Eating along the Golden Circle is better than most visitors expect. The route passes through farmland, geothermal areas, and small villages with enough good options to turn a driving day into something worth planning your stops around. A few of the restaurants here are genuinely worth building your itinerary around.
The honest reality is that food options thin out significantly east of Geysir. Stock up on snacks in Reykjavik before departing, and use the stops below to plan your actual meals.
Friðheimar Greenhouse Restaurant, Reykholt
This is the most distinctive dining experience on the entire Golden Circle and the one most worth booking in advance. Friðheimar is a working tomato farm that grows its entire crop year-round using geothermal heat and artificial light. The restaurant operates inside the greenhouse itself. You eat between rows of tomato plants while the smell of warm soil and ripe tomatoes surrounds you.
The menu is tomato-based by design. The tomato soup is made from imperfect tomatoes that supermarkets reject, slow-cooked and served with homemade bread, and it is excellent. The green salad uses leaves from the greenhouse. They also make a tomato-based Bloody Mary and serve locally brewed geothermal beer.
The setting is genuinely unusual. Eating lunch in a working greenhouse heated by Iceland's volcanic earth, surrounded by plants that should not exist this far north, is the kind of experience that stays with you.
Location: Reykholt, off Route 35 between Geysir and the return road to Reykjavik. Book ahead: Yes, at least a week in advance in summer. Walk-ins are often not possible. Best for: Lunch on the return leg of the clockwise route.
Geysir Glima and Geysir Center, Geysir Area
The Geysir Center complex at the geyser site has two eating options. Geysir Glima is the main cafeteria-style restaurant directly across from Strokkur, serving Icelandic meat soup, veggie stews, salmon, and burgers. It is casual, fast, and convenient. The food is solid rather than exceptional, but the location directly opposite the geyser field means you can watch eruptions from the window.
The Geysir Center also has a supermarket where you can pick up snacks, drinks, and basic provisions. It is the best-stocked shop on the entire Golden Circle route.
Location: Geysir Center, on the geyser site. Book ahead: No, walk-in only. Best for: Quick lunch at the midpoint of the route. The logical food stop for most Golden Circle drivers.
Gullfoss Café, Gullfoss Waterfall
The cafe at Gullfoss is small, warm, and serves the right things after standing in the wind and mist at the falls. Lamb stew, hot chocolate, fresh waffles, and pastries. It is not a proper restaurant, but after the lower viewing platform has soaked you and the wind has done its work, hot drinks and lamb stew are exactly what the situation requires.
It is a pitstop rather than a destination. Budget 20 minutes and a hot drink, then continue.
Location: Gullfoss car park. Book ahead: No. Best for: Warming up after the waterfall. Not a main meal stop.
Lindin Bistro, Laugarvatn
Lindin sits on the shore of Laugarvatn Lake on Route 365, directly between Þingvellir and Geysir on the clockwise route. It is the most considered restaurant on the Golden Circle circuit, run by a local chef who uses Icelandic ingredients seriously. Arctic char, wild mushroom dishes, and lamb are prepared with more care than you find at the tourist-facing stops closer to the main attractions.
The setting, on the lake shore with mountain views across the water, is one of the more pleasant places to sit on the route. It runs at a slower pace than the Geysir Center and suits travelers who want a proper sit-down meal rather than a quick refuel.
Location: Laugarvatn village on Route 365. Book ahead: Recommended, particularly in summer. Best for: A proper lunch between Þingvellir and Geysir.
Efstidalur Farm, Near Geysir
Efstidalur is a working dairy farm near the Geysir area with a restaurant and a homemade ice cream operation. The ice cream is made from the farm's own milk and is the best reason to stop. The cows are visible from the restaurant, which produces the kind of immediate supply-chain satisfaction that is difficult to manufacture.
The restaurant serves burgers, soups, and farm-style meals at reasonable prices. The atmosphere is genuinely agricultural: the farm is still working, the smells are real, and the ice cream tastes like it was made that morning because it largely was.
Location: Between Geysir and Gullfoss on Route 37. Book ahead: Recommended for dinner. Walk-in usually possible for ice cream and snacks. Best for: Ice cream stop or casual lunch near the Geysir area.
Laugarvatn Fontana Cafe, Laugarvatn
The cafe at Laugarvatn Fontana, the geothermal baths on the lake shore, serves one of the more unusual food experiences on the Golden Circle. Rye bread slow-baked underground in a geothermal hot spring area is available as a tasting alongside butter and Icelandic smoked trout. The bread is dense and slightly sweet, entirely different from anything made in a conventional oven.
You do not need to pay for the baths to visit the cafe. The geothermal bread tasting is worth the stop, even if you are not going in the water.
Location: Laugarvatn village, on the lakeshore. Best for: Coffee and geothermal bread tasting. Not a full meal stop.
Ölverk Pizza and Brewery, Hveragerði
Hveragerði sits on Route 1 on the return to Reykjavik from the Golden Circle, about 45 minutes from the city. Ölverk is a pizza restaurant and microbrewery that uses geothermal energy to brew its beer. The pizza is cooked in a wood-fired oven and is genuinely good, the beer is distinctive, and the space is comfortable after a long day of driving.
It fills up in the evening as Golden Circle drivers head back toward Reykjavik. If you plan to stop here for dinner, arriving before 7 PM avoids the post-drive rush.
Location: Hveragerði town, off Route 1. Book ahead: Recommended for dinner in summer. Best for: Dinner on the return to Reykjavik.
Selfoss: Best Town for Food on the Return Leg
Selfoss is the largest town south of the Golden Circle route, roughly 60 km from Reykjavik on Route 1. It has the most food options in the area including supermarkets, fast food, cafes, and sit-down restaurants. The Mjólkurbúið food hall in Selfoss serves Icelandic dishes in a relaxed setting and is one of the more popular evening stops for Golden Circle drivers returning to the capital.
If you have missed lunch on the route or want a proper meal before the final drive back to Reykjavik, Selfoss is the most practical stop. It also has the cheapest fuel options in the area.
Location: Selfoss town on Route 1, approximately 60 km from Reykjavik. Best for: Supermarket resupply, fuel, and a proper dinner before returning to Reykjavik.
What to Pack From Reykjavik
The stretches between the stops above can be long and the rural areas between them have almost nothing. Pack from Reykjavik before departing:
- Water and drinks for the full day
- Snacks for the car: fruit, nuts, crackers, chocolate
- A packed lunch if you want to eat at Þingvellir or Gullfoss where the cafe options are limited
- Coffee in a thermos if you are an early departurer and need warmth on the road before stops open
The Bonus and Kronan supermarkets in Reykjavik are the cheapest resupply options before the route. The Geysir Center supermarket is convenient mid-route but priced at tourist levels.
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