Icelandic waters, not the large-clawed lobster most people picture. The distinction matters because langoustine, done well, is one of the genuinely extraordinary things you can eat in this city.
Sægreifinn, the Sea Baron, is the entry point and still the reference. It sits at the old harbour, has almost no interior ceremony, and serves one dish that matters: langoustine soup, simple, rich, and consistently good. People who know it queue for the soup specifically. People who do not know it walk past looking for something that looks more like a restaurant, and that gap is exactly where a lot of Reykjavik's best eating hides.
For something more formal, Kopar, also at the old harbour, prepares langoustine several ways in a proper sit-down setting. A note worth repeating from years of running tours here: langoustine quality varies significantly by source. Fresh Icelandic langoustine cooked simply with butter needs nothing else. Previously frozen and thawed product tells you in the first bite, and a few well-known spots even outside the city have served it without saying so. Ask before you order if it matters to you.
What Is Messinn And Why Do Locals Recommend It?
Messinn, on Lækjargata in the city centre, serves honest Icelandic seafood in sizzling cast-iron pans, plate after plate of whatever is fresh that day, cooked simply and served hot at the table. It is the kind of restaurant residents take out-of-town guests to when they want to demonstrate what Icelandic fish tastes like without a tasting-menu price tag or a queue. Expect a genuine sit-down dinner rather than a quick bite, and book ahead for a weekend table.
Is There A Michelin-Starred Seafood Option?
Dill was Iceland's first Michelin-starred restaurant, opened in 2009, and remains the flagship. Chef Gunnar Karl Gíslason builds seasonal tasting menus around foraged herbs, smoked fish, and whatever the coast is producing that week, all sourced locally. It is thirty seats, it books out well in advance, and it runs from around 13,900 ISK per person before wine. Óx, smaller still at eleven seats, runs a surprise menu with no published dishes and leans heavily on the day's catch. Both hold their stars year over year, which in the Michelin world is its own kind of statement about consistency.
What Should You Order Beyond Langoustine?
Arctic char is the fish most visitors skip and most locals order without thinking twice. It is a freshwater fish from Iceland's glacial rivers and lakes, it does not travel well, and that single fact means the versions served in Reykjavik are a quality that is genuinely hard to replicate anywhere else. Pan-fried with butter or slow-cooked and served with rhubarb or wild herbs, it shows up on menus at every price tier, from a food hall counter to Dill's tasting menu, because the ingredient earns its place regardless of setting.
Plokkfiskur, the traditional fish and potato stew, is worth ordering somewhere unpretentious rather than at a formal seafood restaurant. It was built as a way to use leftovers, and the honest, everyday version, served with dense dark rye bread, tells you more about Icelandic seafood culture than a langoustine tasting course does.
How Do You Avoid A Tourist-Priced Seafood Plate?
The pattern in Reykjavik is not that seafood is universally expensive, it is that the price gap between a harbour café and a restaurant built for passing tourist traffic can be wide for a similar quality of fish. Sægreifinn keeps its prices honest because its customers are repeat locals as much as visitors. A restaurant relying entirely on foot traffic from a cruise-ship crowd has less reason to. Checking whether a restaurant appears in Icelandic-language reviews, not just English-language ones, is a reasonable proxy for whether it is serving a local customer base or a purely tourist one.
If seafood is one part of a bigger question about how to eat well here without overspending, the is food expensive in Reykjavik guide covers the wider picture, and what to eat in Reykjavik covers the dishes beyond seafood.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best seafood dish to order in Reykjavik?
Langoustine, cooked simply with butter, is the dish that keeps coming up for a reason. Icelandic menus that say lobster soup or humar mean langoustine, a smaller, sweeter-tailed crustacean, not the large-clawed lobster most visitors picture. Sægreifinn's version is the entry point, Kopar's is the more formal version.
Is Reykjavik seafood expensive?
It varies more than most food categories in the city. A bowl of langoustine soup at a harbour café runs a fraction of what a formal langoustine main costs at a sit-down restaurant, and both can be excellent. The honest range runs from a budget lunch to well over 10,000 ISK per person at the top end.
How do you know if langoustine is fresh or previously frozen?
Ask. Fresh Icelandic langoustine cooked simply with butter needs almost nothing else and the texture stays firm. Previously frozen and thawed product tends to be softer and slightly watery in the first bite. Some restaurants, including a few well-known spots outside the city, have served imported frozen tails without saying so on the menu.
What is Arctic char and is it worth ordering?
Arctic char is a freshwater fish from Iceland's glacial rivers and lakes. It does not travel well, so the versions served in Reykjavik are a quality that is hard to find elsewhere. Pan-fried with butter or served with rhubarb, it appears on menus at every price tier because the ingredient earns its place, and it is consistently underordered compared to langoustine.
Do you need a reservation for Reykjavik's best seafood restaurants?
For Sægreifinn, no, it runs on walk-ins and a short queue at busy times. For Messinn or Kopar on a weekend evening, book ahead. For Dill, book weeks in advance regardless of the season; it is Iceland's original Michelin-starred kitchen and thirty seats fill up fast.
Icelandic tour guide since 2014 · Founder, Reykjavik Food Tours
Sigurd has guided over 8,700 travelers through Reykjavik’s food scene since founding the agency.
Make Room For One Food Experience
Traditional Icelandic Food Walk
Taste old-harbour shellfish soup and traditional Icelandic food with a local guide. Check your travel date before arranging the rest of your meals.
Meet outside Hlöllabátar at Ingólfstorg; finishes at the same square. Hotel transfers and tips excluded. Dietary requests need operator confirmation. Daytime weekend routes can include the flea-market food section when open; Hlemmur and Grandi food halls are not listed stops.
Choose a date to check the published Viator schedule. Final availability and price are confirmed on Viator.
Check Dates On ViatorA Guided Seafood Tasting Or A Home-Cooked Meal?
Choose an experience and we will check duration and requirements against the verified product details. Allow travel time separately.
Compare Your Own Costs
Enter totals for the same group in one currency. Use your actual DIY meals, not full restaurant portions priced against small tastings.
Add both amounts to compare. Transfers and extra meals are separate.