Farm to Table at Hraunsnef Restaurant in Borgarfjördur, Iceland

Posted by Rowena Dumlao - Giardina 1/16/2024

Farm to Table at Hraunsnef Restaurant in Borgarfjördur, Iceland

Hraunsnef is a restaurant, hotel and an animal farm in the Nordurárdalur valley in Borgarfjordur (not to confused with the town with the same name in the eastern part of the country), just 100 kilometers north of Reykjavik. It's hard to miss its group of black wooden houses from Ring Road or Route 1 from the all-green landscape.

It can be a short destination if you are stepping out of Reykjavik for a bite in the beautiful scenery of Borgarfjördur abound with craters, rivers, hot springs, waterfalls and heritage sites or like in our case, the last lunch after doing the Golden Circle before re-entering Reykjavik. Hraunsnef has a favorable base position to see a number of points of interest in the Borgarfjördur area such as the Grábrók Crater, Glanni Waterfalls, Bifrost University, and Hredavatn Lake.

It is a family-run place that opened in 2005 with 15 hotel rooms and 2 cottages in an animal farm where the animals are free, and a restaurant surrounded by the picturesque Nordurárdalur valley. Owners Jóhann Hardason, Brynja Brynjarsdóttir and their three children have made Hraunsnef a place of warm hospitality that a home gives even when just passing through for a warm home-cooked meal in their inviting dining room.

The restaurant, a popular place for locals, is decorated with the family's handmade ceramics, including the unique hanging lamps and plates, which can also be purchased in the souvenir shop along with other locally-made handicrafts. In the kitchen is one of the couple's children, Eygló, who creates courses and with their own production of farm meat and vegetables, plus raw ingredients sourced from the Borgarfjördur area, including salmon from the nearby Nordurá river.

The menu is very approachable starting with soups, salads, cured beef and vegetables as starters (around €17), main courses (around €35) of farm meat and fish served with vegetables, adaptations of well-known desserts (around €13) that every person with a sweet tooth will love and the "fastfood" options of meat-filled sandwiches and burgers (around €20) such as the cheese burger and lamb burger which are absolutely delicious and recommendable.