Tales of the Table · Lost & found · Austurstræti 20 · since 1805
Hressó: the oldest restaurant in Reykjavík keeps coming back
Few addresses in Reykjavík have changed costume as often as Austurstræti 20 – and yet it keeps finding its way back to what it once was.
The house itself is one of the oldest in the city: a timber house from 1805, extended in 1862 and protected since 1990. Through the 20th century it became Hressingarskálinn – “Hressó” – often called the oldest restaurant in Reykjavík and for decades a favourite meeting place of artists, writers and ordinary townsfolk alike.
Late in the century the cafés multiplied and Hressó lost its shine. It turned into a nightclub, and later into Bjarni Fel, a sports bar named after the much-loved Icelandic sports commentator Bjarni Felixson.
Then, in June 2021, Hressingarskálinn reopened in its old form: home cooking, coffee, freshly baked kleinur and pancakes – and the famous Hressó cake. On the first days, guests sat telling the staff how their grandmothers used to bring them there as children. Some tables, it seems, are never really lost.
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