Iceland's Best Fast Food Offers A Tasty Meal Both Rick Steves And Anthony Bourdain Tried

You've probably heard about the offbeat European delicacies of Iceland, such as smoked puffin, fermented shark, and boiled sheep's head, but how about the hot dogs? We might regard a sausage in a bun slathered with ketchup, mustard, and other toppings as a quintessentially American fast food, but one stand in Reykjavík has built a reputation for serving the best hot dogs in the world. That may be down to personal taste, but the joint has created such a buzz that high-profile visitors invariably make their way to sample the wares. Among them are two celebrity travel writers with very contrasting styles: Rick Steves and Anthony Bourdain.

The hot dog stand in question is Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur (City's Best Hotdogs) in Reykjavík. The chain has other outlets, but the one everybody wants to visit is the flagship stand, a small red shack on Tryggvagata in the capital. The original establishment opened in 1937 and moved to its current spot in the 1960s, and it is said that the majority of Icelanders have tried the signature dogs. Nowadays, it is common for tiny places to generate huge amounts of attention on social media, but Bæjarins Beztu went global long before Instagram and viral TikTok videos were a thing. Former U.S. President Bill Clinton ate at the stand no less than three times during a visit in 2004. A few years later, the Guardian (U.K.) named it one of the five best food stalls in Europe.

Unlike regular hot dogs, which are usually made of pork and/or beef, Icelandic hot dogs (called "pylsur" locally) have a third ingredient that makes all the difference: lamb. In the early days — before pork and beef became more commonplace — Icelandic hot dogs were made almost exclusively from sheep meat and served simply wrapped in paper before buns took off in 1948. The key thing here is that free-grazing Icelandic sheep provide some of the best organic lamb meat in the world, and Icelanders don't look down on pylsur as a second-rate snack — it is a proud part of their culinary heritage.

With such a high reputation, it is little wonder that Rick Steves and Anthony Bourdain sniffed out the dogs at Bæjarins Beztu. Bourdain, a New York native who championed his city's "dirty water hotdogs," found his way to the stand in season 1 of "No Reservations" during a classic Icelandic all-night drinking session. His verdict? "That's one serious dog." Like Bourdain, Rick Steves fundamentally understands the connection between a country's food and its people. He has written about the famous Icelandic hot dogs on several occasions, albeit mainly as a way to eat well on a budget to counter the country's notoriously high prices for eating out. While his opinion isn't clear, Steves looks happy enough posing with one of the dogs from Bæjarins Beztu for a Facebook photo.

Icelanders are proud that their most cherished fast food stand has put their country on everyone's travel radar, most notably Bill Clinton — Rick Steves (per his website) referred to the place as "practically a historical momument." However, the former president made one major blunder that is still written about decades later: He ordered his hot dog with just mustard. Kim Kardashian was guilty of a similar faux pas when she visited the stand in 2016, opting for simply ketchup. Just order a "Clinton" or a "Kardashian," if you want the same.

The correct method is to order a dog with everything, or "Ein með öllu" in Icelandic. This means a plain bun filled with both raw and crispy fried onions, a swathe of Icelandic ketchup (made with apples as well as tomatoes), and the sausage, topped with sweet mustard and remoulade sauce. To eat it any other way is frowned upon by locals as the domain of little kids and faddy eaters.

Anthony Bourdain wholeheartedly went for the "with everything" option, and Rick Steves followed suit in 2018. Other notable guests include two members of Korean pop group Loona, who also went with everything thanks to a little prompting from the server. Two members of iconic metal band Metallica reportedly shared seven dogs on their visit, although it is not clear what toppings they chose. If you're in Reykjavík, make a beeline for Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur; you won't regret it.