Review: Sausage heaven in Iceland's upcoming Hlemmur district

Pylsa/Pulsa located in the Hlemmur Square hotel is a recent addition to this thriving district at the top of Laugavegur shopping street. It serves, as the name suggests, a wide variety of gourmet sausages as the word pylsa or pulsa, depending on your pronounciation, means sausage in Icelandic. 

The Hlemmur  Square hotel is located in a beautiful stately building on five floors,  built in the 1930's.  It combines both the service of an upscale hostel and a luxury hotel, depending on your budget and taste. 

The ground floor, which previously only housed a bar and a lobby now has the wonderful addition of a laid-back open spaced dining area, made more cosy and even decadent with red velvet David Lynch style drapes and gold mirrors.

For decades in celand, a "pylsa" was simply a hot-dog such as the one found at famous hot dog stand Bæjarins Bestu in the city centre. This is basically a fairly bland sausage heated up in a saucepan, in a soft hot dog bun, with fried onion, ketchup, sweet mustard and remoulade. Which is of course, great, if you want a quick bite of fast food. But the finer variety of sausage in Iceland has only recently been available. 

At Pylsa/Pulsa, all sausages are handmade from the finest, organic ingredients using fresh herbs and spices. I tried a taster platter of sausages which included duck sausage,  cheddar and bacon sausaeg, merguez, bratwurst and the vegan Bulsur sausage.  All of these were simply delicious, the merguez and bulsur wonderfully spicy and aromatic, the bratwurst and cheddar and bacon were soft and fatty with a rustic feel. My absolute favourite was the duck, heavy, heady, aromatic. All  were accompanied by a variety of delicious side servings to go with each sausage type: creamy spinach, fiery pesto, pickled red cabbage, fresh coleslaw or curly fries. 

The restaurant also offers sausages in hot dog buns, for that poshed -up junk food trend that seems to be all the rage right now, fancy hamburgers, chicken salad, Wiener schnitzel and a fish of the day. 

The best accompaniment for a gourmet sausage is of course a fancy beer. And the bar certainly serves a fantastic variety of both Icelandic and international beer on tap, and even gluten-free ones for the gluten intolerant. I'd thoroughly reccomend the heady Úlfur IPA or the new Brio Brio, a slightly sweet Pilsner, but be warned, it's a whooping 10 percent alcohol strength so don't down it in one! The restaurant of course offers a host of red and white wines, and I really recommend going for one of their amazing cocktails. They do a wicked whisky sour, absolutely delicious. 

Desserts are either a scrumptious, melt-in-the mouth chocolate torte, or homemade cheesecake which was one of the best I've tried in Iceland. 

An additional bonus to Hlemmur Square are their Thursday night live band performances. My dining experience was certainly enhanced by the soft sounds of Jara, making the whole dining and musical experience into a most wonderful and memorable occasion. 

Check out the Pylsa/Pulsa Facebook page HERE. 

For more informations or bookings at the hotel/ hostel see Hlemmur Square's website HERE. 

Hlemmur Square serves wonderful cocktails at the bar. Photo/ Pylsa

The wonderfully decadent wall drapes of the restaurant. Ljósmynd/ mbl.is