Travel: Places to Eat and Drink in Reykjavik and How to Save Money

Hey All

I love reading people's travel posts and travel blogs but as I've not been away much, there hasn't been the opportunity to write. With Iceland one thing we heard over and over again was how expensive it was so I thought I'd share some of the places we ate and tips we picked up. Some places were recommendations some places we found by chance.

One thing we did when booking was book an apartment over hotel. We did this so if we got there and it was mega expensive we could save a substantial amount of money and cook in the apartment.

For the days we went on excursions we cooked lunch in the apartment the night before to take with us and also bought in breakfast items. As we knew we were going to do this we took a little tupperware pot with us and a 1kg of pasta. This definitely saved us money. We popped to the local supermarket (find yourself one called Bonus! it's the cheapest one!) and grabbed chopped tomatoes, onions, peppers, cheese and cured meats to make up pasta. Meat like chicken was expensive but we found getting cured meats wasn't much more expensive than the uk and it went further. Things such as veg wasn't much more than the uk. We also grabbed lots of treats like crisp, chocolate and fizzy drinks to take on the coach with us. By doing this we saved loads of money and we weren't disapointed not to eat at the excursion places as most of them were overpriced and it was things like burger and chips. Think of alton tower type prices and level of food.

When we landed in Reykjavik it was about mid day by the time we got to the apartment so after a trip to bonus we went exploring and happened upon our first meal. This is one I don't actually have a photo of. It's on Skolavordustigur which is one street parallel to the main shopping street. They keep things simple, a massive bowl of noodles, veg and meat. I had beef and it was so tender and really tasty. A perfect lunch for a cold day and it worked out about £15 for food and free refill drinks for us both. We really wanted to go back here but decided there were too many other places to try.

Image from this trip advisor review!

The Next place we ate came from a recommendation from my other halfs work colleague, Tapas Barinn which is on Vesturgötu which is on a square not far from the main street. We were told we could get great food including trying the local delacies. My love of a bargain, meant before we went I did some googling and found a vistor guide online that you could download a printable version of and it gives you discount for restuarants so I really recommend printing those pages. Here's a link to the website where you can download it. By doing this we got 10-15% of meals. At Tapas Barinn we ordered two taster menus and shared everything. We were glad we did this as we wanted to try things like whale and puffin but each course was quite big so we were glad we didn't have one each to try. This meals worked out at just under £100 but included 14 courses, dessert, two shots of brennivin, a glass of processo and two beers. For the amazing food we got we were happy to pay it would recommend it to others at a heart beat. We ordered the Icelandic Gourmet Feast and A journey into the Unknown. Here's some of the food we had.

This is from A journey into the unknown and was a pulled pork burger, Serrano ham, teriyaki salmon and one I can't remember. This menu does change each night.

This is the puffin. It was a really dark meat with a slightly liver like texture. It came with a blueberry  brennivin compote.

The mink whale was served rare on  a sweet potato mash.

The lobster tails were amazing. They were so creamy!

and one of our desserts!

Also right by Tapas Barinn was an amazing bar called Stofan Cafe. We sat downstairs one evening for a drink and played board games. They had reasonable priced beers and a nice chilled atomosphere. Pints were also served in crystal esque glasses

Next up is Svarta Kaffi. Another recommendation. This is on the main shopping street Laugavegur. It serves the most amazing soup in a massive bread bowl. They have two different soups on a day. We had a chicken soup which was so tasty and it come in a bowl you can eat. What more can you eat. We really loved the food here. Other people around us had ordered salads which also looked good. This is definitely a great lunch place. With two pints of beer and a tip I think we paid around £20-£25. We liked that the bread that was torn out the middle was left on the side of the board to munch.

Kofinn Bar on Laugavegar next to Sushibarinn is somewhere we went to a few evenings for drinks. They were reasonably priced. When drinking in bars we choose pints most of the time which were around £5. Here we also sampled some cocktails which I think were about £9. We loved the atmosphere here everyone was friendly and we got chatting to other people. They also do a quiz in english some nights. We did it and it was actually quite good!

Another bar we really enjoyed was Dillion Whiskey Bar. We loved the music in here and the massive selection of whiskeys. We spent a few evenings drinking in here. It seemed busy most nights we were in there. Dillion had a variety of prices due to the fact there were 101 whiskeys. They also had whiskeys of the month which were up to half price. They had a barrel behind the bar which you can see which is called Floki. It's icelands first whiskeys and in bars Dillion's is one of the few places you can buy it. At just over £15 a shot we splashed out and shared this one!

Another reastaurnat we loved was Kitchen Eldhus, this is a Nepalese restaurant. The food here was amazing. We shared starters of popadoms and dumplings then had two mains to share. A lamb biryani and an amazing special which was spicy but sweetened with honey. We also shared naan breads and chapaitis. With two large beers and tips the meal cost around £60. All the food tasted amazing, the combinations of flavours were so good and the sweet and spicy mix was perfect. My other half commented on how fresh the ingredients like tomatoes tasted.

One bakery we loved was Bernhoftsbakari. We went here for breakfast and snacks a few times. We grabbed breakfast and teas and there were seats in the window to eat. We also popped back for cakes. They had amazing cinamons buns the size of your head!! We found it to be reasonably priced and a great selection here.

Other places to mention were Solon Bistro. We had amazing burger here and went for the full three courses! Primo Restaurente is somewhere we didn't discover until it was too late. We wished we'd gone here as the food looked amazing (a voucher for here is also in the book mentioned at the begining) and vegamot which serves american type food and massive portions! We also enjoyed pancakes and tea in Cafe Paris but the service wasn't great!

Most places we went we payed around £60 for either a bottle of wine or two beers and two courses. We didn't find it as expensive as we expected sort of London prices. We did also order local when it came to alcohol as we like to drink local beer and I assume this was cheaper.

Have you been to Iceland? Do you do your research before holidays? If you're going and want any advice just ask!

Love M

xxx

Street Food Warehouse Cardiff

Hello there!

Happy bank holiday weekend!

Hope you're enjoying the seemingly good weather, fingers crossed it lasts. We both went to the first night of the Street Food Warehouse event in Cardiff  on Friday night. You might have noticed that we are food enthusiasts, food is literally our favourite thing and we'll do anything to try out new food and eateries especially in our local area.

Street Food is getting more and more popular and why on earth not - festivals and events dedicated to food is just the ideal kind of evening for us. WE LOVE IT.

The first thing we did was a quick lap of the site, it's always good to check out your options and formulate a plan. We'd already decided we were going to buy one of everything and share it, but choosing the order was tough!

The site was fairly small but it had plenty of tables to stand at with outside heaters and a marquee with long bench tables to sit at with other people enjoying their food.

They also had a Warehouse Weekly newsletter with all of the food vendors named with information about each. Unfortunately Dough Boys weren't there when we were which was a massive disappointment, freshly made pizza is like gold dust and we were disappointed they weren't there.

That said we made our choice on our first meal and drinks choices and sat down in the marquee.

Passion and Smoke was the first vendor we saw and smelt - it was enough to make me want to jump behind their counter and just get stuck in with a fork. They had beautifully cooked pulled pork and beef brisket with burnt beans and mac n cheese - you could buy these separately or buy one meal - the special no less - and try them all.

Which of course we did!

The Big Betty special cost £9 and consisted of a bun containing the beef brisket, pulled pork, homemade slaw and gravy, plus a generous side of Somerset mature cheddar mac n cheese.

All of which had been cooked inside Big Betty herself, an authentic American pit smoker:

The Big Betty Special comes with a 100% recommendation - the mac and cheese is super creamy and just like your mums should be, and the meat is just out of this world, it falls apart in your mouth and the bread soaks up all of the gravy and its just WOW. Get it, you will not regret it!

We also made good use of the cocktail bar:

We both had a few each, needless to say we were fans of the fruity drinks as it was but the fact they came in chinese takeaway cartons was even better!
So cute and quirky, and also really delicious. Fully worth the £5 price tag.

Next on offer was Rad Burger, juicy burgers with grilled halloumi and a side of rosemary fries too if you want. 

We skipped the fries due to wanting to try more courses but seeing other people eating them I did want them, they looked perfectly cooked and the rosemary seasoning looked great!
Here's the burger, I always loved seeded buns so this was a good start.

Again the meat was really good, the halloumi was too but I would have liked more - can never say no to more cheese!

Next was M's favourite - Mr Churro!
Almost every food festival has churros and I am rather partial to the melted chocolate sauce that comes with it, yum!

Last on our food menu was one of the Pastel de Nata from Nata and Co Portuguese bakery. Having seen them on the StreetFood Warehouse Facebook page we both knew we had to try it, it was described as a custard cake, in pastry.

Their food all looked amazing and the chorizo bread would have been amazing if we had room!
There were so many more tarts and sweet pastries that we wanted to buy and take with us but we didn't have room in our bags either.

The Pastel de Nata did not disappoint, as someone who is not a fan of jelly and therefore not a fan of custard slices, I wasn't sure if this would be something I would like. I would buy these forever if I could! The custard wasn't jelly-ish at all and was perfectly formed, it was gorgeous.

One vendor we didn't manage to try was Meat in the Middle, who sold burgers, fries and hotdogs from a lovely red ice cream van.

They also had Pitch Eatery at the event but my photos have turned out so blurry they're unuseable! Nightmare. I've looked them up on Facebook though and will certainly be dropping in, the food looks amazing.

Unfortunately we didn't have any more room but also we didn't want another burger, the only downside we could see to the Street Food Warehouse so far was that a lot of the food was too similar, lots of meat in buns and a bit more variety would have been preferable.

Another thing we liked? The copious amount of kitchen roll available on the table, this is a place for eating and not worrying about what you look like!

We'd definitely recommend going to the Street Food Warehouse whilst it is running, you can reserve tickets if you require or turn up and queue at the time slot you want, it's £2 per person.

Hopefully we will go again and there will be a bit more variety there, Dough Boys would be a great addition as would a chicken or spicy food vendor, Thai or Indian would also break up the burger type foods.

Do you like going to food events like this? Are you a fan of slow cooked meats like pulled pork and beef brisket?
How cute are cocktails?!

L and M xxx

The Angel Hotel Abergavenny

Hi all!

One of my Christmas presents was a voucher to go to the High Tea in the Angel Hotel in Abergavenny. I've heard a lot about this place a lot from when I used to work near there and lots from other friends and bloggers who have been.

I was really looking forward to it and I can tell you it didn't disappoint!

We were taken to a dining room where the china was so beautiful! It was all matching and perfectly placed, totally ideal for afternoon tea.

I wore my new black Ralph Lauren dress as its really smart but still chic - I love the leather edging to the V on the neck and the pockets, and it's also got plenty of room for cake!

And considering this amazing stand of food wasn't even all of the food included in the High Tea it was a good idea!

Just look at all of the beautiful pastries, delicate cakes and really cute sandwiches - I couldn't stop staring at all of the food but also couldn't wait to tuck in either.

Let's start with the pastries - coronation chicken, prawns, salmon, beef and stilton as well as cheese scones and quiche. I was totally loving this part as savoury food is my fave.

This was all absolutely divine, I managed to restrain myself from shoving them in one after another but as our time slot was 3pm I was so hungry it was difficult! Some of these also came out warm, it would have been rude to eat them cold right?



Next up we went through the sandwiches - egg mayo, ham and mustard, salmon, and cheese and onion. They were all really nice and the crusts were removed meaning the fillings were right up to the edges, something I personally think is vital in a sandwich!

The last tier was the cakes themselves. For every other level on the stand we had one of each of the pastries or sandwiches, for the middle level of cakes they were all to share or split between us which was fun!

There was tiramasu cake, custard slice, raspberry ripple sponge, lemon roulade, chocolate brownie, profiterole and biscuits. I can't begin to tell you how gorgeous these were, and although they were sweet they weren't overpowering and the lemon and raspberry were so real tasting.
We didn't manage to finish these because there were so many to eat but they do allow you to take home a box of everything that you can't manage!

Apart from the stand there was also a mini trifle each (I can't cope with jelly so I just ate the cream off the top..!) shown below:

There was also a warm scone with jam and cream brought out to you when you were ready for them. I am slightly ashamed to admit that I didn't manage to eat these at the hotel so we brought both of these back home with us and ate them later on. For the record, they may be the best scones I've ever eaten (not including my mums - eating them straight out of the oven is different!) but they really were GOOD.

Aside from the food there was also the tea menu, it's fabulous and super extensive. It is also seemingly unlimited for the duration of the 2 hour slot and I started with a lovely black tea (needed the caffeine for my 3pm slump) and then followed it with a Moroccan mint tea.

They were also really good and I would love to go back and find some more, if I wasn't so thirsty I would have been more adventurous with my tea choices.

I would 100% recommend the High Tea at the Angel Hotel in Abergavenny, it has a wonderful selection of cakes and pastries for everyone and the tea range is outstanding.

The menu for the Angel Hotel can be found here, and the prices for the Afternoon Tea is £21.80 and the High Tea is £26.80. It would be a great mother/daughter day, catch up with friends and family, and I did also see a sophisticated hen party there too!

It gets a full recommendation from me, have you been to afternoon tea at the Angel Hotel? Have you been to any others in South Wales that you would recommend?

L xxx