Slippurinn

The story

Crafted with passion, served with love

A Restaurant Born from an Island

The journey to Slippurinn was always part of the experience. To reach Vestmannaeyjar — a small archipelago off Iceland's south coast, home to an active volcano — guests would drive to Landeyjahöfn and board a ferry, watching a steep oceanic island rise from the horizon as seabirds circled overhead. That approach, unhurried and elemental, set the tone for everything that followed.

Slippurinn opened in 2012 inside Magnahúsið, the oldest concrete building in the Westman Islands and the former home of the Magni machine workshop, which once served the old boat slip behind it. The building had sat dormant for roughly thirty years before the family behind Slippurinn breathed new life into it.

A Family Venture, Root and Branch

Slippurinn was a four-person family project. The idea originated with Katrín Gísladóttir — known as Kata Gísla — who envisioned a restaurant that the people of Vestmannaeyjar could be proud of. Her husband Auðunn, a fisherman with over forty years at sea, handled the physical upkeep and helped process the fresh fish the kitchen relied on. Their eldest daughter Indíana, who holds a master's degree in fine art from the Slade in London and trained as both an architect and furniture maker, designed the space — understated and warm, with respect for the building's industrial past as its guiding principle. And their youngest, Gísli Matt, was the head chef: a trained culinary master whose use of Icelandic ingredients, knowledge of preservation and cooking techniques, and deep respect for the natural world shaped every plate.

Seasonal Cooking as a Practice, Not a Label

The cuisine at Slippurinn was rigorously seasonal — not as a marketing position, but as a daily reality. The menu shifted week to week in response to what the sea, the land, and the season offered. The kitchen worked closely with small-scale producers, fishermen, and farmers, foraged wild herbs and seaweeds, and cultivated ingredients that were otherwise difficult to source. Old Icelandic traditions met new techniques, and everyday local ingredients were given the careful attention they deserved.

That approach drew serious recognition. The White Guide awarded Slippurinn its prestigious Masters level distinction, with judges noting that the experience of eating there began long before the first course arrived — in the ferry crossing, the volcanic landscape, the birds overhead. Carlo Petrini, founder of Slow Food, wrote that Slippurinn demonstrated how a restaurant could be both sustainable and rooted in tradition, treating the act of eating locally as a contribution to community health rather than a personal indulgence.

The Book and the Legacy

In collaboration with publisher Phaidon, Gísli Matt and writer Nicholas Gill produced Slippurinn: Recipes & Stories from Iceland, released in 76 countries. The book covers a decade of the restaurant's history, its signature dishes, and the broader landscape of Icelandic ingredients and methods. Photography by Karl Petersson and Gunnar Freyr Gunnarsson captures both the food and the environment that made Slippurinn what it was.

After fourteen seasons, Slippurinn closed its doors. The family's sister restaurant, Næs, continues to operate in Vestmannaeyjar during the summer months.