Fish Company

Where the Harbour Meets the Table

Vesturgata runs along the edge of Reykjavik's old harbour, a stretch of the city where the fishing industry and the restaurant trade have coexisted for decades. The street address, Grófartorg, places Fish Company inside a neighbourhood that saw significant transformation as Iceland's restaurant culture matured after the early 2000s. What was once a working port district gradually absorbed the kind of dining that takes its ingredient sourcing from the boats docking nearby. That geographic logic, eating fish within sight of the water that produced it, is not unique to Reykjavik, but the North Atlantic variety on offer here gives it a character that kitchens further inland cannot replicate.

Iceland's Marine Heritage on the Plate

Icelandic cuisine is, at its core, a seafood cuisine. The country's position in the North Atlantic, combined with cold, clean waters and a fishing industry that predates the Icelandic state itself, means that cod, haddood, haddock, Arctic char, langoustine, and skate have historically been the backbone of what people eat here. For much of the twentieth century, that tradition expressed itself in preservation, salted cod, dried fish, fermented shark, rather than in restaurant dining as the rest of Europe understood it. The shift toward treating these ingredients as material for contemporary cooking, rather than subsistence or export, accelerated sharply after the 2008 financial crisis, when a lower krona made Iceland an accessible destination and local chefs began reconsidering what indigenous produce could do in a more ambitious context.

Fish Company is a restaurant in Reykjavík serving Nordic Seafood Fusion. The broader movement it belongs to placed Icelandic seafood ingredients at the centre of restaurant menus rather than treating them as secondary to imported proteins or Continental techniques. Restaurants like DILL in Reykjavík pursued a New Nordic framework for this shift; Fish Company's approach, as suggested by its name and address, keeps the focus more directly on the marine ingredient itself. That is a distinct editorial position within the Reykjavik dining scene, and one with international parallels: kitchens such as Le Bernardin in New York City have long argued that fish cookery deserves the same level of technical attention as meat-focused fine dining.

The Competitive Set in Reykjavik

Reykjavik's restaurant density is high relative to the city's population, a consequence of heavy tourism and a local dining culture that punches well above its demographic weight. Within that scene, seafood-led restaurants occupy a respected tier. Moss in Grindavík and the Chef's Table at Moss Restaurant in Iceland represent the fine-dining end of this category, with tasting menu formats and significant critical attention. Fjöruborðið in Stokkseyri, outside the capital, has built its reputation on a single product, langoustine, served in a format that is deliberately approachable rather than formal. Fish Company occupies a middle position: a city-centre address with harbour proximity, a menu shaped around Icelandic seafood, and a format that serves both visitors seeking a specifically Icelandic meal and locals who return for familiar ingredients treated with care.

Elsewhere in the capital, the dining conversation ranges from the casual register of Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur, the hot dog stand that has become a reference point for Reykjavik street food, to the more considered formats at Bon Restaurant and Brút. Bergsson Mathús handles the daytime crowd with a produce-led approach that reflects a similar ingredient consciousness. Fish Company's positioning, focused on marine produce and the harbour district, gives it a distinct identity within this range.

Beyond the Capital: Iceland's Wider Seafood Geography

Understanding Fish Company means understanding that Reykjavik is not the only place in Iceland where serious seafood cooking happens. Strikið in Akureyri, in the north, addresses similar ingredients from a regional base. Nesjavallavirkjun in Selfoss and Friðheimar in Reykholt represent the agricultural side of Icelandic produce culture, demonstrating how geothermal energy has enabled year-round cultivation of ingredients that supplement the marine harvest. The point is that Icelandic cuisine is not a single-city phenomenon, and the ideal way to understand Fish Company is as a Reykjavik expression of a national ingredient story that plays out across the island.

For visitors flying in or out via Keflavik, Malai-Thai in Keflavik and Von Mathús-Bar in Hafnarfjörður offer dining options that extend the picture beyond the capital. Amma Don adds another dimension to the Reykjavik scene, as does the ingredient-forward format at places like Lazy Bear in San Francisco and Emeril's in New Orleans, both of which illustrate how strong regional ingredient identities translate into restaurant formats with specific geographic authority.

Planning Your Visit

Fish Company is located at Vesturgata 2a, Grófartorg, in central Reykjavik's 101 postal district, within walking distance of the old harbour and the main shopping street, Laugavegur. The 101 district is compact enough that most visitors staying centrally can reach the address on foot. Reykjavik's restaurant scene is heavily seasonal in its visitor pressure, with summer (June through August) representing peak demand across the board. Visitors planning a meal during that window should contact the restaurant directly to confirm availability, as harbour-district addresses in this price and profile tier fill quickly during the high season.