Reykjavik feeds 135,000 people from an island with almost no arable land, so the menu is what the sea, the lava fields and geothermal heat allow: line-caught cod, lamb soup, rye baked in hot ground, skyr. Three days eating it where locals do.
Iceland's cult sourdough bakery bakes behind glass from 06:00 daily, and the warm kanilsnúður (cinnamon roll, around 750 ISK) leaves the oven roughly hourly. There is no seating, so locals eat standing on the Frakkastígur slope.
The weekend market in the old customs house by the harbour is where Icelanders still buy hákarl (fermented Greenland shark), harðfiskur, hrossabjúgu sausage and dense rúgbrauð over folding tables. Open Saturday and Sunday only, 11:00-17:00.
Bean-to-bar factory in a converted fish plant on Grandi, where the pastel bars are wrapped by hand. The tasting tour follows roasting, winnowing and conching, then works through sea salt, liquorice and Icelandic milk chocolate.
Iceland's oldest continuously running restaurant, open since 1935 in a low building on the working fishing pier. Plokkfiskur — mashed fish, potato and butter with rye bread — and the fish soup are still what harbour crews order at the counter.
Fourth-generation bakery run by the Sandholt family since 1920. The counter does long-fermented sourdough, kleina (twisted doughnuts) and a full breakfast served until mid-afternoon; the almond snúður usually disappears before 11:00.
A red harbour shack with shared wooden tables where the humarsúpa — creamy langoustine soup, about 2,600 ISK — comes with bread and refills of broth. Skewers of cod, salmon, scallop and minke are picked from a chilled case and grilled to order.
Wooden café facing Hallgrímskirkja that serves the full Icelandic plate: cubes of hákarl with a shot of brennivín, harðfiskur with butter, smoked lamb on flatkaka, and ice cream made from dark steamed rye bread.
New Nordic tasting menus built almost entirely from Icelandic produce — dulse, birch, skyr whey, langoustine, aged lamb — and the first restaurant in the country to hold a Michelin star, from 2017. Around 19,900 ISK for seven courses.
Corner roastery that runs a vintage Probat drum in the front window and supplies much of the city's specialty coffee. Single-origin filter brews and pastries from Brauð & Co; the communal table is shared with regulars and their laptops.
Counter-service room built around kjötsúpa, the lamb and root-vegetable soup Icelandic households have made for centuries, served in a hollowed sourdough bowl with unlimited refills. Lobster soup and plokkfiskur run alongside, 2,290-3,490 ISK.
Reykjavik's oldest coffee house, barely altered since 1958 and the first place in Iceland to install an espresso machine. The order is the thick Belgian waffle with rhubarb jam and whipped cream, roughly 1,290 ISK, under rotating gallery walls.
Low-lit bar pouring the unpasteurised, Czech-method beers of Bruggsmiðjan Kaldi, brewed in the fjord village of Árskógssandur in the north. Six taps rotate through pilsner, dark and seasonal blonde, plus a small heated back terrace.