Food & cooking tours in Reykjavik

Our guide, Alexandra, introduced us to a number of fabulous dishes. We started with a meat (lamb) soup, went on to a cheese shop for samples of cheese and meats (including horse and goose), continued to a cafe for a unique rye-bread ice cream (it sounds odd if you have American rye in mind, but this is a dark, somewhat sweet molasses-rich rye -- the ice cream was excellent!), and moved on from there to a seafood restaurant for a sampling of arctic char and fish mash (also unique and wonderful). These were followed by Icelandic yogurt outdoors by Reykjavik's "pond," a hot dog (mostly lamb) with all the fixings at the oldest hot dog stand in the city, and finally a wonderful pair of desserts -- a chocolate concoction in the shape of a rose, and an apple sorbet -- with coffee. Alexandra was a wonderful guide. She answered all our questions about life in Reykjavik and Iceland, about local traditions, about must-see parts of the city, and of course about the food. By the time the tour was over, we felt as if we'd learned a lot and made a new friend. We did this tour on our first day in Iceland. It was a great way to orient ourselves and get through our jet lag, as well as to find great places to eat! We actually returned to two of the tour spots later in our week; had we stayed longer, I'm sure we would have gone back to more. Thank you, Alexandra and Like a Local!

I was really surprised by how great this tour was. I really just signed up for it to kill a few hours the day I arrived in Reykjavik while I was waiting to get picked up by another tour. I guess I was just expecting to kind of learn my way around the area while sampling some small bits of food. It turned out, we went to seven different restaurants/bars/cafés where they fed us generously and I was STUFFED by the halfway point. I can't say enough about the guide, Egill (pronounced AY-ick), who designed the tour himself based on his own favorite spots around the city. You could absolutely tell how into the subject he was—that this wasn't just a list of places handed to him—and that he truly enjoyed taking us to places where he eats and telling us all about the city and Iceland in general along the way. I am so glad I picked this as the first thing I did when I arrived in Iceland. It was the perfect way to get introduced to the culture, language, and my way around the downtown area so that when I came back later, I could find my way. He made all the little things we learned about the country and city so interesting and with enough variety without just droning endlessly with information. For the rest of my week vacationing here, I recommended this tour to a bunch of people. At first, I almost didn't book it because it looked kind of pricey for what I thought would be just a little bit of food sampling, but I have to say it was WORTH EVERY PENNY (or krona, whatever). Much thanks to Egill for introducing me to some incredible restaurants (one of which I returned to my last day) and starting my vacation off perfectly.

Wonderful way to learn the culture and city through the food. We met Alexandra, our guide, at the Harpa and spent the next 4 hours eating our way through Reykjavik. We ate lamb stew, a cheese shop where we ate cheese and pates, rye bread ice cream at Cafe Loki, fish soup at Kopar, the famous Icelandic hot dog at the hot dog stand, and finally a rich dessert at Apotek. Don't eat a big breakfast before the tour. Alexandra was fun and very knowledgable. If you like food great way to spend 4 hours.

I went on the food tour not really knowing what to expect--and it was seriously awesome! You go on a fair amount of stops and eat some seriously delicious food. Thankfully, the portions are really reasonable and you're not left feeling as though you have eaten an entire buffet or two! The walking isn't at all strenuous and you get to see a fair amount of the city on the way. It's a great way to get to know the town of Reykjavik and the culture of Iceland. Our tour guide, Dan, was super friendly and passionate. He was very knowledgeable and was genuinely interested in getting to know about the people on the tour. Not only that, but he has a great demeanor and makes the tour really fun! If you're interested in the tour, make sure you bring decent walking shoes, weather appropriate clothing and a good appetite! While the portions may not be huge, it will definitely fill you up by the end. I also recommend bringing a camera to take photos of the food that you eat--it's plated really well. All in all, 10/10--awesome tour!

We had an amazing time with our guide Egill, who showed us some stops around Reykjavik we wouldn't have been able to see otherwise. We were taken to a great meat and cheese place, tried some amazing rye bread ice cream, had some tasty soups, and tried one of the famous hot dogs. Highly recommend this tour and Egill!!