Fine dining in Iceland means paying a mint. If you can't afford more than $40 per person for dinner, just stick to minimizing your costs.
Once you open up your checkbook, though, Iceland's best chefs open up their hearts to you. Brash, cutting-edge cuisine goes on at Sjávarkjallarinn (Seafood Cellar) (Aðalstræti 2, 101 Reykjavík; tel. +354 511 1212; fax +354 511 1211; www.sjavarkjallarinn.is), where Iceland's most celebrated young chef does truly outrageous things with seafood. A typical meal might start with a dumpling containing a single giant scallop, served in a bamboo pot, or a chunky lobster salad peeking out of a mason jar, and could move on to traditional Icelandic salt fish treated with anise, jalapenos and fennel, or duck and quail given a quasi-Thai preparation. This is imaginative food-making on a par with New York's top restaurants. Most diners get the ISK 5900 tasting menu.
If Seafood Cellar is Reykjavík's outrageous young Turk, Vox at the Nordica hotel (Suðurlandsbraut 2, 108 Reykjavík; tel. +354 444 5000; fax +354 444 5001; www.vox.is) is his suit-and-tied dad. Vox specializes in recreating comforting Icelandic flavors with 21st-century preparations -- a piece of foie gras covered in celery foam, for instance, ends up seriously reminiscent of traditional Icelandic lamb-and-vegetable soup. Fried tempura vegetables and a soy-based sauce provide a gentle counterpoint to a salmon filet, and arctic char is surrounded by a mild foam that makes the fish look a little like a life raft adrift on Icelandic seas. It's all very pretty, but won't shock your taste buds the way Seafood Cellar will.
Most Frommer's readers don't have $70 to drop on dinner, so most Frommer's readers should end up at Vegamót (Vegamótastíg 4, 101 Reykjavík; tel. +354 511 3040; www.vegamot.is), Reykjavík's best bistro. Pizzas, pastas, burgers and fish sell for around ISK 800-1200 here, letting you escape with your wallet intact. Vegamót turns into a happening nightclub past midnight.
If you're stuck near the Nordica (say, at Guesthouse Pavi) and wondering where to get more reasonably priced grub, try Múla Kaffi (Hallarmúla, 108 Reykjavík; tel. +354 553 7737; www.mulakaffi.is), a workingman's café that tourists don't frequent. You serve yourself cafeteria-style, and most days there's a fish option and a meat option. Expect to drop around ISK 1200 for lunch or dinner.
Vegetarians won't have too much trouble in Iceland -- everybody in Iceland loves pasta. For an all-veg experience, head to A Næstu Grösum (Laugarvegur 20b, 101 Reykjavík; tel. +354 552 8410; www.anaestugrosum.is), aka First Vegetarian or One Woman Restaurant. The staff serve 100% vegan, yeast-free, hearty home cooking, with full dinners coming in at ISK 1000-1300.
