Rejuvenating
The private lagoon at Silica Hotel is open to residents until late at night. To make the transition into the water more gentle, you enter via a separate indoor pool, before opening a small door to venture into the great outdoors. This is when you’re met with a chill and the wind on your upper body, whilst the rest absorbs the mineral qualities of the water.
Your feet pass through the soft white mud-covered base of the lagoon (which feels a bit like wet clay), and there are actually mud face masks that you can take for free from the bowls at reception. Alternatively, you can dip your hands into the big buckets when in the water. To dry off back inside, you can recline on one of the loungers, but all that’s really missing for the ultimate spa experience is a steam room or sauna.
Dining
As Silica Hotel only has a chilled self-service cabinet in the reception area where you can purchase snacks, the best evening dining options are to be found at the Moss Restaurant at the Retreat Hotel, or the Lava Restaurant (see above) at the Blue Lagoon. We decided on the 100-cover Lava Restaurant, a relaxed fine dining eatery which serves New Nordic cuisine using fresh local ingredients, such as fish sourced from the local Grindavik harbour.
The interesting décor incorporates several rows of round tables, a feature wall of lava rock enhanced with red lighting next to the glass staircase, and large floor to ceiling windows which overlook the Blue Lagoon and another small cliff of rock.
Diners can head for the four-course tasting menu priced at ISK 10,300 (around £64 per person minus the wine), or they can select dishes from the à la carte, which is what we duly did. Silica Hotel residents also have the added benefit of being served a glass of sparkling wine to accompany the crusty sourdough and multigrain bread, which comes with a huge mound of butter and a small dish of tasty olive oil.
It’s a relatively concise menu at the Lava Restaurant, and from the selection of six starters, priced at ISK 2,900 (around £18 per person), which has everything from langoustine soup, to birch and juniper cured arctic char (a cold-water fish), I tried the slices of smoked haddock which arrived with rutabaga (a root vegetable), sliced onion, dill and a delicious creamy sauce. It was nothing short of excellent and it was easy to tell that the ingredients were fresh from the surrounding land and sea.
My other half, tucked into the cured beef that was flavoured with Brennivín (the signature alcoholic spirit of Iceland), a dusting of blueberries, various lettuce leaves and black garlic mayonnaise. It was a superb combination of different aromas that seemed to intertwine and work beautifully together, and the outcome was a perfectly clean plate.