Anchorage: Best Restaurants
The Bear Tooth: We share this suggestion reluctantly because this place is already pretty crowded – maybe more business will encourage them to increase their size. Anyway, this is our favorite place in Anchorage – basically, it’s two restaurants and a movie theater. Okay, that doesn’t sound so great, but the food (mostly Mexican and creative American) is fantastic – AND they’ll bring you food during the movie. Apparently, when they opened, they took out half of the movie seats and replaced them with tables – when you order, you get an orange cone with a number on it and they bring you your dinner during the movie. In fact, the food is so good, we often order it to go.
Another plus: they serve beer and wine – unusual for a movie theater. Another plus: the movies are $3. Another plus: the movies are generally pretty good (though not first run.) Every Monday is either independent or foreign movies. Another place: they have good concerts on occasion with plenty of room for dancing. Another plus: well, I don’t know, the bathrooms are clean? Whatever, go to the Bear Tooth then wonder why your town doesn’t have one also. (Okay, Portland, Oregon has something similar but they serve only expensive deserts.)
A crummy but informative web site:
Yak and Yeti: New to Anchorage, they serve great Indian food. Unfortunately, they are only open for dinner Thur-Saturday nights (though serve lunch six days a week.) When you go, encourage them to serve dinner every night.
Middleway Cafe: Where I’m writing this from right now. Great sandwiches and soups, free wi-fi, crunchy vibe, and interesting local art. Also, great breakfast and brunch (though not especially speedy if you’re in a rush.)
Arctic Roadrunner on the Old Seward: Burger and fries, oh my. Though they serve the standards, they do it with more pluck than most places. Walls covered with photographs of long-term patrons and a creek side location make this one of our favorite spots. Note: They don’t take credit cards but there is an ATM at the gas station next door. Note: Don’t be fooled by the Peanut Farm across the street. Though the only other restaurant built on a creek in Anchorage, this place is a soulless megaplex of a sports bar serving soggy sports bar food. One kind of cool, if depressing thing, are the booths with their own television screens.
Gumbo House: Good Cajun food, even according to our Cajun friend, in an old wooden house next to the park. They also deliver very quickly.
MA’s Gourmet Hot Dog Stand: Great reindeer hotdogs served on 4th avenue featured as one of the 10 best hot dog places in the United States. Don’t be fooled – avoid the copy cats. The line moves fast.
Pete’s Sushi Spot: Great sushi before it burned down. Sad.
*** Also Good ***
Moose’s Tooth: Sister restaurant to the Bear Tooth, serving great pizza and really good salads but with huge waits in the summer (i.e. up to two hours.) Summer concerts are often fun.
Ray’s Place: Really tasty Vietnamese food, especially the clear noodles with beef curry.
Address: 2412 Spenard Rd, Anchorage, AK 99503-1622
Phone: (907) 279-2932
Sacks: Bistro fair with very good salads located downtown.
Orzo: Decent Italian food located downtown. Trendy, late 90’s decor. Good service.
Address: 737 W. Fifth Ave.
Phone: (907) 222-3232
Simon and Seaforts: Part of a chain but great service and good, if not especially creative, eats. Best part is the sweeping view over the inlet. The bar side is more casual, though not cheaper, than the main dining room. Both get crowded in the summer.
Humpy’s: Downtown bar that gets pretty festive and loud at night. Pretty good eats and really good berry crumble.
F-Street Station: Another downtown bar serving good eats. We’d prefer some table with regular chairs instead of stools, but the service is really friendly. Also, they have a huge block of cheddar cheese you can help yourself to.
Marx Brothers: This place is expensive and the food not too adventurous but the cozy location, in an old wooden house located downtown with a working fireplace, make us put this place on the list. Famous for its Caesar salads made tableside. (We even took the course on how to make them.)
*** PLACES TO AVOID ***
Snow Goose: An amazing location with a great view, this place could be so much better. The food is bad - really bad – and the service not much better, so don’t be snookered by the view and the homemade beer.
Crow’s Nest: Atop the Captain Cook Hotel and with some nice views, this place is VERY expensive - $40 to $50 entrees – and not very good (mostly old-school, flavor-free, heavily-sauced and small portioned European eats.) If you’re in the mood for expensive, kind-of-bland food, go to the Marx Brothers instead. [link] Maybe it was just our waiter, but stuffy service as well.
This cheeseball photo alone should convince you:
One plus: The bar has a nice view and a kind of cozy feel. We find that for some reason we have better conversations in some places than others and always have good conversations here. That said, consistent with the restaurant, its expensive and the service is slow (which probably helps the conversation.)
