Fiskfélagið means “Fish Company” in Icelandic, but Reykjavik’s cool global cuisine restaurant in a basement is so much more! Friends and dates clearly love the food and atmosphere. Reggae, roots music and classic rock. There is some outdoor seating available. I was very happy to be hosted to experience it!
With their prix-fixe menus, you can pick from having traditional Icelandic fare or global cuisine. I wanted to see how cosmopolitan this capital city could be, so I went for global!
I started the evening with the house strawberry cocktail: it was tall, cool and fruity.
The bread course came with Icelandic skyr butter with little micro garlic, dill butter and chili sauce.
The amuse bouche was salmon tartare with honey kale, parsnip, cucumber salsa, micro sprouts, cumin spiced bread crumbs, presented in vintage Iceland tourist shot glasses.
The first course paid tribute to the food of Iceland: cured haddock, roasted cauliflower puree. The dish was tangy, with stronger flavors, with a pleasant soft texture. It was like a fish jerky, with lots of flavor, reminding me of scallops. It was garnished with micro greens.
The next dish was from the Faroe Islands, where I had visited the week before. It was served to smoke tableside, quite theatrical! The dish had whale — but the Icelandic minke whale, not Faroese pilot whale. That made me happy, as pilot whale is too strong for my tastes. The dish also had smoked puffin, sorrel sorbet, a dark chocolate sauce, dates and celery for crunch. The chef’s creativity here is exceptional! The cocoa in the sauce worked like a mole’ sauce for the puffin.
The next dish honored France: tender veal, red beet puree, foie gras terrine, candy striped beets, veal/lobster stock. The herbs garnishing the dish had almost a minty quality to them. The foie gras slices were rich, imparting even more flavor to the veal.
The next country that was highlighted was Madagascar: lightly salted cod, deep fried crab, liquid nitrogen, pineapple, Spring onion, cauliflower puree, micro hers. This was a sweet, crunchy and fun dish. Marylanders would definitely appreciate this course.
The next dish highlighted Argentina: rib eye and ox tail with chile con carne, stuffed pepato, corn, corn foam, mushrooms, pearl onion, mashed potatoes. It was very, very tender meat and the other elements provided nice heat to the dish.
The first dessert hailed from Iceland: rhubarb cake, rhubarb chutney, celery snow. I detected flavors of cardamon in this fresh dessert. It was accompanied by fresh rhubarb juice shots, which were bracingly tart!
The next dessert represented Italy: tiramisu with Nutella and caramel biscuits — so buttery! It was garnished with raspberries and Skyr ice creams.
Luxe & Down-Home Cuisine/Culture/Travel/Style 