Cost – 3,690 kr (Approx £25) (Sept 2019)
Parking and Access – There are a few steps up to get into the restaurant.
There are also several steps down to reach the toilets on the floor below, which are also quite dimly lit. I didn’t see any alternatives to the steps. I have no idea on parking as we arrived on foot. However, Reykjavik appeared fairly traffic free and there was a parking zone just outside. I imagine parking would not be too difficult.
Background – Who would have believed you could get an Afternoon Tea in Iceland?
I was browsing the web looking at Reykjavik prior to our cruise to Iceland and the British Isles. I tried typing in ‘Afternoon Tea’, not expecting to find any results. To my surprise one appeared and it looked good! I was very excited!! An email was sent off and we booked straight away for our first day in Reykjavik, as we were staying overnight.
The building was in the lower part of Reykjavik. It is found next door to a hotel of the same name. Inside was a bar area leading to the restaurant, which was quite stylish
with some attractive lighting as well.
Contents – Two triangular sandwiches each (tuna salad), plus three open sandwiches each on a piece of waffle (smoked sea trout, duck rillette, lamb rillette). One medium blueberry scone, a “slug” of cream each, a pot of berry jam and a pot of marmalade. A chocolate rose, a macaroon, a piece of caramel crankie and a piece of ‘sweet summer’. A pot of tea.
Options Available – There were options available to add a glass of either Cava or Champagne.
Comments – We were visiting Reykjavik as part of an Iceland and the British Isles cruise. During my pre cruise research I spotted an Afternoon Tea available right in Reykjavik. We were staying overnight in the port, so there was plenty of time to explore and still be able to try out an Icelandic Afternoon Tea.
We had pre-booked our Tea in advance by email. On arrival, we gave our name at the entrance to the restaurant and were shown to a table by the window.
The table was set with a thick dark grey napkin each, topped with a knife and fork.
We were each given a copy of the Afternoon Tea menu written in Icelandic on one side
and in English on the other side.
We were also brought a bottle of water and a glass each.
We were asked if we wanted tea to drink. We said yes, and were presented with a little tray with five mini Kilner jars containing different teas to choose from. We were told we could also choose English Breakfast teabags!
We both chose to try a fruit tea labelled ‘jarda and hindberja’. It smelt delicious. We were told it was strawberry and raspberry, which is what we had suspected it might be.
We were given a glass teacup and saucer and a rustic type round plate each.
Then the tea arrived. It was in a clear glass teapot with the tea leaves trapped in a glass cage inside. We were told to leave it for a few minutes before pouring it out. It was a lovely dark pink colour and was a good flavour. We didn’t need a refill as the teapot was quite large.
The Afternoon Tea arrived soon after on a three tier half cage stand with round rustic plates like we had been given earlier.
The scones were on a separate wooden platter along with the cream and the two pots of jam.
The tuna sandwiches were well filled we were told the salad was all made on the premises. Unfortunately, one side of the bread was a bit dry.
The three open sandwiches were all well piled with filling and all were really tasty and extremely good. The sea trout was quite smoky. It was accompanied by cream cheese and was topped with sprig of samphire.
The duck rillette was topped with an apple crisp and was very good. Finally, the extremely tasty lamb rillette was topped with a bit of apricot.
Next we came to the scone. It was medium sized, full of blueberries, fresh and very good.
The cream was slightly different to our clotted cream, as you would expect, but was still good. There was plenty of both cream and jams.
We were looking forwards to the cakes as they looked delicious! The bright green macaroons were beautifully chewy and good.
The caramel crankie was really nice with a really nice textured base topped with a tasty mousse layer topped with chocolate.
The ‘sweet summer’ was made up of a layer of chocolate mousse, then a layer of mango, topped with a thicker layer of coconut mousse. It was then wrapped in a layer of white chocolate with pretty sprinkles on top. It was really yummy.
Last of all was a chocolate rose. This replaced a cherry mousse mentioned on the menu. Wow! What an excellent substitution! It was excellent!
The rose coloured chocolate broke open to reveal a chocolate mousse filled with a berry sauce inside. It was really good!
The staff in the restaurant were really friendly and helpful. Everyone spoke perfect English to us once they realised we were English. One waitress was speaking Icelandic to us until we explained we were English. She then commented that she hoped that the Afternoon Tea had come up to English standards. I was able to reassure her that it certainly did.
| Savoury | 1.5 |
| Scone | 1.5 |
| Jam | 2.0 |
| Cream | 1.5 |
| Cake (variety) | 2.0 |
| Cake (quality) | 2.0 |
| Tea | 2.0 |
| Presentation | 2.0 |
| Service | 1.5 |
| Value | 2.0 |
| Total | 18.0 |
Sarnies Scones and Cakes 