Restaurant Myllan is on the main strip as you’re heading into Lake Mývatn in North Iceland and is open for dinner everyday until 9 pm. The restaurant is part of Hotel Reynihlid, one of the main hotels in the region. (see our Hotel Reynihlid write-up/review and other reviews on Iceland hotels).
You typically don’t expect hotel restaurants to be the ones you’d write home about especially in a small town far away from an urban center.One of the fabulous things about Iceland however is its renowned reputation for serving delicious lamb dishes everywhere and they’re fabulous regardless of where you are in the country. No hormones, no additives and it tastes like it did when I was a child (before the food industry embarked on a road to tasteless processed food in the states).
The other thing they’re known for, particularly when you’re close to water, is Arctic Charr and of course there’s tons of salmon, sea bass and cod. We started with smoked charr with buttered rye bread from “Bjarnarflag”, rucola and dressing. You can also get smoked charr with cream cheese, red onion, peppers and herbs. This Geysir bread is common in Iceland and is baked in geothermal heat for 24 hours (often under the ground).
As for soups, I’d strongly recommend trying the lamb stew at the cafe next door and ordering a more complex equally delicious soup at the main restaurant: Lobster bisque, powerful bisque with cream and brandy, or the Onion or tomato with coconut cream and crispy bacon.
A cauliflower soup, served with roasted nuts, coconut, Skry (the Iceland equivalent of yoghurt), dill, vodka, sesame seeds, spices and cream. Yum!
Other appetizers include salmon marinated in ginger and lime with rucola and citrusoil, lobster, toasted, on potatoes “duchess” and with creamed bisque, brushetta, buttered and loaded with fresh tomatoes, mozzarella and pesto, salad in spring roll pastry with pine nuts, blue cheese and pesto and the shrimp in pastry filled with salad and white wine sauce.
For entrees, if your mouth isn’t already watering, if you’re in a red meat mood, go for the tenderloin peppersteak with Dijon mustard, green pepper, fresh vegetables and Grand marnier peppersauce, the steak of lamb fillet with wild mushroom sauce and port or the lamb shank cooked with mashed potatoes and rosemary sauce. They had reindeer with blueberries and port but I didn’t get a chance to try it. Dang!
We stuck to fish and yes, it was fresh – we were all smiling ear-to-ear. Try the panfried charr with almond butter and fresh vegetables, the baked bacalao on a potato duchess with tomato and garlic or the pan fried salmon with julienne vegetables and lime sauce. Also if there’s a small group of you, I’d suggest getting the Icelandic mussels in white wine for the table to share.
We didn’t stick around for dessert since we were eager to get to the hot mineral baths nearby and hang out in the Midnight Sun around the erupting thermal areas that ooze steam and bubbling lava for hours on end. If you have the time and are too beat to do a Round 2, then try one of their desserts. They offer chocolate crème brulleé, Icelandic “lumma” with vanilla ice cream, Skyr with cream (this is a special Icelandic ‘thing’ by the way – a lighter less fattening alternative to yoghurt), hot chocolate schnapps with fruit cream or the baked apples with cinnamon ice cream and vanilla sauce.
Two thumbs up!
Note: I was hosted by the restaurant/hotel, but all opinions expressed are entirely my own. Go here for more on Iceland hotels / top Iceland hotels, and for food in Iceland / Iceland restaurants / top Iceland restaurants.
Renee Blodgett is the Founder and Managing Editor of We Blog the World, a global travel, culture and lifestyle publication exploring the world through the lens of meaningful experiences, human connection and cultural depth. Having lived in 10 countries and traveled to 95, Renee has spent much of her life immersed in the people, traditions, landscapes and ideas that shape how we experience the world.
Since launching We Blog the World in 2007, she has written and produced extensive editorial coverage spanning boutique and luxury travel, culinary experiences, arts and culture, wellness, adventure, technology, spiritual traditions and transformative travel. Her work is rooted in the belief that travel is about more than where we go—it is also about what a place, culture or encounter awakens within us.
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