Dineout | Ísbúðin Valdís

The ice cream parlor, Valdís, opned its doors 1. July 2013. The owners are Gylfi Thor Valdimarsson and Anna Svava Knútsdóttir.

The orginal idea was to open an ice cream parlor where: Customers would be able to see the process of: Ice cream making. A lot of thought was put into where the ice cream parlor should be. Gylfi and Anna drove all around Reykjavík in search of the perfect place for the idea that their bellies had. After many times driving around Reykjavík, they finally found Grandagarð 21 where the business now resides. Due to its history, the premises has a lot of charm. The row of houses Valdís resides in was originally built around 1950 as housing for fishermen. The row is listed as historic buildings so igniting new life in it is a perfect way to keep its charm.

When the parlor finally opened, Gylfi and Anna Svava thought it very optimistic to open with 5 employees but quickly realized they needed more people to keep up with demand. A month later they had 36 employees!

Originally, Valdís started out having very basic flavours but they quickly realised that Icelanders are very adventurous when it comes to ice cream flavours. Valdís starting asking customers what flavours customers would like to see. The most popular flavours are ones that where suggestions from customers, for example Tyrkisk Peber and salted peanut and caramel. The last five years Valdís has tried making over 400 flavours and there are still new flavours coming out. Some of the more adventurous flavours we have tried out are: Beer ice-cream, rye bread ice-cream, lavender ice-cream, bacon ice-cream and curry ice-cream with coconut and chilli. It is worth mentioning that these flavours are not available every day but it is possible to order 5 liters of any flavour.

Usually we have a selection of sorbets that are vegan. Mostly we have fruit sorbets, because that is what the customers want. Every now and then we change things up a bit and try flavours with coconut- or almond milk. Then we will for example make Oreo, coconut or chocolate vegan ice-cream.

Opening Hours

Monday to friday 11:30 - 23:00

Weekends 12:00 - 23:00