Travel Food - Alaska

Keeping with the photographic theme, I thought I'd share some shots of places we ate while we were travelling.

But I have to also admit that I travel with food. Not massive amounts of food - I don't carry sandwiches or packages of casserole or anything like that. I carry individual packages of Goldfish pretty much every time I travel. And I usually throw in something different - in Alaska, I had individual packs of Milanos, because they were on sale just before we left.

Even so, even with my strange eating habits (if you know me well, you know this about me), I can't live on only individual packages of Goldfish and Milanos. And I certainly can't expect the people I travel with to do that. So, in Alaska, we went out to eat a lot. And here are some of the places we went:

In Anchorage:

Our first night in Anchorage, we were walking around and found this place. I had an amazing Shepherd's Pie, and I think Christopher had Fish and Chips. The server was great - friendly, and with real opinions of what was good and what wasn't on the menu. 

Glacier Brewhouse - We lunched there, thankfully at the end of the obvious cruise ship-travellers, so the place went from crowded and loud to fairly quiet. Good brewhouse food, and amazing root beer and cream soda. 

A companion to Glacier Brewhouse (right next door, as well), this place does "Mediterranean" food. Our server was amazing. She even understood when we asked about "the dish that looked like Stonehenge" and was a lot of fun. Only one problem for me: The name "Orso" is an obviously play on "Ursa" for bear, but there was no Orzo anywhere on the menu. 

Uncle Joe's pizza was a lunch one day. The pizza was kind of mediocre, and the staff were kind of brusque. I'd skip it if you have another option.

In Kenai:

No, we didn't eat at the Russian church in Old Town Kenai, we ate at a tiny little place across the street called Veronica's with a fabulous staff and amazing desserts. I'd go back there in a heartbeat if it wasn't a rather long commute. (I think the picture we took is on Christopher's camera.)

In Seward:

The Salmon Bake - just outside of Seward.
Basically "next door" to our hotel, this place had amazing salmon (no surprise, right?), as well as a really homey feel. And, as with many tourist-dependent places, it was closing for the season just a few days after we were there.

Resurrection Roadhouse - connected to our hotel, the Seward Windsong Lodge. The food was fine, but the staff were hit-or-miss, and - frankly - the Salmon Bake was so much better... The views were good though.

Near Denali:

Prey - at Denali Cabins. A tiny little restaurant with an amazingly diverse menu, everything from Mac&Cheese with bacon to French Dip to Burgers and fries. The staff were great, and we even ate their twice - which we seldom do when travelling. Okay, so they were the only place that was easily walkable except for Parks 229 (below), but we probably would have eaten there twice, anyway. (Apparently breakfast was pretty mediocre, though.)

229 Parks Restaurant - about a half mile north of Denali Cabins. (Sorry. It was too dark out to take a picture after we had dinner, and this was taken from the bus on the way by.) I really wanted this place to be great, but it seemed to set the bar higher than it could reach. We left having had a decent meal and a nice enough waitress, but feeling a little let-down. And when we got back to our room, I found that my flatbread pizza leftovers had just kind of been tossed together in the doggie-box, making them nigh impossible to eat.

The Cafe at the Denali Park Visitors center. The food was fine for a kind of basic medium-service joint, and the staff were decent. Basically, it was what you'd expect at a park location. 

So, there you have 'em, most of the places we ate in Alaska. We did also have dinner at Sullivan's Steakhouse in Anchorage - which was nicely high-end, with a waiter who tried really hard, even though he was obviously pretty green. We had quite decent pizza from Marino's delivered to our hotel room on our final night in Anchorage, too.

We had less decent pizza (which did have Elk meatballs on it) at Prospector's Pizza, and Christopher had an apparently flavorful breakfast sandwich from the Black Bear coffee shop in "Glitter Gulch" outside of the entrance to Denali park.

Add in some Goldfish and Milanos, and you've got pretty much everything you need to eat your way through Alaska.