Prikið ehf.

The Bar That Reykjavik Keeps Coming Back To

Bankastræti is one of the short, sloped streets that connects Reykjavik's administrative centre to its bar quarter, and number 12 has been occupied by Prikið long enough that most locals have stopped noticing it in the way you stop noticing a reliable piece of furniture. That visibility is, in a city that generates considerable international attention for its nightlife, a form of status. The bars that attract the most column inches in Reykjavik tend to be the newer ones, concept-driven, seasonally repositioned, photographed for their interiors. Prikið operates in a different register entirely.

Iceland's bar scene in the 101 postal district has gone through several distinct phases. The early 2000s brought a wave of international-facing venues calibrated for tourists arriving on cheap Icelandair fares. The 2010s saw a craft beer inflection, with Icelandic microbreweries, Borg Brugghús among the most visible, finding shelf space across the city's bars. More recently, the post-pandemic recovery accelerated a split between high-turnover venues on Laugavegur and quieter, locally patronised spots on side streets. Prikið sits in the latter cohort, on a street that connects both worlds without being fully absorbed by either.

What the Regulars Are Actually Ordering

In any bar with genuine regulars, the unwritten menu is usually more revealing than the printed one. At Prikið, the gravitational pull is toward the unfussy end of the drinks list: lager on draft, spirits served straight or simply mixed, the kind of order that gets processed quickly at a busy counter without requiring explanation. This is not a cocktail bar in the technical sense that places like Bar Leather Apron in Honolulu or Jewel of the South in New Orleans have defined the category. The draw is simple: a place to sit, to talk, to order again without ceremony.

That positioning matters in Reykjavik's bar geography. The city has developed genuine depth at the premium end, venues where the drink itself is the point, where ice programs and house-made bitters are worth discussing. But a functioning bar culture also needs its mid-register constants, the places that absorb the hour before or after the destination bar, that serve the local who has no interest in paying for theatrical drinks on a Tuesday. Prikið has long occupied that function in the 101 district, alongside spots like Bodega and Bryggjuhúsið, which serve comparable roles in adjacent neighbourhoods.

The Regulars' Geography

The clientele at Prikið has historically skewed local in a way that sets it apart from many Bankastræti addresses. Reykjavik's small population, the greater metropolitan area sits under 250,000, means bar regulars are visible in a way they wouldn't be in a larger city. When the same faces appear across multiple weeks and multiple months, a place earns a different kind of loyalty than tourist volume can provide. Prikið has that. It is the kind of bar where the bartender's recognition of a returning face carries more weight than any loyalty program.

For visitors arriving without a fixed itinerary, this matters practically. A bar with a genuine local base reads differently from a tourist-facing operation, the pacing is different, the noise level is managed by a different set of social norms, and the drinks are priced for people who come back. Iceland's cost of living runs high by European standards, and bar prices in Reykjavik reflect that across the board. But a bar with a local regular base has less tolerance for the kind of markup that tourist venues absorb without consequence.

Where Prikið Sits in the Wider Reykjavik Bar Picture

Reykjavik rewards the visitor who treats its bar scene as a circuit rather than a series of individual destinations. The 101 district is compact enough to move between four or five venues in an evening without significant effort. From Prikið's position on Bankastræti, the broader bar options span from the music-oriented 12 Tónar to the more structured drinks programs at BakaBaka. For those moving beyond the capital, Götubarinn in Akureyri serves a comparable local-bar function in the north, and Gott restaurant in Vestmannaeyjar operates in a similarly unpretentious register in the Westman Islands.

Within the capital's more experimental tier, Kramber and Náttúrufræðistofnun represent the direction Iceland's bar culture has moved for the internationally attentive visitor. Prýði in Vestmannaeyjabær takes a different path again, rooted in island hospitality rather than urban bar logic. Prikið belongs to none of these categories cleanly, it predates most of them and operates on its own timeline. Our full Reykjavik restaurants and bars guide maps the full range if you're planning across multiple nights.

Planning a Visit

Prikið is at Bankastræti 12 in the 101 district, and it is walk-in friendly. Reykjavik's concentrated geography means arriving on foot from most 101 accommodation is practical. The bar draws its weekend crowd from early evening onward and can get loud by Icelandic nightlife standards, which is to say, genuinely loud, particularly when live events are on the schedule. Weeknights run quieter and are when the regular clientele tends to dominate the room. Showing up is the method.