Okay, I have to admit that I was wildly wrong about what I thought was Reykjavik’s food scene – it went FAR beyond the fermented shark and dried fish I’d expected.

In fact, the cuisine is as versatile as its scenery, with an interesting combination of hyper-local ingredients, centuries of Nordic tradition, and a new generation of chefs putting boundary-pushing spins on things.

Even though the city is compact, if you really want to maximize your experience, you really need to go on a food tour. I’ve gone ahead and reviewed the 5 top Reykjavik food tours out there, that are well worth your time and money. Let’s jump right in!

Be sure to see our reviews for Whale Watching Tours, Northern Lights Tours and Volcano Tours.

Best Food Tours in Reykjavik

	Reykjavik Food Walk - Local Foodie Adventure in Iceland	Private Food Walking Tour in Reykjavik	Reykjavik Food Lovers Tour - Icelandic Traditional Food
Duration:	3 hours	3 hours	2.5 hours to 3 hours
Departure:	Harpa Concert Hall, Austurbakki 2, 101 Reykjavík	Hotel pickup and drop-off included	Hlöllabátar, Ingólfstorgi 1, 101 Reykjavík
Start:	Between 11:00 AM & 5:30 PM	Between 11:00 AM & 7:00 PM	11:30 AM, 1:00 PM, 4:00 PM, 5:00 PM
Includes:	3 hour walking tour with a local guide, Visit 4-6 local establishments, taste 8+ amazing & authentic Icelandic cuisine	Explore Reykjavik with a walking food tour, variety of Icelandic specialities, Icelandic drink of choice, guide	Visit Reykjavik's top eateries, water at all stops, food tasting, professional guide, alcoholic beverages
	Tour Information & Booking	Tour Information & Booking	Tour Information & Booking

Quick Answer: The 5 Best Rated Reykjavik Food Tours For 2026

1. Reykjavik Food Walk – Local Foodie Adventure in Iceland
2. Private Food Walking Tour in Reykjavik
3. Reykjavik Food Lovers Tour – Icelandic Traditional Food
4. Reykjavik Street Food Walking Tour
5. Reykjavík Food Tour with 5 Authentic Local Tastings & Secret Dish

Reykjavik Food Tour Reviews

1. Reykjavik Food Walk – Local Foodie Adventure in Iceland

Let’s start things off on the right foot, with the Reykjavik Food Walk – Local Foodie Adventure in Iceland. Even if you don’t consider yourself a “foodie”, there are so many reasons to go on this excursion.

The local food is largely influenced by its unique geography, isolation, and the need to be practically ingenious in order to craft dishes from such limited ingredients.

On this tour, you’ll learn all about each aspect, and let’s be honest, it’s much easier to have an open mind and listen when you have good food in front of you.

This 3-hour excursion is long enough to pack a punch while still being relatively easy to fit into a busy schedule. The fact that you have multiple start times to choose from makes it that much more convenient, too.

Your tour starts off at the Harpa Concert Hall, which I’d honestly suggest arriving early to give yourself time to explore it on your own terms, as the geometric glass facade facing the harbor is certainly one of the most striking pieces of architecture I’ve seen in Northern Europe.

After meeting up with your guide and the rest of your small group (which maxes out at just 14 participants), you’ll then set off on your itinerary of anywhere from 4 to 6 food stops.

The number of stops varies, but this is in order to ensure you are actually eating a proper amount of food rather than little nibbles along the way. If you want to sample as much as possible, there are some great alternatives, but this one will leave you full and satisfied.

The food lineup was incredible, including Arctic char, Icelandic lamb, locally produced cheeses, and rye bread ice cream. That last one was crazy unexpected, but it turns out it’s a signature Icelandic creation that I fell in love with!

This is exactly what I’m talking about when I say that their food culture is far more nuanced and interesting than most of us probably anticipate. Not to mention, we had a wide range of eateries – from food trucks to sit-down restaurants – to work with.

2. Private Food Walking Tour in Reykjavik

Food can be an intimate thing, and not everyone is in the mood to do a tour with a bunch of strangers. While it can often add to the atmosphere, if you’re looking for something just for you and your traveling party, the Private Food Walking Tour in Reykjavik is right up your alley.

What I really love about this one is that instead of showing off the polished side of the city, it offers you a more authentic look through Iceland’s history and culture, relating it back to cuisine.

The 3-hour excursion takes place in the evening, as it is designed to be an alternative to simply going out to eat at a single restaurant. With hotel pickup and drop-off included, it doesn’t get much more convenient than that, taking out any of the hassle of planning transportation or finding meetup points.

Your journey kicks off at Ingólfstorg, which is an old yet charming center square marked by twin pillars that reference the island’s original settler. This makes for the perfect starting point, offering some thought behind every stop right from the very beginning.

From there, we made our way to the harbor, where we got to try a hearty, cozy shellfish soup that immediately made me feel like I was at home. We learned all about the importance of seafood here, which makes sense, given the geography and Viking history.

Then, it was on to Bæjarins Beztu Pylsure, which is a legendary hot dog stand apparently everyone else in the world knew about but me. Its list of legendary visitors is a mile long, and its lamb hot dog has begun a kind of cult following!

After that, we pivoted to something completely different – a detour through a local supermarket, where we got to try all kinds of Icelandic snacks, candy, and pantry staples!

That stop offered more insight into local culture and what people pick up on in everyday life, when they’re watching TV, hanging out at home, etcetera. Then, we went to the Kilaportio Flea Market to try even more local foods!

We ended up at Restaurant Dass, where we tried all kinds of delicacies, like the fermented Greenlandic shark (hákarl), which I’ll admit I now know I am not a fan of. We washed it all down with a local beer or Brennivín (caraway-flavored schnapps!).

3. Reykjavik Food Lovers Tour – Icelandic Traditional Food

The challenge with eating well in Reykjavik isn’t that the food is difficult to find – it’s that all the best spots are spread out all over the place.

Oftentimes, the touristy spots are easiest to access, but the Reykjavik Food Lovers Tour – Icelandic Traditional Food solves this issue with a nicely curated itinerary that covers the full spectrum of local food culture in just one excursion lasting just a couple of hours.

This is one of the most convenient Reykjavik food tours out there, as you do get a bit more say in how many stops you go to, and there are many different start times to choose from.

You’ll start by meeting your guide and the rest of your small group at Ingólfstorg, doing a quick briefing regarding what you should expect for the next bit of time. Then, head over to the old harbor and Seabaron, which is one of the most respected seafood institutions in all of Europe.

The shellfish soup was incredible, and I could’ve eaten that daily. Bæjarins Beztu Pylsure opened nearly 100 years ago and offers the definitive version of the Icelandic lamb hot dog – so you know you have to try it, too! After that, tons of “imitator” stands cropped up around the city, but none offer quite the full experience and authenticity that this icon does.

Next up, it’s more lamb in the form of soup, alongside some other traditional dishes. You’ll quickly see how the flavor of lamb here is unlike anywhere else.

We also went to a local delicacy store here, which reminded me a bit of the supermarket stop on the previous tour. After all, we got to browse through what locals actually buy and eat at home, offering a more revealing look into the culture than most formal food experiences.

We then ended up at Restaurant Dass, trying the famed fermented shark, followed up again by local beer or Brennivín (which is incredible, and a bit dangerous).

4. Reykjavik Street Food Walking Tour

Next up is the Reykjavik Street Food Walking Tour, which is put on by a family-run company operating for over a decade, with plenty of time to perfect their craft.

You can tell that they only involve the most passionate locals who know the city inside and out, and have built valuable relationships with vendors, chefs, and owners. This makes for a much more enriching experience, as we got to see and try so much more than we would’ve been able to on our own.

If you’re planning on going out to a restaurant for lunch, or maybe just picking something up along sightseeing, this is a fantastic alternative. The city has exploded in tourism over the past 10 years, and our guides have seen everything – offering insight in a way that newer operators simply can’t make up.

This is also one of the smallest group tours I’ve ever gone on without it being private, which was obviously well worth the price! We had our guide practically all to ourselves, and received more flexibility in pace – not to mention, it’s just so much smoother moving through the city in a smaller crowd.

Experience some of the most fascinating architecture in the city, from the old harbour at Aegisgardur, the Harpa Concert Hall, the historic Parliament House, and the iconic silhouette of Hallgrimskirkja.

Our guide regaled us with personal anecdotes, as well as historical and cultural commentary, offering interesting context that made everything so much more interesting! Actually, the educational aspect is by far one of the best, so if you’re in any way a history nerd, you need to place this tour at the top of your list.

We stopped for our lamb hot dog at Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur, for lamb soup on the street, some marriage cake, and so much more! Not to mention, our guide gave us a ton of recommendations for things to see and do during the rest of our trip!

5. Reykjavík Food Tour with 5 Authentic Local Tastings & Secret Dish

Last but certainly not least, is the Reykjavik Food Tour with 5 Authentic Local Tastings & Secret Dish experience! This is a full-fledged tour that goes far beyond ingredients and locales – you’re getting a warm, inviting look into Reykjavik as a living, breathing thing, rather than a list of boxes to check off.

If you want to dive deep into the downtown area with an expert local passionate about what they do, you’re in very good hands with this one.

The 3-hour experience is easy to fit into a busy schedule and has multiple start times to choose from to further facilitate that. We met our guide and the rest of our little group near Hallgrimskirkja, and immediately knew we were in for some real treats here.

Our guide instantly felt like a longtime friend who just happened to be an incredibly knowledgeable local, and had us laughing and engaged throughout the entire time. We took some time to learn about and appreciate the iconic volcanic basalt-inspired church, while enjoying a delicious Icelandic pastry before picking up momentum along Laugavegur.

This is the city’s main commercial and cultural artery, and also had time for some photo ops at the Rainbow Road, which is one of the city’s most photographed streets.

Onto more food, one of the highlights for me was the fish stew, which was packed full of flavor and made you just want to soak in its majesty while enjoying the unique city around you.

We even got to try some hot chocolate and Icelandic Marriage Cake, which is a delicious array of layers that’s perfect if you want a proper intro to the country’s rich baking heritage.

Of course, the tour wouldn’t be complete without the unveiling and enjoyment of the secret dish! You won’t know anything about it until the day of, which also creates a bit of excitement on top of the already fascinating tour experience! This one is 10 out of 10 for me!

A Food Lover’s Guide to Reykjavik Food Tours

A guide hands you a small paper cup of fermented shark, tells you to chase it with a shot of Brennivín, and watches your face for the reaction everyone has.

That single moment tells you more about Icelandic food culture than a week of restaurant menus would, and it is the reason a food tour is worth booking before you do almost anything else in this city.

Why Take a Food Tour in Reykjavik

Iceland cooks from a short list of ingredients shaped entirely by geography. Cold water fish, lamb that grazes wild through the summer, dairy cultured the same way for over a thousand years, and bread baked underground using the heat of the earth itself.

None of that is marketing language. It is just how the country has fed itself for centuries with no farmland to spare and no forests to speak of.

A good food tour explains that context while you are actually eating the food, not after. You learn why skyr tastes the way it does, why the hot dog stand matters as much as any restaurant on the list, and why a slice of dense rye bread came out of a hole in the ground near a hot spring rather than an oven.

It also solves a real problem for a first-time visitor. Reykjavik is small, walkable, and confusing to navigate by cuisine alone, since its best food is split between old-school diners, new Nordic kitchens, and a hot dog cart that has outlasted every trend in town.

This is worth booking on your first full day in the city, not your last. Travelers who do a food tour early consistently end up with a list of places to return to on their own for the rest of the trip.

When to Go

Reykjavik runs food tours every day, year round, and the weather rarely changes what is on the menu. What changes is how busy the city gets.

June through August brings the heaviest crowds, and December and January bring a second wave chasing the northern lights, so book your slot before you land at Keflavík rather than after.

Morning and early afternoon slots fill first, especially on the most established tours. If you have a specific date locked in, reserve as soon as your flights are booked rather than waiting until you are in the city.

Evening tours exist and lean more toward bars and small plates than the classic walking-and-tasting format. Book a daytime tour if food is the priority, and save an evening one for a second visit if drinking is more the point.

What You Will Actually Eat

The Core Dishes

Nearly every serious Reykjavik food tour builds around the same core list, because these are the dishes that explain the country’s food.

• Skyr. A cultured dairy product related to yogurt but strained thicker, made from a bacterial culture Iceland has kept going for over a thousand years. Good tours serve it plain or with crowberries so you taste the product itself, not a flavored version built to hide it.
• Fermented shark, hákarl. Greenland shark, toxic when fresh, buried and dried for months until it is safe to eat. It is sharp, ammonia-forward, and the single dish every guide watches your face for.
• Brennivín. An unsweetened schnapps flavored with caraway, nicknamed the Black Death, served as the traditional chaser right after the shark. The pairing exists because the shark needs something to cut through it, not for show.
• The Reykjavik hot dog, pylsur. Lamb, pork, and beef in a natural casing, served with raw and fried onion, ketchup, sweet mustard, and remoulade. It shows up on almost every tour, and the stand behind it has outlasted restaurants that opened and closed twice in the time it has been standing there.
• Icelandic lamb. Free-range, grass and herb fed through the short summer, showing up as soup, as pulled meat, or roasted depending on the stop.
• Rye bread ice cream, rúgbrauðsís. Built around Iceland’s dense, dark geothermal rye bread, baked slowly underground using the heat from hot springs rather than an oven, then folded into a dessert that tastes like nothing else on the tasting menu.

Classic Downtown Walking Tours

The standard format runs about three hours, on foot, through downtown Reykjavik, stopping at four or five spots that mix old-school diners with newer kitchens. Wake Up Reykjavik runs the most established version of this, departing from Harpa Concert Hall, capped around 13 guests, and covering the hot dog stand, a bakery, a sit-down lamb or fish course, and a dessert stop.

This is the tour to book if it is your first day in the city and you want one clear introduction to Icelandic food without overthinking which operator to pick. It has the deepest track record of any tour in Reykjavik, with well over a hundred thousand bookings behind it.

The Fermented Shark and Shot Format

Some operators build an entire tour around the more adventurous end of Icelandic food, leading with hákarl and Brennivín rather than saving it for a single stop. These run slightly higher than the standard tour and are worth it specifically for that pairing, done properly with a guide who explains what you are about to eat before you eat it.

If fermented shark is the one thing you actually came to try, book this format over the general walking tour. A rushed shark tasting wedged into a five-stop itinerary is a worse version of the same experience.

Secret Dish Formats

Secret Food Tours runs its Reykjavik walk with a twist borrowed from its other cities. You get pastries near Hallgrímskirkja, a walk down the rainbow-painted Skólavörðustígur and the main shopping street Laugavegur, a finish of hot chocolate and Icelandic Marriage Cake, and one dish that is not revealed until the day of the tour.

This format suits a traveler who has already done a straightforward food walk somewhere else and wants a different structure the second time around, rather than a first introduction to Icelandic food.

Street Food and Budget Options

A handful of smaller, family-run operators run tighter, more casual versions of the same walking format, fewer stops, less structure, and a lower price. One operator has been running this style since 2014, long enough to have real relationships with the vendors on the route rather than a rotating list.

This is the right call if your budget is tighter or you have already eaten your way through Reykjavik once before and want a lighter refresher rather than a full three-hour commitment.

Where the Best Tours Happen

• Downtown Reykjavik and Laugavegur. The spine of nearly every walking tour, mixing the main shopping street with smaller side streets that hide the older diners.
• Around Hallgrímskirkja. The pastry and dessert stops on several tours cluster near the church, using the view as a natural pause point.
• Harpa Concert Hall. The most common meeting point for tours departing on foot into downtown, easy to find and close to most hotels.
• The Old Harbour. A quieter stretch some operators use for seafood-focused stops, worth asking about if fish is more your interest than lamb or shark.

What It Costs

Budget street food walks run from about $122 per person, a tighter format with fewer stops from smaller, family-run operators. This is the right call if you want the experience without the full three-hour commitment or price tag.

The standard three-hour walking tour, the most booked format in the city, runs close to $144 per person and typically includes four to five stops with a proper sit-down course in the middle. This is the one most first-time visitors should book.

Tours built specifically around the fermented shark and Brennivín pairing, often branded as a food lovers’ format, run higher, closer to $163 per person, reflecting the more adventurous ingredient list and the extra stop it takes to do that pairing right.

Tipping your guide is not required in Iceland the way it is in the United States, but ten percent is a reasonable gesture if the guide was genuinely good and you can afford Reykjavik’s prices to begin with, which are not gentle on any budget.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is fermented shark actually safe to eat on a food tour?

Yes. It goes through months of curing specifically to make it safe, and every operator running these tours serves it as a standard, expected part of the experience.

Should I book a food tour on my first day or save it for later in the trip?

Book it early. Travelers who take a food tour in their first day or two consistently say it gave them places to return to on their own for the rest of the visit.

How much walking is involved?

Most tours cover one to two miles at an easy pace with frequent stops to eat. None of the standard downtown routes require serious fitness, since the point is eating, not exercise.

With the price of everything in Iceland, are these tours actually worth it?

Reykjavik is expensive regardless of what you do, and a tour built around four or five substantial tastings plus a sit-down course often works out close to what a single restaurant meal would cost on its own. The value is in the breadth, not just the food.

Can I do a tour if I have dietary restrictions?

Yes. Most established operators, including Wake Up Reykjavik and Secret Food Tours, accommodate vegetarian, gluten, and lactose restrictions with advance notice.

Email the operator before booking rather than assuming the day-of guide can improvise around it.

Do I need to know anything about Icelandic food before I go?

No. The entire point of the tour is teaching you that context as you eat, and a good guide assumes you are starting from zero.