• 5
• Excellent

Several days before actually eating here, I walked in and attempted to eat; however, I was perplexed as to whether I was meant to seat myself or wait (and there seemed to be no one willing to assist me), and the fact that there were some extremely attractive Icelandic boys sitting at the bar wasn't helping either. Thus, I left hungry after a couple minutes. However, the following visit--this time with my extroverted friend who accompanied me on my first trip to the country that shall forever hold my soul--far preponderated this initial let-down. We found our own seats this time, and shortly after it transpired that this was indeed the correct procedure, as a server quickly came over to greet us. We then were instructed to go to the bar to order. I chose the 'Leslie' (olives, cream cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, parsley tapenade; sans 'oumph'...still haven't the slightest idea as to what that is), and my friend went for the lasagne. My open-faced sandwich was excellent: not too salty, but perhaps would have benefitted from either the top half of bread, less topping or a lot of napkins, as it was quite messy to eat (not so fun when you're already enormously anxious over all the aforementioned Icelandic boys and their impeccable hairstyles). My friend confirmed that her lasagne, which most reviews tend to rave about, was indeed delicious and perfectly baked. As this was our last dinner in Iceland, we decided to splurge on the beautiful desserts on offer, which included a blueberry cheesecake and a (black bean?) brownie. Both were simultaneously delightfully decadent and light enough to motivate us to continue exploring Reykjavík until the sun set around 23:00 (and, in my case, for many hours after that, as I couldn't bear to sleep with the knowledge that I would soon have to leave the peaceful, clean, wonderful, quirky island that is Iceland). What's more, I even managed to carry out two interesting, meaningful conversations with locals (one about veganism...yay!) whilst in the café (it seemed to be very much inhabited by locals, which is awesome), in no small part thanks to my friend who, unlike myself and many Nordic people, isn't enormously introverted or terrified of talking to strangers. For Iceland's first 100% cruelty-free, compassionate, vegan restaurant, Kaffi Vínyl is doing a brilliant job. Needless to say, I'll be back (and hopefully in a much more attractive form...).