What Icelanders Eat for Breakfast

Icelandic breakfast is simple, filling and mostly cold: a bowl of oatmeal or skyr, rye bread with butter and cheese, and plenty of coffee.

Visitors mostly meet it at a hotel buffet, where it can look like a cold-cuts platter. Locals mostly eat at home or grab something light from a bakery.

The short answer

Skyr, the thick, mild dairy product, eaten cold.
Hafragrautur, oatmeal cooked in water or milk.
Rúgbrauð, dark rye bread, with butter, cheese or smoked lamb.
Toast and cereal, as in many other countries.
Lýsi, cod liver oil, from a spoon or a small glass.
Coffee and juice.

Hafragrautur, the everyday porridge

Hafragrautur is oatmeal cooked in water or milk, and it is the classic Icelandic breakfast. It is usually served with brown sugar or butter, with fruit, or with a splash of súrmjólk, a soured milk.

It takes about five minutes at home. Simmer rolled oats in twice their volume of water or milk with a pinch of salt, stirring, until thick.

Some people stir a spoonful of skyr in at the end, which makes it creamier and adds protein.

Steel-cut oats give a chewier porridge but take 20–30 minutes, so rolled oats are the quick route. For a richer bowl, cook the oats in milk instead of water, or finish with a knob of butter.

Skyr

Skyr is a thick, mild, slightly sour dairy product. Technically it is a fresh sour-milk cheese, but it is eaten like yogurt, traditionally cold and sometimes with cream.

At breakfast it's eaten plain or with berries, sugar or honey. Our skyr recipes start with the traditional cream-and-berries bowl.

Rye bread, butter and cheese

Rúgbrauð, the dense, slightly sweet rye bread, is sliced thin and spread with butter, then topped with cheese or with hangikjöt, the smoked lamb. Flatbread works the same way.

Bake your own with our rúgbrauð or flatbrauð recipes.

Lýsi, the cod liver oil

Lýsi is cod liver oil. Many Icelanders take a spoonful or a small glass with breakfast for the vitamin D and omega-3 fats, and some hotel buffets serve it in shot glasses next to the juice.

Bakery breakfasts

The sweet side shows up at bakeries: kleinur, the cardamom-scented twisted doughnuts; snúðar, cinnamon buns with a chocolate glaze; and pönnukökur, thin pancakes rolled with sugar.

Where Icelanders eat breakfast

Most weekday breakfasts happen at home. When there's no time, a bakery covers coffee and something light, which is what many locals do.

Bakeries are also the backup plan for visitors. Outside the capital there are few restaurants, and a bakery counter has pastries and coffee when a hotel breakfast isn't included.

What a hotel breakfast looks like

Expect a cold buffet: sliced ham and salami, cheese, cucumber and peppers, hard-boiled eggs, bread, butter and jam, plus skyr, oatmeal, coffee and juice.

Hot dishes such as scrambled eggs or waffles turn up at some hotels but are uncommon. Outside Reykjavík there are few restaurants serving breakfast, so a hotel that includes it is worth having.

A brunch spread, Icelandic style

For a weekend table, put out skyr with berries and honey, hafragrautur with butter and brown sugar, buttered rúgbrauð with cheese, and flatbread with smoked salmon or hangikjöt.

Add pönnukökur rolled with sugar and a plate of kleinur for something sweet, with plenty of coffee. Nothing on it needs more than a pan, a pot and a bread knife.

A simple Icelandic breakfast at home

A bowl of skyr, loosened with a little cream or milk, with blueberries.
Hafragrautur with butter and brown sugar.
A slice of buttered rúgbrauð with cheese.
Coffee.

Breakfast is the easy part of eating in Iceland; the rest of the trip takes more planning. If you're putting one together, NRF's Iceland travel guide covers itineraries, where to go and how to get around.

Breakfast questions

Do Icelanders really eat skyr for breakfast?

Yes. Skyr is a popular breakfast food, eaten plain or with fruit.

Can I get a cooked breakfast in Iceland?

Some hotels serve cooked eggs or waffles, but it is rare. Most breakfasts are cold.

See the guide to traditional Icelandic food for the rest of the day.