211 Best Restaurants in Alaska, USA

This busy and bright café in the Aak'w Village District, about a five-minute walk from the center of town, is a popular destination for brunch on weekends. It's also a good choice for lunch if you're visiting the state museum, as it's less than a block away.

This splendid café offers a good selection of teas and organic coffee, as well as soups, wraps, pastries, and smoothies.

With its rusty roof set against a breathtaking inlet and mountain backdrop, the Seaview is one of the original buildings in Hope at nearly 120 years old. It serves terrific seafood chowder and halibut-and-chips as well as one of the best Reuben sandwiches in Alaska. There's also live music every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

Windows overlooking Cook Inlet vistas, along with the high ceilings and a classic brass-and-wood interior, have long made this an Anchorage favorite. The menu includes prime rib and other steak-house classics, but the main attraction is fresh Alaska seafood. The best tables are adjacent to the tall windows facing the water, and reservations are recommended.

Though beer is the primary business of Skagway Brewing, this local pub has a diverse dinner menu that includes burgers, halibut-and-chips, pasta dishes, hearty salads, and vegetarian options. Whatever you order, sampling the locally made ale is a must; Skagway's staples include Prospector Pale, Chilkoot Trail IPA, Boom Town Brown, Blue Top Porter, and their signature Spruce Tip Blonde Ale, made with local ingredients. Visitors can also take a tasting tour for $25.

On the water right next to the docks, this casual and energetic spot has a reputation for expertly prepared seafood and a friendly staff. Here you'll find favorites like halibut and chips, king crab legs, and pan-seared salmon, as well as nightly specials showcasing the kitchen's more creative side. A small deck offers outside seating and there's a decent selection of beer and wine.

This longtime Chinese and American restaurant is known for its rice and noodle dishes. Look for udon and egg foo young, along with fried food baskets, sandwiches, and family dinner specials like burger packs that include four burgers with fries and soda.

Perched on the edge of the city, South's expansive menu and bright airy space make it a destination brunch spot in Anchorage. The menu offers fresh Alaska spins on brunch classics like sourdough pancakes, cod tacos, and reindeer sausage as well as a wide range of salads, sandwiches, and tapas. If you need a caffeine jolt or grab-and-go dish as you drive south out of town, the attached coffeeshop is open all day long.

The amusing assortment of wall art here pays homage to the roadhouses that dot the state, but Spenard Roadhouse is by no means just a place to grab a quick meal while traveling. The warm and inviting restaurant offers creative comfort food, plus a daily brunch menu; the cocktails alone are worth the journey.

Everything at St. Elias is homemade: the beer, the Neapolitan-style stone-fired rustic pizza, the sandwiches, and even the desserts. The calzones are to die for, and the Mt. Redoubt chocolate cake with a molten center is simply divine. This is a good place to check out the locals; the patrons are just as friendly as the staff, and in summer local live music is a big draw.

Housed in a former gas station, this year-round restaurant is known for its comfort-food specials. The huge calzones are stuffed and served piping hot with sides of house marinara and ranch dressing—build your own or choose one of the chef's creations.

With views overlooking the water, the Stikine Inn's restaurant (often called the Stik) is easily the prettiest place to dine in Wrangell. Given the town's scarcity of options, the place could just assemble a get-by menu, but the salads, pasta, burgers, and hearty soups here are seriously tasty. For lighter early-morning or midday fare, there's the Stik Cafe, which serves breakfast sandwiches and panini, among other items.

The owners of this cheerful little year-round restaurant on the shore of Kenai Lake call it a "backwoods bistro." The very reasonably priced menu includes breakfast dishes, homemade soups and chowders, wraps and vegetarian items, and hand-grated french fries. There's even a spotting scope in the parking lot for spying on the Dall sheep and mountain goats in the surrounding peaks. The bar here hosts live music on most Saturdays in summer, and the deck outside is great when the weather's warm. The Inn also offers 10 rooms to spend the night and an RV site.

A tiny coffee shop and bakery, Sweet Mermaids is a great choice for breakfast. If you're here for lunch, try the salmon chowder—the perfect antidote for a rainy afternoon.

This iconic food truck is known for its highly popular cheesy spinach bread and also serves breakfast and rotating daily specials, like Thai curry, Ethiopian beans and rice, and a Hawaiian poke bowl. Just look for the shiny metal trailer with a long line of people waiting for their favorite meal. It's worth the wait, and don't forget to grab some Brazilian limeade to wash it all down.

Whether you're at the cozy cocktail bar or on the wraparound lounge couches, this atmospheric fusion restaurant brings upscale Mexican flavors to the far north (the "61" in the name references the city's latitude). Though known for its tacos—including a duck confit option—the restaurant also prepares rib eyes, shrimp ceviche, and chipotle-glazed king crab.

Originally a large purple bus parked next to the gas station at the town's crossroads, this window-service eatery is by far the best eatery in town. It serves fresh vegetables and delightfully spicy dishes (ask for a side of the spicy sauce, if you're a fan of heat).

A longstanding Bethel eatery, Tundra focuses on Chinese, Korean, and American food. Choose from a range of rice and noodles dishes or mix it up with bento boxes and lunch or dinner combos.

This is the only combination kayak rental shop and coffeehouse in Hope—maybe in the whole state. They offer up great coffee, small-batch-roasted coffee beans, fresh fruit smoothies, and house-made pastries.

Don't go to this wood-walled dining room expecting great variety, but you should go if you have a big appetite and are hungry for prime rib, lobster, prawns, or king crab. There's also a good salad bar, prompt service, and homemade bread that comes with every order. The "Turtle Cut" serving of prime rib, advertised as a "medium portion," weighs about a pound.

Housed in a log-frame waterfront building adjacent to the base of the Goldbelt Tram, Twisted Fish serves fish as fresh as you'll find. Grab a seat on the deck and enjoy prime-time Gastineau Channel gazing over a glass of wine or locally brewed beer.

Fairbanksans are known to make the 40-mile round-trip for the delicious dinners here, including prime rib, steaks, and Alaskan seafood dishes. Don't be discouraged by the lakeside building's outward appearance—rustic logs belie the menu's elegance. For a study in Alaskan-style contrasts, stop in the Trapline Lounge first for predinner refreshment.

This long-running eatery is a short walk from Bishops Beach, Beluga Slough, and the Wildlife Refuge Visitors Center. In addition to fresh breads and pastries, Two Sisters specializes in deliciously healthy lunches, such as vegetarian focaccia sandwiches, homemade soups, quiche, and salads. There's no indoor dining, but there is a lovely wraparound porch and a garden sitting area that are perfect on a summer afternoon; you can even walk your espresso and scone down to the beach to watch the waves roll in.

The folks at this aroma-filled bakery café serve up fresh and tasty pastries, quiches, wraps, salads, panini and other sandwiches, and espresso drinks. A convivial setting for meetings, board games, and pleasant conversation by day, Vagabond is a popular hangout. There's Wi-Fi, too.

On a hot summer day and even on not-so-hot days, locals yearn for some Varly's ice cream, or if the weather's cold and rainy, for some decent pizza. The owners (who also manage Varly's Swiftwater Seafood Café) take great pride in what they do, and it shows: the homemade pizza here is certainly something to write home about. It might sound odd, but the pizza topped with sauerkraut and pepperoni is the one of the best pies. If you're not sure which way to lean (pizza or ice cream), opt for a little of each.

Every winter city needs a ramen shop, but the menu and the mood at this upscale eatery make it a must-visit. The restaurant's basic name belies the creativity at work, with Japanese small plates, a long roster of ramen dishes, and eye-catching cocktails in the cozy back-room bar.

This cozy café with rustic wooden benches and tables and a patio is only a few years old but is already a favorite summer eatery in town. It's a short walk for cruise ship passengers, and it serves outstanding burgers, plus hefty sandwiches, reindeer chili, seafood chowder, and other hearty dishes.

Located in Old Town next to the Bunnell Street Arts Center, Wild Honey is a terrific place to grab a latte and a crepe. You can choose either sweet or savory crepes along with house-made soups and salads, most of which showcase ingredients the owners have harvested themselves. Everything else is bought from local farmers.

On sunny summer nights, the line at this popular microcreamy snakes down the block. The walk-up window serves Alaska-inspired ice cream flavors like almond birch brittle and rhubarb crumble, but the options rotate constantly. There's a second seasonal location in the 49th State Brewing Company biergarten off 3rd Avenue and a year-round scoop shop in Midtown at 530 East Benson Boulevard.

Savor the flavors of India, Nepal, and Tibet in this quick, cozy restaurant owned by Lobsang Dorjee, a Tibetan who grew up in India, and his wife, lifelong Alaskan Suzanne Hull. The trim menu spotlights rice bowls and soups, balancing the familiar—pork vindaloo, palak paneer, samosas—with the unexpected, such as lhasa momos, a type of Tibetan dumpling.