RFK Rankings · Reykjavik
Best Restaurants for First-Date in Reykjavik (2026)
First Date · Reykjavik · 6 tables ranked · Updated June 2026
Compiled by the Restaurants for Kings editorial team · Published May 22, 2026 · Updated June 10, 2026 · Reviewed by Fredrik Filipsson, Editor-in-Chief · How we rank · Corrections
Reykjavik does the first date better at a wine counter than in a tasting room. The city's flagship, Dill, is a fifteen-course performance that asks for silence and a steep cheque, and neither is what two people meeting for the first time actually need. What 101 Reykjavik runs instead is a tight circuit of natural-wine bars and small-plate rooms, most of them candlelit and walkable from Laugavegur, where you order a glass and a few plates and let the evening decide its own length. This list favours the warm room you can leave early or sink into, ranked on conversation first, the cooking second, and the price honestly.
1.Skál!
Gísli Matt's natural-wine room of share-as-you-go plates; the archetypal Reykjavik first date, book it for an easy night.
Skál! left the Hlemmur food hall in 2024 for its own room at Njálsgata 1, on the corner of Klapparstígur, and the move suits it. Chef Gísli Matthías Auðunsson, known across Iceland as Gísli Matt, runs new-Nordic small plates against a natural-wine list, with counter seats, candlelight and award-winning bartender Þorkell behind the bar.
The menu rotates with the season, but the Icelandic scallop ceviche and the braised lamb ribs are the plates regulars return for, mostly in the 2,500 to 4,500 ISK range so a couple can share three or four without a heavy cheque. It took the Grapevine's best-restaurant nod across several years and a 2025 Bartenders' Choice award.
For a first date the share-as-you-go format is the whole argument: no fixed multi-course commitment, natural wine by the glass, and a room you can stay in for forty-five minutes or three hours. Walk-ins are common, but reserve via Dineout for a weekend table.
Reserve via Dineout for weekends; share the scallop ceviche and a glass of orange wine.
2.Sumac Grill + Drinks
Þráinn Freyr Vigfússon's warm Beirut-meets-Iceland grill; share the mezze for a built-in icebreaker on a first date.
Sumac sits at Laugavegur 28, a low-lit room of leather banquettes and a charcoal grill that reads like old Beirut. Chef Þráinn Freyr Vigfússon, one of Iceland's most decorated cooks and the man behind Óx, sets Moroccan and Levantine cooking against Icelandic produce.
The seven-course shared mezze runs 14,900 ISK, but the à la carte is where a first date lives: grilled lamb ribs with lentils and almonds at 8,490 ISK, chicken shawarma with celeriac and dates at 5,690 ISK, crispy falafel at 2,990 ISK, snacks from under a thousand. It holds a MICHELIN Bib Gourmand across several Nordic editions.
Sharing mezze is the easiest icebreaker on this list, and the buzzy-but-not-loud room lets you graze on snacks and a couple of plates rather than commit to a tasting. Open Tuesday to Saturday from half past five; reserve via Dineout.
Reserve via Dineout; build a spread of snacks and the lamb ribs.
3.Apéro Vínbar
A blue-velvet upstairs wine room with a bottle-and-two-plates aperitivo deal; conversation-first, never a long menu.
Apéro Vínbar hides on the second floor at Laugavegur 20b, an all-French wine bar of blue velvet, brass mirrors and a corrugated-iron heritage shell. The list runs to champagnes and small-grower bottles imported directly, poured against light food.
The kitchen turns out rotating crudo and a truffle-thyme-mushroom cannelé, with small plates broadly 2,000 to 3,500 ISK and glasses around 1,800 to 2,500 ISK. The smart date move is the aperitivo window: buy a bottle between four and seven and two small plates come with it, which keeps the cheque graceful. Star Wine List has named it among the city's best wine rooms in 2025 and 2026.
Tucked upstairs and low-lit, it is built for lingering over wine and a few bites rather than working through a three-hour menu, which is exactly the register a first date wants. Reserve for evenings, or arrive early for the aperitivo deal.
Arrive for the late-afternoon aperitivo; one bottle brings two plates.
4.Port 9
Iceland's oldest wine bar, emerald sofas on a quiet side street; the sink-in, talk-easy room on this list.
Port 9 opened in 2016 on the residential side street Veghúsastígur 9a and is Iceland's oldest wine bar. The room runs plush emerald sofas under dim light, with more than a hundred wines, natural and classic, and a deliberately small supporting menu.
Icelandic cheese-and-charcuterie boards and French macarons at 1,890 ISK are the order; the food is there to support the wine, not the other way round, and a couple's tab stays modest with glasses and a board. Travel + Leisure has called it a pioneer of Icelandic wine culture, and Star Wine List carries it.
It is the single most sink-into-a-sofa room here: quiet street, dim light, no tasting-menu pressure, easy to hear each other. Closed Mondays, otherwise four in the afternoon to eleven; reserve via Dineout, because it is tiny.
Reserve via Dineout; take a sofa, a board and two glasses.
5.Litli Barinn
An off-the-drag neighbourhood wine bar with seasonal Mediterranean plates; candlelit and unhurried for a first date.
Litli Barinn sits at Ranargata 4a, on the ground floor of the Local 101 hotel near Ingólfstorg, off the tourist drag in a residential pocket. The Grapevine called it deeply local and vaguely continental, and named it runner-up for the city's best wine bar in 2025.
The kitchen runs seasonal small Mediterranean plates against a strong natural-wine-by-the-glass range, with a happy hour from three to six that keeps the spend down. The glass-and-small-plate format is the friend of a relaxed evening, and the room is candlelit and neighbourhood-warm.
Open daily from three in the afternoon, it is the kind of calm, characterful room where a first date can breathe rather than perform. Reserve via Dineout, or walk in for happy hour.
Walk in for happy hour, or reserve via Dineout for the evening.
6.Kramber
A candlelit café-turned-wine-bar by Hallgrímskirkja, built for long conversations over small plates and grower wine.
Kramber sits beside Hallgrímskirkja, attached to the Kramhúsið dance school, and turns from café by day into a candlelit natural-wine bar by night. The Grapevine's 2026 aperitivo guide singled it out as a favourite for grower wine, small Mediterranean plates and long conversations.
Tasting platters of cheese, sardines, pickles and sourdough come with natural wine by the glass, at café-to-wine-bar prices that keep a date inexpensive and unhurried. It appears on Star Wine List's Reykjavik selection.
Central but calm, candlelit and conversation-paced, it fits the brief of a room that feels local and continental at once, and the church next door makes it easy to find and easy to walk on from. Casual and walk-in friendly; message ahead on a weekend.
Walk in midweek; share a tasting platter and a glass of grower wine.
Avoid for a first date
Skip these for date one
Dill. Iceland's flagship New-Nordic room, chef Gunnar Karl Gíslason, runs a roughly fifteen-course set tasting around 25,000 ISK across just eighteen seats. It is a multi-hour performance that forces focus and silence, beautiful and badly suited to learning if you like a stranger. Save it for a milestone, not a meeting.
Harbour puffin-and-whale tasting rooms. The tourist-strip spots selling puffin, whale and fermented shark as a novelty flight are loud, pricey for what they are, and ethically loaded, whale especially. None of that helps a first date. Choose one of the warm wine rooms above instead.
How to actually plan the date
Almost everything here clusters in 101 Reykjavik within a short walk of Laugavegur, so the city makes a wine-bar crawl easy if the first room goes well. Skál and Sumac are the ones to reserve, via Dineout, especially on a weekend; the wine bars, Apéro, Port 9, Litli Barinn and Kramber, take midweek walk-ins but reward booking on Friday and Saturday because the rooms are small.
The aperitivo and happy-hour windows are the value play and the low-pressure entry point: Apéro's bottle-and-two-plates deal and Litli Barinn's afternoon happy hour both let a date start gently. For more rooms, browse the Reykjavik dining guide and plan the night around the small, candlelit end of the city.
Frequently asked
What is the best first-date restaurant in Reykjavik?
Skál! on Njálsgata is our top pick. Chef Gísli Matthías Auðunsson runs new-Nordic small plates against a natural-wine list, with counter seats and candlelight, and plates mostly in the 2,500 to 4,500 ISK range so a couple shares three or four without a heavy cheque. The share-as-you-go format lets the evening run short or long, which is exactly what a first date needs. Reserve via Dineout for a weekend table.
Is Dill a good first-date restaurant?
No. Dill is Iceland's flagship tasting restaurant, a roughly fifteen-course set menu around 25,000 ISK across eighteen seats, and the meal is a multi-hour performance that asks for focus and quiet. That is a steep cheque and very little room to talk on a first meeting. It is a wonderful restaurant for a milestone or an anniversary; for a first date, choose a candlelit wine bar like Skál, Port 9 or Apéro instead.
Where are the best wine bars for a first date in Reykjavik?
Apéro Vínbar on Laugavegur, Port 9 on Veghúsastígur and Litli Barinn on Ranargata are the three to know. Apéro is the chic upstairs French room with a bottle-and-two-plates aperitivo deal, Port 9 is the oldest and most sink-into-a-sofa, and Litli Barinn is the off-the-drag neighbourhood pick with seasonal plates. All three favour glasses and small plates over a fixed menu, which keeps a first date relaxed and the cheque light.
Does Iceland have a Michelin guide?
Yes, indirectly. Iceland is covered within the MICHELIN Guide Nordic selection, where Reykjavik rooms including Dill and Sumac appear; Dill holds the country's only star recognition and Sumac carries a Bib Gourmand. There is no standalone Icelandic guide ceremony, but the recognitions are current. For a first date, the Bib Gourmand and wine-bar tier matters more than the star tier, since the starred tasting rooms are the ones to avoid on a first meeting.
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Browse the full Reykjavik dining guide, plan the evening with our first-date dining guide, read the verdict on Skál and Dill, compare solo dining in Reykjavik, or open the full RFK rankings index.
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