While I was obviously aware of the beauty of Höfn prior to visiting, it wasn’t one of the towns I was most excited to visit during my trip to Iceland last June. However, my one night spent in this quaint fishing town quickly became one of my fondest memories from my trip. This post is a love letter to one of my favorite towns in the entire world.
After an incredible day of hiking glaciers and searching for Yoda’s cave, few things sounded better than a relaxing evening with a warm meal. When driving into Höfn it looks rather unassuming. Clearly, it’s gorgeous because there isn’t one inch of Iceland that isn’t the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen, but it doesn’t particularly stand out from other towns I had visited. As per request of my family, I began searching for restaurant recommendations on google and selected the top contenders. Being the culinarian of the family, I usually have a strong voice in food-related decisions, so I ultimately decided on a restaurant called Otto Matur & Drykkur. This is where our Höfn journey begins.
I still think about Otto Matur & Drykkur daily. It was truly perfect from the atmosphere to the food to the service. I cannot stress enough how much this restaurant captures everything I could ever want a restaurant to be. The quality is of the highest degree, but not pretentious in the slightest.
After entering the butter-colored cottage, you’re greeted by the friendly staff and seated in a dining room that’s simplicity and beauty has surreal calming powers. You’re treated to a wicker basket of warm bread accompanied by Icelandic butter and flakey seaweed salt.
One thing that you should know about Höfn before eating at any restaurant there is that it’s the langoustine capital of Iceland. If you’re not sure what langoustine is, simply put it’s a type of crustacean, smaller and sweeter than lobster. If you consider yourself a gastronome to any extent, I highly recommend researching langoustine before visiting Höfn as they’re incredibly interesting and you’re about to be in one of the best places to enjoy them! All of this to say, I ordered the Langoustine soup and practically licked the bowl clean.
Sadly, it’s time for our evening at Otto Mayur & Drykkur to come to a close, but not before dessert of course! My family isn’t typically a dessert family when we go out to dinner, but after seeing the delicacies placed on our neighbor’s table, we couldn’t dare miss out. We requested a dessert menu, and my heart grew three sizes when I noticed the espresso menu at the bottom. Cappuccinos are truly one of my favorite things on the planet and a post dinner cappuccino is honestly the best time to have one in the right conditions (sorry Italy!!) Thus, we selected two desserts from the menu for the four of us to share and I ordered a cappuccino as my nightcap. The dishware is no exception to their aspirations of excellence elsewhere. The beautiful blue and white patterns adorned on the delicate mug made the cappuccino taste even better.
I hope that I’ve sufficiently sold you on visiting this restaurant if you’re ever in Höfn, I would never steer you wrong. Otto Mayur & Drykkur, thank you for everything you are. Now, let’s take a journey back to the hotel to continue the night’s adventures.
After dinner, we ventured to our hotel, Hotel Höfn, to get settled in and decide where the rest of the night would take us. We dropped our luggage off in our rooms and ventured into the lobby to play some card games with our fresh pack of Icelandic monster cards we picked up at the Skaftárstofa Visitor Centre. One thing about being in Iceland in June is that the sun is out for 24 hours a day. This really threw all concept of time out the window for me, but I loved how it allowed me to see so much more since the day never came to an end. I checked the time and realized that it was now approaching midnight, and what do you do when it’s midnight in Iceland in June? You go on a bike ride to see the midnight sun of course!
We jumped on bikes provided by our hotel and set off to the trail along the water weaving its way around the coast of Höfn. This was one of those moments in life that feels truly cinematic and makes you shed tears because of the overwhelming gratitude you feel to be alive here, now, living in this moment. After we’d soaked in all the pure bliss we could handle for the day, we ventured back to the hotel and got ready for bed, in need of some sleep for the day to come.
Höfn, I love you. I hope we’ll meet again one day. You have my heart forever.
