Matur og Drykkur, Reykjavík: Iceland’s Best Gastropub?

The restaurant is positioned towards the corner of Reykjavík harbour inside of the saga museum. Already it shed any association with hotels or downtown glitzy locations. It is humble but people staying in the city centre will want to get a taxi (approx ISK2000). Reservations are highly recommended especially with social distancing resulting in fewer available covers.

Our booking is confirmed and we are escorted to our table in an open-plan, intimate restaurant floor. Warm glowing lighting from the kitchen lamps, dark panels and a brushed concrete floor. Chilled tap water arrives unceremoniously in a carafe; another area where Dubai can do better.

The service here is friendly, you are a guest and treated as such without an obsequious moment. The waiters share their favourite dishes and why; it is refreshing to talk to someone about food without muffling through a mask and thanking my delivery driver.

Matur og Drykkur: My Food Arrives

Mrs EatGoSee is not wildly hungry today so I embark upon the four-course tasting menu alone. Or so I thought until a curious fork emerges from her side of the table.

Three fish skin crisps with brown butter and sea truffle arrive dressed under a verdant dill sprig. The blistered, ash fish skins snap like prawn crackers then rushes forward this sweet oleaginous brown butter. The fish skin’s crunchy subtle fish texture is a little overwhelmed by the butter and the sea truffle is lost. I recommend the kitchen is more modest with the butter portion and incorporates the dill more evenly to off-set the fatty, cloy butter. I detest aniseed with every fibre of my being but here I would take it. I do really want acidity though: capers, cornichons, rhubarb whatever. The sweet relief of sharpness to cause this butter to buckle.

All my joy and hopes are restored with the halibut soup with mussels, green apple and raisins. An enamel soup bowl modestly arrives slick with emerald dill oil and pearls of mussel, fish, green apple and raisins like a beach at low tide leaving the ocean’s inhabitants behind. A kettle stores this luxuriously creamy and rich soup broth. It is purest comfort food for a wintery country spoiled with brilliant seafood. The punchy dice of green apple brightens the whole dish supported by plump raisins and a tickle of slight herbaceous aniseed from the dill oil. This calculated interplay is glorious and demonstrates that the kitchen is able to balance flavours more so than the first course suggested.

I gently nursed the Rautt Brúdkaup cocktail (ISK2440) followed by a glass of Molliard Chablis Coquillage (ISK1800). I switch to the heavier Quinta do Vallardo Touriga Franca (ISK1800) because the main attraction will shortly arrive. The wine menu by the glass is focused on two whites and two reds.

The cod’s head cooked in chicken and berry glacé comes served with a side of the cod’s throat deep fried and a rubbled heap of roasted potatoes. Chowing down on a cod’s head will cause many diners to immediately scarper save for my three rescue cats who cannot read this. It requires an experienced hand to make these cuts stars in their own right.

And this is achieved. The cod head’s fleshy meat is firm and slightly sweet from the glacé. The fish cheeks, neck and lips are meaty. This is delicate eating. At first, I easily pry meat from the cheeks and cod neck, but then, some excavation is required. This dish could be shared as a table for two to three but sheer greed and childish fascination spurns me forward. It is delicious and here lies another lesson to other kitchens.

The cod’s throat is indistinguishable from any other fish goujons eaten to date. So this is a good thing. Instead of using more costly loin or fillet, we could use throat as a cheaper protein substitute dragged through a vibrant tartare sauce.

I want to pause and congratulate Matur og Drykker for leaning into unpopular cuts like fish heads and fish skins to turn these into the main attraction. Fillets, breasts and chops a chef does not make. Yes, these cuts can be ruined by amateurs but premium cuts do not require the same fastidious perseverance as belly, shins, tails or proteins like an octopus. I admire a kitchen that turns trotters, heels and other unmentionables into gold. Fergus Henderson did not start this but he, rightly, put it front and centre. If you’re going to kill an animal, have the dignity to use it all. Dubai, pay attention.

Mrs EatGoSee dines on an a la carte menu item: the ling with angelica skyr, apple purée with a cucumber and kohlrabi salad and crispy barley and pickled lingonberry. An attractive plate with smears of Skye and apple purée arrive making a convincing case for fish and dairy. The cucumber and kohlrabi pairing adds freshness to lift the dish from the skyr. An enjoyable plate from the chalkboard menu of the day.

Matur og Drykkur: the matter of dessert

A rhubarb crumble with arctic thyme and brown butter ice cream emerges from the kitchen nested in its ramekin as the last act of kindness from the kitchen. Freshly cooked rhubarb sings both sweet and sharp under a warm, biscuit-like crumble laced with herbaceous woody thyme. The brown butter ice cream compliments this nutty roundness of the crumble and soothes the rhubarb. A delicious dessert that only lets me down when it’s over.

Would I Come back to Matur og Drykkur?

Matur og Drykkur is the kind of restaurant and cooking that makes me miss Europe at times. Very locally sourced ingredients and a focus on lesser-known cuts served with skill and simplicity. Let the food talk loud enough so the rest can stay quiet. Too many times I see restaurants following fads and trends or, worse, attempting to create them. I seldom want to go out to eat a chicken nugget wrapped in gold leaf and then be extorted for the privilege. The restaurant and staff successfully curate a low-key atmosphere that makes me want to sit and order the Fernando de Castilla Vintage Oloroso (ISK1050). I want to stay, nestle and enjoy being outside. Matur og Drykkur is a lesson in less is more. Do less, focus intently on what is served and its purpose and deliver it. Perhaps just a little less brown butter on the crisps but this is forgivable.

Should you come to Matur og Drykkur?

The menus will be divisive for some as fish skins and cod heads do not excite everyone. The restaurant offers more conventional options so you need not be alienated or brave my choices. There is plenty of skill and options available including vegetarian, fish and meat options to cover the bases.

There is an intimate, familiar atmosphere here but not quite romantic. Suitable for couples on dates, larger groups looking to reconnect, casual business meals among close colleagues.