Tales of the Table · 15 years · Downtown 101
Fifteen years of fire, smoke and Icelandic farmers at Grillmarkaðurinn
Grillmarkaðurinn opened in June 2011 on a plot that had stood empty since a fire – and built its whole kitchen around flames. This summer it turned fifteen.
The building at Lækjargata 2A stands where a cinema and assembly hall from 1920 was lost to fire in 1998. When the restaurant opened, the mayor at the time, Jón Gnarr, marked the occasion on the rebuilt “fire plot”.
Inside, the room borrows from Icelandic nature: basalt columns, a wall of moss, fish skin and old fish-drying racks, with seats for around 130 guests. The kitchen buys directly from farmers, hunters and fishermen and cooks over fire, smoke, wood and charcoal.
The restaurant was founded by three partners, among them chef Hrefna Sætran, who in 2025 sold her share to focus on her other restaurants, including Fiskmarkaðurinn.
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