Alvar Aalto and meatballs

Picture it: you've strayed from 101 Reykjavík. Feeling a little adventurous, you've ditched the pocket map and crossed Hringbraut into unknown territory (or perhaps the National Museum). Now you're hungry with no place to go.

Fear not. Norræna Húsið (Nordic House) is just the place to fill your hunger. Norræna Húsið is a building on the far side of the University of Iceland campus and its canteen is particularly popular with faculty of the institution (although students from any school get a 10% discount, so they are encouraged to visit). The building itself was designed by celebrated Finnish architect Alvar Aalto and would be of interest to building buffs. In addition to the canteen, Nordic House hosts numerous events and other programs associated with the various Nordic countries.

The food on offer is simple enough, but always freshly made and served with cheerfully practicality. There is a salad bar, including a surprisingly extensive collection of toasted seeds. The other regular fixtures are various pastries, and soup with freshly baked bread (550 ISK). The availability of coffee and dairy products like skyr is a given. There is also a daily lunch special, for about 850 ISK, of some sort of traditional Nordic cooking. Icelandic plokkfiskur (stewed fish) seems to appear often, and is served with boiled potatoes and rye bread sweetened the Icelandic way. Meatballs, generous with the salt, are also a common sight.

Newspapers in various Nordic languages are on offer to digest along with your lunch or afternoon coffee, and the view across the small pond to the coloured rooftops of the city centre is picturesque and calming.

Norræna Húsið is open daily until 17.00. Hopefully you won't have wandered too far from 101 later than that.

Norræna Húsið

Sturlugata 5, 105 Reykjavík

Tel. 551 7030

Open daily until 17.00

www.nordice.is