This post is meant to give you a list of the U.S. Fast Food Restaurants in Iceland and how I have noticed they may be similar or different from the ones in the states based on menus I have seen. Just note that I’m not going over every possible menu. Also, I must use Instagram as my menu checker. Due to IP restrictions, I can’t see the websites for fast food restaurants in the US. I’ll just be pointing out some interesting differences. Of course, menus are subject to change and this information is based on what I have observed recently
I hardly eat at fast food restaurants, but I have been to a few of the places on this list. I will also list the different locations for each of the restaurants in the show notes, so feel free to check that out at allthingsiceland.com/American-restaurants-in-Iceland
To be fair, I am a big advocate of trying local Icelandic restaurants and food, but I do know of people that like to try U.S. fast food restaurants in other countries. By the way, this episode is not sponsored by any company.
Please note that these are the ones I’m aware of and it’s possible that I might miss one or two that I don’t know about it, but I have tried my best to find every currently open U.S. fast food restaurant in Iceland. Lastly, I will share some US fast food chains that are no longer in Iceland. They tried but inevitably it didn’t work. While I do know the reason for why some of them failed, I will provide some of my speculation as to what happened to the others.
Review of the All Things Iceland Podcast
This is a must listen to podcast about Iceland a stunning island of fire and ice. My husband and I were lucky to find it in preparation for a visit. Jewells does a fabulous job sharing bite-sized cultural, practical, and language information about Iceland. We found it so informative, calming, and fun to listen to we’ve kept it in our regular circulation.
List of U.S. Fast Food Restaurants in Iceland
Number of Locations: 18
Price Range: $17.51 – $32.28
What is different on the menu in Iceland vs the U.S.:
Don’t expect to see brownies, apple baked twists, lava chocolate cake, and insanely cheese covered cheesy bread sticks on an Icelandic menu. They do have cheese filled bread sticks but it seems that the ones in the US are also covered in cheese.
Number of Locations: 13
Price Range: $6.32 – $13.71
What is different on the menu in Iceland vs the U.S.:
After comparing the menus, it seems that Subway in the US has more cheese options, the ability choice of adding an egg, avocado, as well as more sauces and cookie choices.
Number of Locations: 10
Price Range: $8.37 – $15.12
What is different on the menu in Iceland vs the U.S.:
The biggest surprise to me about Sbarro in Iceland is that it has way more options, especially when it comes to pasta. This comparison was based on Sbarro’s international website, which might not be representing well what is available in all locations.
Number of Locations: 8
Price Range: $2.45 – $20
What is different on the menu in Iceland vs the U.S.:
One of the biggest omissions on the Icelandic menu is mashed potatoes, biscuits, and mac & cheese bowls.
My favorite part on the Icelandic menu is that they have permanent vegan and vegetarian options on the menu. In the US, there are limited-time only vegan and vegetarian options at select locations.
Number of Locations: 1
Price Range: $3.49 – $14.06
What is different on the menu in Iceland vs the U.S.:
Items like Mexican pizza, breakfast, whip freeze, a double decker, Doritos Locos Taco, and dessert
Number of Locations: 1
Price Range: $9.07 – $27.35
What is different on the menu in Iceland vs the U.S.:
There are the same amount of pizza options in both countries. However, the US has options for pizzas to be hand tossed, pan, thin n crispy, stuffed crust, hand tossed, and skinny slice.
Along with that, in the US you can get a gluten free pizza.
You won’t find Hershey’s toasted s’mores cookie and chocolate brownie, Hershey’s chocolate chip cookie, cinnamon sticks, and apple pies in Iceland.
Number of Locations: 1
Price Range: $16.84 – $32.70
What is different on the menu in Iceland vs the U.S.:
To my surprise, I have not seen potato skins on the menu in Iceland, battered shrimp, and desserts.
U.S. Fast Food Restaurants No longer in Iceland
- McDonald’s
- Krispy Kreme
- Dunkin Donuts
- Ruby Tuesdays
- Burger King
- Popeye’s
- Papa Johns
- Dairy Queen
- Little Caesar’s
You might be wondering what has caused these restaurants to fail, while others still stick around. In the random fact of the episode, I will share two facts. One is a reason why these places don’t make the cut and the other is the oldest surviving US fast food restaurant in Iceland.
Random Fact of the Episode
KFC is the oldest surviving foreign food chain. It opened in 1980 in Hafnarfjörður.
This is quote from the Reykjavik Grapevine that quoted Davíð Þorláksson in 2019, who at the time was Director of competitiveness at the Confederation of Icelandic Enterprise.
According to Davíð Þorláksson, director of competitiveness at the Confederation of Icelandic Enterprise, “The country’s geographical isolation leads to higher transportation costs that pose problems for restaurants that need to import a large portion of their resources.” KFC and Domino’s proudly use Icelandic products in their food. McDonald’s, on the other hand, sourced its materials from the corporation’s supplier in Germany. The Icelandic króna (ISK) fell significantly against the euro (and everything else) after the 2008 banking crisis and the resulting price increase, management believed, would be too high. Davíð pointed out that “fluctuation of the ISK poses a risk for everybody doing business in Iceland. For foreign restaurant chains, the problem is that all income is in ISK, while many resources need to be imported and purchased in a foreign currency and the chains will expect their dividends in their local currency. This can create an imbalance that can be mitigated with costly hedging.
Icelandic Word of the Episode
Skyndibiti – fast food
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