any tips on dining?

The Glacier Brewhouse downtown has great food. Reservations would probably be a good idea. It gets really busy.

Marx Bros. - upscale, eclectic, tasty, fun. Highly recommend.

Glacier Brewhouse - not quite as pricey or upscale, more casual. Good food & beer.

Gwennie's Old Alaskan Restaurant - great, huge - very huge! - breakfasts with reindeer sausage.

Agreed on Glacier Bay Brewhouse. Their seafood chowder is to DIE for!

Downtown Deli for good plate lunches and hearty breakfasts.

The small pub around the corner from the Hilton and across the street from the federal building was AWESOME! They had a big block of wonderful cheese up on the counter, and you could just go and get a slice whenever you wanted some more.

Reindeer sausage is on just about every menu in Anchorage. It does get old after a while...

Another restaurant I really enjoyed was Humpy's Great Alaskan Alehouse on 6th Street. I loved the blackend halibut there. Very reasonable prices and fun bar too.

Aladdin's (Middle Eastern) in a blah strip mall on Old Seward. Possibly the best Middle Eastern/Mediterranean food in the western hemisphere. Thank God for Fodor's anonymity; there are people that would come looking for me if they knew I was blathering on a public BBS over this place.

The Millenium Hotel near the Airport has a really nice Sunday Brunch!