Good value ANC restaurants?
 

Looks like I'll have a couple of dinners to eat in Anchorage. I've never really had a favorite restaurant in town, and sometimes I've tried places because they had a restaurant.com certificate or something. And dare I say it, I've even eaten in a (gulp) chain restaurant in ANC. No obvious dining deal I see this summer.

So where would the locals go, if you wanted an "Alaskan" dining experience (nothing too fancy) at good value? Thanks.

In no particular order, some of the favorite hangouts are:

• Glacier Brewhouse/Orso's
• Mooses Tooth/ Bear Tooth
• Simon & Seaforts
• Double Musky

I'm sure more will chime in when they get back in town- but FT'ers have met at all of these places and many more ;)

beckoa has pretty much hit the who's who of Alaskan restaurants on the head, and fortunately, most would be considered "good values" by Outside standards. As reported elsewhere recently by me:

The only place that merits higher [New York-style] prices is the Crow's Nest at the top of the Captain Cook hotel, but that would hardly be considered "an 'Alaskan' dining experience." ;)

Don't eat alone, though! Be sure to post your availability in http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/commu...up-thread.html, and an FTer or ten might very well join you! :D

Thanks guys. From looking at the websites, I see that Simon & Seaforts has some decent happy hour/early dinner deals. Their $25 3-course early dinner sounds interesting (I wonder what's on it?), but I'm not sure the timing would work for me. Any other way to save a buck on decent Anchorage restaurants?

Otherwise, the menu prices don't seem much higher than what one would pay in the Lower 48 (without any discounts).

It's nice that there's no sales tax (always weird to encounter that when traveling to the USA ;))

My parents enjoyed the happy hour special for their anniversary last year, don't recall what it was exactly.

Otherwise lunch you can sometimes get a good deal on stuff such as an amazing burger at Club Paris. But not too many 'deals' while the tourists are in town :p

Thanks for the suggestions. We did go to Simon & Seaforts before 5:30 and got the $25 3-course early bird. Very satisfied. The place was like a local McCormick & Schmick’s and at $25, you felt good about getting a deal. On the early dinner menu, I'd particularly recommend the cheese-sauced halibut. The salmon was just good, but by then we'd had a lot of salmon in Alaska, and perhaps were looking for something a bit more unusual.

As is our custom, we tried to eat as much good-value fish as we could in Alaska because, well, it seems like the best stuff to eat up there (in the lower 48, we're much more likely to order beef). If you're doing the tourist route, I'd recommend the following:

In Seward, the Exit Glacier salmon bake continues to deliver an excellent grilled salmon. At $24 (entree only) it's not a screaming deal, but you get an ample portion of great tasting fish.

On the way to Denali, about 12 miles south is the McKinley Creekside Cafe, which offers a good fried halibut entree for $15. Opt for one of their excellent soups as the side and split an order of french fries for $3. A good meal for 2 for $33.

At Denali NP, the best salmon deal is (surprisingly) the Cabin Nite dinner show at the McKinley Chalet Resort IF you use one of the 2 for 1 coupons (like from the toursaver book). Complete meal for 2 then becomes $62 all in, and you get a (somewhat tacky) show too. The salmon (all you can eat) is seasoned and poached and, on our night, extraordinary. You may or may night enjoy your packaged-tour companions but, trust me, the fish is worth it.

Speaking of package tourists, I'm sure most Alaskans wouldn't be caught dead at a Princess Lodge. But they're making a mistake: some of their room specials (on off-peak nights when the cruisers aren't there) are great deals, and their kitchens are usually far more accomplished than their wilderness competitors. And, to my surprise, the prices can be quite reasonable. At the Princess Copper River lodge, you can go to the bar area and get an excellent Copper River salmon entree for $14/person. The menu offers the salmon in a thick bbq sauce which, as my wife says, is probably a "crime against salmon." ;) Still, it was excellent fish, and you can ask for a different preparation. What's often annoying in the Copper River area is that it's hard to actually eat the famous salmon there (the local catch is for locals only). So the Princess solves this problem.

We didn't make it to Fairbanks this time, but 2 years ago we enjoyed their famous all-you-can-eat salmon bake. It's a bit pricey in the $30s, though, so only worth it if you're hungry and want to chow down on a lot of very good salmon.

I thought about bringing some Alaskan seafood home with me, but the prices are so high that it didn't seem worth the trouble. On the side of the road outside of Steward, a guy was selling frozen Kodiak scallops at $15/pound. Ouch! I bet they're good, but I can get premium fresh scallops for that price, so I didn't bother. I was also thinking of bringing back some sliced smoked salmon (lox) but, again, the prices I saw were twice what I'd pay for probably better product in the lower 48. Heck, even fresh salmon at the Fred Meyer was no bargain. I'm thinking most of the locals catch their own, or know somebody who does!

If the cheese-sauced halibut is the parmesan-asiago crusted halibut (pan-seared in a beurre blanc sauce), then yes, it is phenomenal and one of my favorite meals in Alaska. :)

Actually, many Alaskans do visit the Princess lodges--they actually offer some very good values in shoulder season and even off-season (the lodges that are open, anyway). I had friends get married in early spring at the Kenai Princess Wilderness Lodge in Cooper Landing many years ago, and it was a wonderful stay in the snowed-in woods. (The hot tub is especially fantastic that time of year. ;))

Shocking to hear! The very worst halibut I've ever had (poached--it tasted like a fishy moist blob of goo) was at the McKinley Chalet Resort. Granted, it was probably 12 or 13 years ago, but ever since then, I've never trusted Aramark with seafood... ;)

I was pleasantly surprised with the quality (and, of course, the quantity ;)) of the food at the salmon bake. If I recall correctly (it's been 4 years since I was there), they had several different types of salmon and halibut as well as some steak, and all were quite good. It sounds cheesy, but I'd also recommend this stop to anyone traveling through Alaska. (It is on the spendy side, though, so come with a big appetite!)

Coincidentally, I've also had two other phenomenal halibut meals in Fairbanks: the best halibut fajitas I've ever had were at Los Amigos (just off the westbound onramp to the Mitchell Expressway off of South Cushman--fresh and well-seasoned with absolutely no hint of fishiness), and a delicious, fresh cut of halibut in an avocado sauce (the flavors surprisingly work very well together) at Two Rivers Lodge on Chena Hot Springs Road. It has always surprised me that restaurants in a city 350 miles from the nearest ocean have some of the best seafood in the state.

Your last sentence is the most accurate, but for the rest of us, Costco usually has the best value. I've seen fresh halibut there for $8.99/lb. They also have scallops, shrimp, king crab legs, and other things, but I don't care about such things. :p

Sorry I missed you at the ANC airport! Hope to run into you next time. :)

I didn't look that carefully at the Simon & Seaforts early bird menu because they had 1 salmon dish and 1 halibut dish, so it was obvious that my wife and I were going to order each and split them. I don't think it was exactly the dish you described, but it was quite tasty. If you don't drink, the meal for two is 50 bucks (no tax in Anchorage, which is nice if you've just been in Seward), and one of the better deals in Alaska.

I was similarly amazed that Aramark could do fish, but they can. I'd been to that Cabin Nite show a couple of years ago (also with the toursaver coupon) and I remembered it being about the best meal in "Glitter Gulch," at least for the money. The fish was even better this time, and the cobbler for desert wasn't bad either. Impossible to do better there, and a nice reward if you've spent the day on a bus in Denali park.

I agree that the salmon bake is a must-do when in Fairbanks, at least on a nice warm (or at least dry) night, as you can sit outside. I doubt I'd frequent it often if I lived there because it's pretty much a pig-fest (fish fest? :)), but for the visitor it's unmissible. I also don't understand why the best fish in Alaska is in the most unusual places. I was down on the Copper River chatting with the salmon wheel fishermen (I use that term loosely, as using a wheel doesn't seem much like "fishing" to me!), and there's no place there to get a piece of fresh salmon, even though you can see the fishermen fillet it in front of you. They told me that an Alaskan can lose their permit to fish if they do anything with the fish other than eat it themselves. Hence no guy on the side of the road with a grill -- which would be a huge tourist attraction!

I was looking at the early bird menu online earlier, and the halibut dish on the online menu was, I think, more or less the same thing as I'm thinking of:

Interesting. I would assume that's because the guys using the wheels are likely fishing on subsistence permits, and selling it or using it commercially would probably be a violation of the terms of that permit, since it's designed to allow you to feed your family, not make a profit. The guys collecting fish from the wheels are not fishing for sport! :D

Ah, that IS the menu we got. I guess I should have looked at it more carefully because, as you can see, the halibut entree is MUCH more interesting than the salmon. We should have ordered 2 halibuts!

And I think you're describing the "subsistence" permits correctly. Of course, most of these folks aren't doing really doing this "to live." Like we spent about a half hour chatting with these 3 couples from Wasilla who were working one of the wheels. Apparently you bring down your campers and take turns during the summer sharing the wheel with your friends. Sure, they probably wouldn't have been there if not to bring home the fish, but I could tell this was as much about recreating as eating. The men were tinkering with their toys (ATVs, fish wheel, etc.) and the women were socializing and filleting. It did look like fun -- at least for a day. A very Alaskan thing to do! Looked like a much better gig than standing on the side of a river and hoping to get a nibble on your line.

Well it is an economical way to fill the freezer... I personally go dip netting for red salmon...

Will have to look @ the toursaver again... might make a run to Denali and the salmon dinner sounds slightly better then :rolleyes: if not a bit cheesy :p

Look at the NorthernLights book too. That one might make more sense for locals (especially since it has restaurant deals).

And, yes, that Cabin Nite thing is VERY cheesy!

But the food's actually good.

Just wanted to put in another plug for Aladdin's on Old Seward Hwy near Tudor. Sadly, no website, and a car is pretty much required, but Rabah's food is to die for.

He catered a wedding we attended last night (he's been more or less adopted as semi-official caterer-in-chief for Jewish events in Anchorage) and delivered a knockout menu - lamb, halibut, vegan moussaka, "bread of Tunisia" (sort of like baklava without the filo) - all just outstanding. His restaurant (nondescript, in a strip mall) is friendly, the prices excellent, and absolutely worth the cab fare if one doesn't have wheels. One of the best Middle Eastern restaurants in the country IMO.

Been years since I've been. Will have to try it again soon! Thanks for the recommendation.

I want to put in a vote for the Glacier Brewhouse. I do not drink beer at all, so I cannot comment on that aspect, but it is very cozy there. Beware if you sit near the fireplace...it can get quite warm.

The best thing there is a dish with peppered tuna. (I cannot get the menu to come up on their web site, so I can't give the exact name of the dish.) It is about $16 (?) and it is soooo yummy. I can't wait to go there again on the 9th of August. YUM!