Hotel in Iceland Launches 13-Course Vegan Christmas Menu

Iceland’s Hotel Ranga recently launched its first-ever vegan Christmas menu. In place of its annual weekend Christmas buffet leading up to the holiday, the hotel is instead offering a gourmet 13-course menu as well as a completely vegan version. The 13 vegan dishes, one for each Yule Lad—Iceland’s version of Santa—include cinnamon marinated beets; wild mushroom and walnut pâté; Tartiflette with smoked Oumph! vegan meat, potatoes, and green beans; tofu Bacalao; and Christmas crème brûlée. 

“Our main goal is to provide high-quality and personal service to all of our guests equally, and part of that promise is thinking about everyone and their needs and preferences. Vegan is one of those things we must consider today in order to deliver the quality and service that we’re known for,” Hotel Ranga Digital Marketing Manager Ingibjörg Friðriksdóttir told VegNews. “We designed this vegan menu with Icelandic traditional Christmas dishes in mind [and] many of the courses are meat-based, so this was a challenging task that we had a lot of fun with. For example, we created a vegan “smoked lamb” with Oumph! instead of lamb, and a vegan “gravlax” that is carrot baked in seaweed. We are now seeing a lot of our guests interested in the vegan menu, even though they are not vegan. So it is truly a new and exciting food experience for everyone at Hotel Ranga.” 

The Christmas Vegan menu is available on weekends only throughout the month of December.