Places to eat Anchorage and Fairbanks

[EDMOND]

Would appreciate suggestions on places to eat in Anchorage and Fairbanks.

Also on Princes Cruise Tours choices to eat staying at Mt Mckinley and Denali month of June.:):)

[wolfie11]

Unless you have your own transportation, you will be pretty much limited to what's close to your hotel. In Anchorage, there are many places to eat downtown - you can just stroll down the street and see what appeals. If you're not downtown, you're more limited in your choices. Fairbanks is more spread out, and where to eat depends on your transportation. Pump House and Pikes are good. I like Ester Gold Camp and BQ I think prefers the Salmon Bake. Both will pick you up at your hotel and bring you back.

[CruisinDoug]

We ate at the Glacier Brewhouse in Anchorage. It was withing walking distance of the Marriott and was wonderful.

[Budget Queen]

As already mentioned, unless you have your own car, you are going to be limited. Glacier Brewhouse is probably my top pick in Anchorage, the Snow Cafe if good for casual. Fairbanks- I like the Pump House, Turtle Club, the Italian on College???

 

There is nothing but Princess offerings at the McKinley lodge unless you want to take a 50 mile shuttle to Talkeetna, then the Roadhouse is a great pick for lunch or dinner. I also like the Latitude.

 

At the Denali Princess, you can walk to several fast food options, Subway, Bubb's Subs, Pizza. There is the Cabin Night dinner theater which I think is very good, especially with a toursaver coupon.

[Genessa]

we ate breakfast in the Snow City Cafe which is in downtown Anchorage - the best meal we had in Alaska - I had the "uber omelette" which really fit its' name.

 

The Lynx Pizzeria in Denali was good and the halibut baskets (like chicken finger baskets, but halibut) in Mt.McKinley Lodge were delicious and a great value.

[FamilyofFourtoAlaska]

We walked to Simon and Seafort's from the Anchorage Hilton and loved the food and the view at sunset.

[vivian02]

There is a place in Anchorage which served very good Mexician food years ago in Mt. View. I know because we use to go there when I was stationed at Elmendor AFB over 30 years ago. We returned last July and the place is not there anymore but there is a location of the same Resturant over on Spenard Blvd. It is located across the street from Chillqcooth Charles and from the looks of the place you might not think it is anything to rave about. Once inside the people are "normal" along with the great service. My wife and I had wonderful enchalada's just like they served 30 years ago. The bill with drinks (Coffe and Coke) came out to a total of $22.75. I was refered to Mexicana (Mexico in Alaska) by ALASKASUSAN. Thanks Susan the food is still like it was years ago. Tim and Cathy

[Momj47]

When we were in Fairbanks last June 21, we ate lunch at an Italian restaurant, I believe it was called Gambardella's Italian Cafe. The food was good, service was too, and not too expensive, and it was within walking distance (just across the bridge) from the Princess bus depot (which I think is the old train station). We ate dinner in one of the dining rooms at the Fairbanks Princess Riverside Lodge, it was OK, but expensive.

 

Enjoy your trip.

[AkSusan]

All kinds of places in Anchorage and even if you're staying downtown with no car, you'll have all kinds of choices, just depends on what you like You can check out the dining section at http://www.anchorage.net.

 

vivian02 mentioned La Mex, which until the beginning of this year had one downtown (rumor has that the old site is going to become the Call of the Wild Bar) too but now only one in the Spenard area and one out in midtown.

 

Susan in Anchorage :)

[fntsysprtswidow]

Our friend's daughter and husband are stationed in Alaska. So when we went, they took us to all the places the locals enjoy. We specifically enjoyed "Humpy's". Great variety of choices and quality. Also, conveniently located.

[Hate 2 W8t]

We enjoyed a wonderful dinner at the Sourdough Mining Company while we were in Anchorage as part of our cruisetour with Princess. I just asked the Princess outfitters to call and make a reservation for us, along with scheduling a pick-up from the hotel. The restaurant has a shuttle since it is so far away from the downtown hotel area. Dinner was excellent, casual dining and after a week of that nasty "iced tea" on the ship, it was so nice to have a real glass of brewed iced tea, and trust me when I say they kept the refills comin'. :D

 

After dinner we took in some of the stories from Dusty Sourdough and then walked across the street to check out the Alaska Wildberry Store. Mmmm....candy. :p This is also the place with the chocolate waterfall. Very touristy site. We took the shuttle back to the hotel and fell asleep with very full bellies.

[kennicott]

Great you are visiting us Edmond, let me be the first to welcome you.

 

Regarding places to eat in Anchortown. As you have probably already determined from the above posts, a little more info would help. This restaurant question is frequently asked. Most questionnaires forget to provide the following. 1. Whereabouts are you staying in the city? 2. Do you have your own transportation, i.e. rent-a-car? 3. If not a rent-a-car, do you mind using a cab? 4. Do you mind walking for?? distance to get to and from a restaurant? 5. Are you looking for a decent eatery, i.e. Taco Bell style, or an Alaskan gourmet restaurant, or something in between? 6. Are you of the type “if you have to ask the price you can’t afford it” or like my 1929 depression era mother and mother in law, “we could have gotten this breakfast for a fraction of the price if we just went to Safeway instead”.

 

My guess is that you are probably staying downtown in the Capt Cook as part of the Princess package (by the way, a good choice). The Anchorage bowl is full of mediocre restaurants and most are excellent, if not they don’t survive in this market very long. I love to answer questions regarding the gourmet type establishments in Anchorage. As far as these gourmet style go in the downtown area, the city center area has over a dozen. Two are located within the Cook and adjacent to it. Some good ones have already been mentioned such as the Glacier Brewhouse (my son’s family favorite but not really gourmet). Even better, next door is Orso (Italian gourmet) owned by the Brewhouse. But these aren’t the real class ones; I could go on and on here. Let us know.

 

Another good choice, in my opinion, is the stay at the McKinley Princess. We went up there for our anniversary September 7th and the food quality couldn't have been much better. The view of the big mountain, world class, from where we were seated in the main dining room.

 

Have a great visit.

[EDMOND]

We are interested in good eating establishments that do not require tie and jacket. We like seafood (Salmon) and chicken, not interested in red meat. Not sure of the location we will be with Diamond Princess Cruise leaving Vancouver June 10th. Quality of food is more important than price, not interested in Taco or similar locations. Only one trip and would like to enjoy the local restaurant.

 

Thanks

[FlyingRev]

I would like to know what gourmet restaurants you would recommend in Anchorage. I have eaten at the Glacier Brewhouse several times, but have yet to check out Orso.

 

Any good suggestions would be appreciated. :)

[wolfie11]

I have never been in a restaurant in Alaska that required coat and tie. Alaska is a very informal place. There are several "birthday/anniversary" restuarants in Anchorage - Latitude 59, Marx Bros., Simon and Seaforts, etc. All will do salmon and chicken. However, be aware - "real" Alaskans catch their own fish and prefer something else when eating out. When you have a freezer full of salmon, halibut, crab, and moose, paying lots of money for the same thing in a restaurant (except moose, of course) is not something we usually do.

[akcruise07]

Gamberdellas is great, really good food and atmosphere. I love the Salmon Bake in Frontier Land(used to be Alaska Land when I lived there). This is one of the spots that I will hit when we go back in 05/07.

[Budget Queen]

Gamberdellas is great, really good food and atmosphere. I love the Salmon Bake in Frontier Land(used to be Alaska Land when I lived there). This is one of the spots that I will hit when we go back in 05/07.

 

 

It's Pioneer Park in Fairbanks. HOWEVER, I probably won't return to a place I greatly enjoyed. It is buffet style, but WAY overloaded with bus after bus tour. They also NO LONGER exchange plates so dirty plates repeat over and over in the buffets, cross contaminating everything. People were clueless that "tapping" food off the serving utensil onto their plates, picks up all the scum off their plates and goes back into the food. (OK I am getting carried away, but this is totally against NYS health laws). I just can not tolerate it. So I went and rushed through the lines first when they just opened, taking double what I though I would want a little repeat of. Shortly after the endless lines continued until I left.

[akcruise07]

That's sad to hear, of course it has been 11 years since I have been!LOL Do you know anything about the Salmon Bake in Juneau? We would like to hit one on our trip.

 

Thanks!

[akcruise07]

How is the rest of Pioneer Park? It was such a nice place years ago. I actually got married in the little chapel in the park. I really want to see that. Our wedding pics are in front of the chapel and the steamboat and they are so pretty. I miss Alaska!

[kennicott]

Right on, don't sweat having to dress up anywhere for elegant dining above 60-degree north. Over the years, some of the east coast and southern restaurant entrepreneurs have tried to require fancy dress here. Last we saw of them were their penguin suit tails going up the departure ramp with one way tickets back home. As far as Alaska seafood goes, go for it. I drew my first breath in Alaska and have even accomplished a stint or two in commercial fishing up here. Certainly, we all have a load of freezer burnt local seafood and game stored at home that we screw around with. However, in order to really enjoy our stuff, I order Alaska seafood, often, from some of our local world-class chefs. If you want a steak, visit Corpus Christi, Texas. If you want a quality Pacific Sockeye steak, you are in the right location up here. Also, try Dungeness crab. I like that even better than Alaska King Crab but you can find Dungeness all along the west coast. I love lobster too, but Dungeness is a close second best to lobster.

For dining, I suggest---#1 The Marx Brothers Cafe on 3rd Avenue almost across the street diagonally from the Anchorage Hilton-----#2 Kincaid Grill owned and operated by Chef Al at 6700 Jewel Lake Rd. An excellent Italian place is right down town on 5th called Orsos, which was previously mentioned. Orsos is next to and owned by the Glacier Brewhouse, which is also one of the preferred eating establishments in town. ( If you disregard my advice about Texas) for steaks try, The Club Paris, also on 5th avenue or the Pepper Mill 4101 Credit Union Dr. off of C Street. Make reservations very early for Club Paris or Orsos as they are extremely popular with the visitor crowd and often sold out for the evening. Across the street from the Cook, south side, is the Corsair Restaurant. That used to be our favorite for years but we haven’t been there in a long time. Hear it is still excellent but there’re so many good ones in town our budget and my waist line prevent much experimentation.

[Budget Queen]

How is the rest of Pioneer Park? It was such a nice place years ago. I actually got married in the little chapel in the park. I really want to see that. Our wedding pics are in front of the chapel and the steamboat and they are so pretty. I miss Alaska!

 

 

Yes, still great, I always make a stop here and enjoy it greatly. :) I hit the palace theater every few years too. :)

 

I have gone to Gold Creek salmon bake in Juneau, yes OK but like Thane Ore house better. :) They will pick up at the dock with reservations.