Surprisingly, it is not difficult at all to be vegan in Iceland. Especially if you are staying at an AirBnB so that you have a kitchen, which I do recommend, as going out to eat is VERY expensive. We did most of our shopping at the Bonus stores (be aware that grocery store hours are very limited compared to in the US), and they each had various vegan products. I mean, there’s always pasta and pb&j, but beyond that they all had vegan products as well. We found Nature Moi brand vegan cheeses in all of the Bonus stores, which were decent. They had non-dairy milk at every store we went to, and I also found this vegan schnitzel!
I really liked this, it was sort of like a general fake meat, but with really nice breading. It held together and crisped up really well. Highly recommend, I bought it a second time too.
This same brand also had sausages! They were also gluten free. They were very good, and more like a real hot dog than any other fake hot dog I’ve ever had.
The Bonus we went to in Akureyri was large and had so many frozen vegan food options that I had a hard time deciding.
There are tons of good snacks to buy, including BBQ Flavor doritos and vegan gummies. Also, plenty of chocolate to try!
Emilie and the Cool Kids in Reykjavik had vegan scones, amazing vegan cinnamon rolls, and chocolate vegan bread – all of these were good! I stocked up on a few extras to take with before we left there.
As far as going out for dinner, we went to Grillmarkaðurinn in Reykjavik, and it was delicious! I had a vegan peanut steak that was excellent. Sort of like a meatloaf type of texture, but with some crunch to it, and peanut-y. Hard to describe but 100% I would get it again. The drinks were also excellent.
In Akureyri we went to Hamborgarafabrikkan (hamburger factory), and they have a meat substitute called Oumph which I’d wanted to try anyways! You can just order the vegan version of a few different burgers, and they’ll substitute the meat for the Oumph chicken, the cheese for Violife cheese, and they also have vegan mayo. It was delicioius. The chicken was a little stringy for my taste (I prefer my fake meats a little faker in that regards), but overall it was very tasty.
We also went to a nice coffee shop in Akureyri – Blaa Kannan – that had a vegan salad, which was especially nice after all the fake meat products. It was a cute place, and seemed to have fewer tourists than other places.
Oh, and the most important find! In one of the gas stations on Snæfellsnes I found vegan ice cream! I found it again at the Bonus store in Olafsvik, and then again in Akureyri, though at the last one they only had vanilla. But I found this, which I’d never seen in the US, Oatly brand Salted Caramel and Hazelnut Ice Cream. Highly recommend. I wanted to get a picture eating it in our hot tub in Iceland, but we kept getting rained or snowed on while in there.
So yeah, if you’re vegan and travelling to Iceland, you’ll be ok! Just stock up on supplies and it’ll be a lot cheaper if you have access to a kitchen, but that’s true whether you’re vegan or not. I ended up keeping chips, gummies, and chocolate covered espresso beans with me in the car and then got meals to make at the airbnb.
Oh, and they have a chocolate hazelnut spread like nutella but its vegan. Enjoy.
Happy Potato 