The Laundromat Cafe

June 24, 2012

   

We didn't have a lot of time on our last day in Reykjavik - just enough for a quick trip up Hallgrímskirkja (see photos below) and a late breakfast before we had to jump on the airport bus and fly off this weird little chunk of volcanic rock. We breakfasted at The Laundromat Cafe (another of Marieke's many helpful suggestions), alongside a mix of hungover locals and bright-eyed tourists.

The weekend menu has a good number of vegetarian dishes (and apparently will do a good vegan spread if you ask them). I was hungry enough to go for the big one, the clean brunch - scrambled eggs, fried potatoes, grilled tomato, Stori Dimon cheese, chocolate butter, Greek yoghurt with muesli, American pancakes and fruit, served with rye bread and a small glass of mango/ginger health drink (2290kr ~ AU$17.80).

   

I must admit that reading that description had me imagining a platter of food almost as big as the table, so the artfully arranged plate of goodies seemed a bit on the small side. Also, there was no chocolate butter! Outrageous. Still, this is a pretty great spread - a good mix of sweet and savoury that leaves you full and feeling vaguely virtuous (especially without the chocolate butter!).

My 'health drink' was basically a small juice - it didn't do as much as the coffee I ordered to make me feel healthy though. Cindy went for a bigger drink, a raspberry smoothie (800kr ~ AU$6), which was as good as all the Nordic dairy products we sampled.

   

She had a more modest breakfast though, settling for a serve of the pancakes (790kr ~ AU$6.15).

   

This was a pretty simple breakfast - five thickish pancakes with a smear of butter and a pot of maple syrup. They were nothing like pancakes really, but still served as a decent vessel for syrup. A few berries or something would have kicked this up a notch.

The Laundromat is a big and bustling cafe right in the middle of Reykjavik. The prices aren't too ridiculous and the menu offers veg-friendly breakfasts, lunches and burgers. Service is friendly and pretty efficient - it's definitely worth checking out. They also provide an actual laundromat downstairs somewhere, which might come in handy if you're not staying in an apartment like we were.

 

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The Laundromat has mostly positive reviews, check out: Foodiemap, dobbernation loves, Christine Wehrmeier, Secret spots and hidden gems, Stephanie Zwicky (French), Fur Coat, No Knickers, amazingfoodadventures and le rose & le noir.

 

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The Laundromat
Austurstræti 9, Reykjavik
+354 587 75 55
breakfasts 790 - 2290kr ~ AU$6.15 - 17.80
http://www.thelaundromatcafe.com/en

Accessibility: There's a couple of very small steps as you come in. The interior is large but pretty crowded when they're busy (which seemed to be all the time). Ordering happens at the table, while payment takes place alongside (not across) a high counter.

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Looking at Hallgrímskirkja from outside...

 ... and looking at the outside from Hallgrímskirkja

   

   

   

   

Skyr

June 20-24, 2012

   

There are many things to love about Iceland (e.g. see Blue Lagoon and summer sunset photos at the end of this post), but few of them are vegetarian foods. Marieke kindly sent us some veg*n survival tips before we departed; we booked an apartment with a kitchen, stocked up on Tartex and sandwich 'meats' at Veganz before leaving Berlin, and kept a keen eye out for Bugles. Preparing most meals ourselves saved us a lot of money and we suspected that we weren't missing out on much.

This still allowed us to enjoy the high standard of bakeries (light yet chewy bread, melt-in-the-mouth cookies) and skyr. Skyr is a Icelandic dairy product that's prepared like a fresh cheese but comes off more like yoghurt. It's thick and creamy, yet apparently very low in fat, and it's enormously satisfying with granola for breakfast.

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The 'night-time' view from our apartment

   

10:00pm

   

11:10pm

   

12:01am

   

1:35am

   

2:45am

Entering the Blue Lagoon...

   

   

   

   

Hamborgara Búllan

June 22, 2012

   

Michael took every opportunity in Iceland to check out the local bird life (not a euphemism) and add new species to his life list. As a concession to me he also booked in a more mainstream whale watching expedition. We didn't glimpse more than two second's worth of whale tail offshore but it was just about worth the ticket price for the hundreds of puffins we stopped by on the way out. I reckon the children's book logo undersells them.

Back on dry land we were approached by an activist in a whale suit, and we had no problems signing their pledge to forgo whale meat while in Iceland. We were planning on burgers for lunch anyway.

   

Hamborgara Búllan, also known as The Burger Joint, is just by the dock lined with tour boats. While it's in clear sight for tourists (and includes adequate English signage), it also appears to be popular with the locals. Icelanders clearly have a taste for American style burgers, hot dogs and pizza and unlike the town's favourite hot dog stand, The Burger Joint has a veg option.

The Offer Of The Century (a burger, fries and soda for 1390kr ~AU$10.55) is perhaps overstated but still a good deal. The bun's sweet and insubstantial, the vege patty comes slathered in ketchup, mustard and mayo, and there's plenty more sauce for the fries. There's no juice, only soda. This would just barely cut it at Lord Of The Fries but we're guests in this country and guests at a grill; we don't take a vege burger for granted.

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Only a few words about Hamborgara Búllan appear on blogs and none that I could find were negative, see: listabrautin (in Icelandic), Seasons, Les tartines de Sidonie (in French), Flowing Strong, and aleholi (in French).

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Hamborgara Búllan
Mýrargata Geirsgötu 1, Reykjavik
+354 511 1888
veg burger combos 1390kr ~AU$10.55
http://www.bullan.is/

Accessibility: There's a small single step on entry and an interior quite crowded with high tables. Ordering, payment and pick-up occurs at a high counter.

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Puffins!

   

See? PUFFINS, FOR REALZ.

   

A bunch of gannets hooning around

   

Bird on the streets

Grænn Kostur

June 20, 2012

   

After the vegetarian wonderland of Berlin, Cindy and I were prepared for a much less exciting array of dining options in Reykjavik. Firstly, it's a pretty small city (~250k people) and secondly, the whole country is run on fish. With this in mind, we'd booked ourselves an apartment for our stay - giving us the option of cooking dinners/making sandwiches rather than struggling to find good meals out 3 times a day. All of which is not to say that Reykjavik is a veg wasteland - Happy Cow lists three veg-only places and another half dozen or so that are veg*n friendly. So, on our first night in town we headed off to check out Grænn Kostur.

   

Grænn Kostur ('Green Choices' according to Google Translate) is a small and casual place, with a focus on healthy food and a rotating cast of about five dishes. The staff (like everyone we spoke to in Iceland) are fluent in English and happy to point out vegan options, etc. The five options are all pretty homely - things like spinach bake, a range of curries and veggie lasagne. Everything comes with salads, bread and rice.  I ordered the (vegan) pumpkin curry with tofu balls (1590kr ~ AU$12).

   

The curry was a fairly straightforward mix of pumpkin, beans and spices with a coconut milk-based sauce and the unfortunate inclusion of raisins. The tofu ball was a bit more interesting - a tennis ball-sized lump of tofu, pulled together with coconut milk, tomato paste, oatmeal and spices. It was a little on the dry side but worked okay in combo with the curry sauce. The salads were simple and fresh, the bread home-baked and delicious and the whole meal left me feeling satisfied and healthy.

Cindy opted for the moussaka (1590kr ~ AU$12, vegan if you skip the tzatziki). It's a mish mash of eggplant, zucchini, potatoes, tomatoes, soy mince and spices, slathered in a tangy tzatzki.

   

Cindy described this as 'share-house vegetarian', which captures the fairly straightforward nature of it - it was nice to get a dish chock full of veggies after spending 10 days in Berlin eating fried everything, but there was nothing very exciting going on. Still, for $12 you're getting a pretty massive plate of healthy food, which is hard to complain about.

Grænn Kostur isn't going to win too many converts to vegetarianism - it's rooted in a kind of old school slightly dull style of cooking, which may be partly to do with the availability of more exciting ingredients in isolated Iceland. Still, they do an excellent job of keeping things healthy, fresh and affordable, and are worth checking out if you're spending some time in Reykjavik.

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There doesn't seem to be a vibrant veg blogging scene in Iceland, but tourists Vegan Butthole Explosion and Vegetabull Blog both thought Grænn Kostur was pretty good.

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Grænn Kostur 

Skólavörðustígur 8b, Reykjavik
354 5522028
mains 1590kr ~ AU$12 (small sizes available for 1,190kr ~ AU$9)
http://www.graennkostur.is/english.htm

Accessibility: Grænn Kostur has a single small step up on entry and relatively crowded tables - at both standard and bar height - inside. Ordering, payment and food pick-up all occur and a high counter, where the food options are on display (see picture above).

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On the bus to Reykjavik

   

Wandering around town...

   

   

The new opera house

   

Visiting Viðey Island