Known to be one of the good restaurants in Reykjavik, Apotek welcomes you in a unique setting where leather, gold chandeliers, wine bottles, wood racks and metal chairs are part of your fine dinner. Coming here for some local flavors, we were informed that a guest chef "Mr. Julian Médina" is cooking tonight. A set menu for the food and fun week.
Loved the place... I arrived half an hour before sunset and enjoyed the light coming from the window on my plates. Golden chandeliers adding a touch of luxury, big side leather sofas, a white wall designed in big squares, a floor covered with wood and a large facade of lab bottles lit from behind. I believe the photos speak for themselves... this refined space deserves an award.
Dinner starts with a wooden board of sourdough bread served with a butter cream. That's a mise en bouche, an avant première on what to expect next... perfect bread, a very thin crunchy envelop and a cream condensed moist heart. It was so good that I finished them all.
On tonight's menu:
- Churro and roe with Mexican and cream.
- Seaweed cured sea trout in jalapeño aguachile, buttermilk miso and cucumber
- Lamb carpaccio, black garlic, Calabrian chili oil, full crema, grasshoppers
- Octopus, achiote, charred sunchoke puree, txistorra vinaigrette, radishes.
- Dry aged duck breast, Dulce de leche glaze, whipped carrots, mushrooms, Yuzu kosho gastrique.
- Mole rubbed beef filet, chipotle and coffee barbecue sauce. Spring onions, crispy potatoes.
- Dulce de leche, caramelized yuzu cream and white chocolate crumble; hibiscus meringue and blood orange sorbet.
Food is really good!
- A seven course meal started with a crunchy churro with its tender fluffy heart served with green onions and light cream.
- The fish followed, exceptional aromas, redefined freshness, a beautiful plate, fish, intensely aromatic cucumbers and this before even tasting. Three slices of fish looking like salmon, marinated in a miso sauce that's lightly sweet. Bravo chef.
- Grasshoppers, yes, wild grasshoppers in a plate and not any plate, lamb carpaccio, one kind of garlic I never tasted before, a unique strong spiciness and crunchy fried grasshoppers. So yummy! And yes, I've ate grasshoppers for hr first time. Back to that spiciness, it's so unique, one of kind spiciness that's so intense but comes differently like a massage to your palate and lips.
I also tried their selection of draft beers. A white lemony and light one followed by a more bitter brown beer.
Fourth course and continuing:
- Octopus on a bed of red sauce, an oily finish, a warm purée... not bad but not exceptional. Expected the octopus to be less chewy and surely a boost of freshness. But again, the plate is not bad at all.
- And now came the aged duck... one of my favorite plates so far, a mix of different items displayed on one plate like an artwork. Loved the texture of the duck, the mushroom cooking, the unique yellow sauce; that's a starred plate in my opinion.
- Oh my goodness... this chef is good! He knows how to master flavors, how to combine tastes, how to create magic. I was so happy enjoying each of the plates tonight that I remembered my last dinner at Jean-Georges in New York, a three stars where I paid 250$ and not even close to tonight's 90$ dinner. Coffee barbecue sauce, tender beef filet, a very thin fried crispy potato, several baked ones with their skin, and much love. A red meat, tender but not bloody, light bodied and smooth like a carpaccio. The only minus is the plate's saltiness.
A yummy dinner... now came dessert!
- The cherry on top, best for last, all the finesse poured in one plate showing the chef's know how. Redefining simplicity and taste, crunchy meringues, a superb ice cream, crunchy crumbles and a thick lemony yuzu cream.
Left amazed and impressed for spending a memorable dinner I wish I could repeat soon. Bravo chef and bravo to the excellent waitress who pampered us with her professional service and attention to details.
PS: they have a bottle of our local Chateau Musard Lebanese wine on display; I felt proud!
