Anchorage Restaurants: What's Worth It

1 The Downtown Hand You Get Dealt: Urban Greens, 49th State Brewing Company, Simon and Seafort's, El Green-Go's, and Taco King - Gov Hill

The smell of char-grilled beef drifts south on G Street around noon, and somewhere inside twelve blocks of downtown Anchorage five kitchens are open, each pitching a different version of lunch. That is the range of this tier. Five rooms inside the 99501 zip code, all walkable from each other, covering the full distance from a weekday salad counter to the white-tablecloth seafood room your parents would approve of.

Urban Greens at 308 G Street opens at 09:00 and shuts at 14:00, Monday through Friday. Five hours. No weekends. No dinner. Urban Greens is a decision you make by 13:00 or not at all. The room fills with the downtown office crowd before the queue thins in the early afternoon.

At the opposite end of this tier, Simon and Seafort's at 420 L Street runs from 11:30 through 22:00 on Fridays and Saturdays, with a Sunday brunch from 11:00. Simon and Seafort's is the one room in Anchorage that earns the word splurge. The west-facing windows over Cook Inlet are the reason to book the 15:00 shoulder hour rather than fight for a 19:00 table in July.

The three rooms between those poles fill the middle ground. 49th State Brewing Company at 717 West 3rd Avenue stays open until 23:00 six nights a week, with Sunday closing at 22:00. 49th State Brewing Company is the default landing when most of downtown has gone dark by 21:00. El Green-Go's at 390 L Street runs a Mexican counter from 11:00 to 19:00 Monday through Saturday, closed Sunday. El Green-Go's is the fast lunch call when the sit-down rooms are too slow. And Taco King - Gov Hill at 848 East Loop Road, across the Ship Creek bridge, opens 10:30 to 20:00 every day including holidays. Taco King - Gov Hill is the one kitchen in this tier that never takes a day off.

The pattern here is the hours. The last kitchen in this tier to close is 49th State Brewing Company, at 23:00.

Five rooms inside the 99501 zip code, all walkable from each other, covering the full distance from a weekday salad counter to the white-tablecloth seafood room.

2 The Neighborhood Tier Beyond the Cruise Terminal: Ray's Place Vietnamese Cuisine, Queen of Sheba Ethiopian Restaurant, Tommy's Burger Stop, Moose's Tooth Pub & Pizzeria, and Turkish Delight

The fluorescent-lit room at Ray's Place Vietnamese Cuisine on 2412 Spenard Road smells like star anise and slow-simmered beef broth by 10:00 on a Tuesday morning. There is no downtown equivalent to this bowl. This second tier sits along the Spenard and Midtown corridors, a 10-to-15-minute drive south of the cruise terminal, and these five rooms are where Anchorage residents eat when they are not entertaining visitors.

Ray's Place Vietnamese Cuisine runs a split shift. Lunch 10:00 to 15:00, a closed kitchen in the afternoon, then dinner 17:00 to 20:30. Monday through Friday only. Show up on a Saturday and the door is locked. That weekday-only discipline is the tell.

Queen of Sheba Ethiopian Restaurant at 2813 Dawson Street keeps a five-day schedule of its own. Wednesday through Friday 11:00 to 20:00, Saturday 13:00 to 20:00, Sunday 13:00 to 19:00, dark Monday and Tuesday. Queen of Sheba Ethiopian Restaurant rewards the planner. The doro wat arrives on a shared platter of injera meant for hands, not forks. Come hungry.

Tommy's Burger Stop at 1106 West 29th Place does one thing. Burgers, 10:30 to 21:00, every day. Tommy's Burger Stop is the address locals name when a visitor asks where the burger is in Anchorage. A small counter on a side street off the Midtown arterial, it does not pretend to be anything else.

Moose's Tooth Pub & Pizzeria at 3300 Old Seward Highway opens at 10:30 on weekdays and runs until midnight, seven nights a week. Moose's Tooth Pub & Pizzeria is the room every local names first, which is either a recommendation or a warning. Skip the 18:30 Friday arrival. Come at 15:00 or after 21:00 when the family crowd has cleared.

Turkish Delight at 2210 East Northern Lights Boulevard runs a split service Tuesday through Saturday. Lunch 11:30 to 14:30, dinner 16:30 to 22:30, dark Monday and Sunday. Turkish Delight has range across Turkish and Mediterranean plates without losing the thread.

The tightest window in this tier belongs to Ray's Place Vietnamese Cuisine, which shuts for the afternoon at 15:00.

3 Urban Greens Has a Five-Hour Window, and Downtown's Best Quick Lunch Sits Inside It

The counter at Urban Greens is down to the last assembled salads by 13:00 on a Wednesday, and the room at 308 G Street has the clean, practical feel of a place that has traded every aesthetic decision for speed. Fluorescent light. Plastic containers. A line that moves quickly because the menu is short and the staff have been at it since 09:00.

Urban Greens opens at 09:00 and shuts at 14:00, Monday through Friday. No weekends. No dinner service. No exceptions. That five-hour window is the entire verdict on this room. If you work in a downtown Anchorage office in the 99501 zip code and need a salad or sandwich you can eat in twenty minutes, Urban Greens is the strongest answer within walking distance. If you are visiting and your afternoon starts with a 14:30 glacier bus, this is the plate that fits the gap.

The menu sticks to salads and sandwiches, built to order at the counter. Call 907-276-0333 if you want something held. The room sits a block from the courthouse on G Street, which tells you the lunchtime clientele.

Urban Greens is right for the visitor who wants to eat well and quickly downtown. It is wrong for anyone who wants atmosphere, a beer, or anything after 14:00. The honest comparison within this downtown tier is El Green-Go's at 390 L Street, which runs until 19:00 Monday through Saturday and serves a Mexican menu instead. If the schedule is tight and you need lunch by 13:00, Urban Greens wins on speed and location. If you can stretch to early evening, El Green-Go's covers the hours that Urban Greens cannot.

The last counter order tends to go in around 13:45 at 308 G Street.

4 49th State Brewing Company Is Still Open When Downtown Anchorage Has Gone Dark

The tap handles at 49th State Brewing Company catch the low light off the port-facing windows around 21:30, and the room at 717 West 3rd Avenue might be the loudest spot downtown at that hour. Most of the competing kitchens closed thirty minutes ago. The clink of pint glasses and the low rumble of post-hike conversation fill the space the dinner-service restaurants left behind.

49th State Brewing Company opens at 11:00 and runs until 23:00 Monday through Saturday, with Sunday closing an hour earlier at 22:00. Those late hours are the real product. Most of downtown Anchorage is dark by 21:00, which makes 49th State Brewing Company the address that covers the gap between your last activity and the hotel. The food is pub fare alongside house beer, and the honest read is that you come for what is on tap. The kitchen follows.

This room works for the visitor who spent the day on the Flattop trail and wants to sit, eat, and drink without a reservation or a change of clothes. It is wrong for the visitor looking for the serious meal of the trip. That visitor should walk south to Simon and Seafort's at 420 L Street, which runs a proper seafood kitchen with Cook Inlet views and a reservation book.

49th State Brewing Company sits in the 99501 zip code, a short walk from the cruise terminal and the Egan Center. Call 907-277-7727 to ask what is pouring. The view of the port from the deck on a July evening, with the sun still high at 22:00, tends to keep people longer than the food alone would.

The kitchen at 717 West 3rd Avenue closes with the bar, not before it.

5 Simon and Seafort's Is the One Splurge in Anchorage Worth Booking in Advance

The light at Simon and Seafort's turns copper around 15:00 in July, when the afternoon sun drops low enough over Cook Inlet to fill the dining room at 420 L Street from the west. The tables near the window are warm to the touch. That shoulder hour, between the lunch departure and the dinner rush, is when the locals tend to come.

Simon and Seafort's opens at 11:30 for lunch and runs through 21:00 on weekdays, pushing to 22:00 on Fridays and Saturdays. Sunday brunch starts at 11:00. It is a seafood and American kitchen, the kind of room a city of Anchorage's size gets one of, and this is the one. The menu leans toward what comes out of nearby waters, and the presentation is white-tablecloth without being stiff about it.

This is the splurge on this entire list. Simon and Seafort's is the room you reserve when you want one proper sit-down dinner during an Anchorage trip, and the honest advice is to book the 15:00 window rather than fight for a 19:00 table in peak summer. The light on the Inlet does work no interior designer could replicate, and the crowd between services is thinner.

The comparison that matters is 49th State Brewing Company at 717 West 3rd Avenue, a few blocks north. If you want a beer and a plate without planning ahead, go there. If you want the meal you will still be describing when you land back home, Simon and Seafort's is the answer. The 99501 address at 420 L Street is walkable from every downtown hotel.

Reserve through the site or call 907-274-3502. The dining room at 420 L Street runs seven days a week.

This is the splurge on this entire list, and the honest advice is to book the 15:00 window rather than fight for a 19:00 table in peak summer.

6 El Green-Go's Closes at 19:00, Which Is Exactly the Point

The griddle at El Green-Go's throws heat you can feel from the counter, and the scent of charred tortilla and diced onion is the first thing that hits when you step into the room at 390 L Street around noon. This is not a dinner room that happens to serve lunch. It is a lunch room that stretches into early evening, and it knows when to stop.

El Green-Go's opens at 11:00 and closes at 19:00, Monday through Saturday. Sunday the kitchen is dark. That 19:00 close is the defining fact about this room. If you are still thinking about it at 18:30, you have likely missed the window. El Green-Go's rewards the visitor who builds meals into the day's structure, not the one who figures dinner out at 20:00.

The menu is Mexican. The counter format keeps the pace quick, and the plates are priced for a working lunch downtown. This is the call to make when Simon and Seafort's, on the same L Street block at 420 L Street, is booked or too formal for the afternoon you have. El Green-Go's sits at 390 L Street in the 99501 zip code, sharing a block with the seafood room but not an ambition. One is a counter for a working lunch. The other is a dining room for an occasion.

El Green-Go's is right for the visitor who needs a good plate in fifteen minutes and out the door. It is right for the downtown worker who skips the chain-Mexican options along the highway. It is wrong for anyone who wants a late dinner or a meal on Sunday.

Call 907-312-3313 before you walk over. After 19:00 the counter at 390 L Street is closed.

7 Taco King - Gov Hill Never Closes for a Holiday and Never Overcomplicates the Taco

The fryer at Taco King - Gov Hill is already going by 10:30, and the counter at 848 East Loop Road smells like seasoned ground beef and hot corn oil before the Government Hill lunch crowd arrives. This is a room that does not wait. It opens, it cooks, it closes at 20:00. Every day. Holidays included.

Taco King - Gov Hill runs 10:30 to 20:00, seven days a week, with no posted closures for public holidays. That consistency is worth noting. In a city where several of the best kitchens skip Mondays, take Sundays off, or run a split shift that punishes the unprepared, Taco King - Gov Hill is reliably there.

The menu is tacos and Mexican plates, ordered at the counter, eaten at whatever seat is free. The plates are priced for a Government Hill shift worker's wallet, not a downtown tourist's, and the locals eat here because the tacos are honest work done well. Skip the downtown Mexican rooms if what you want is the food rather than the room it arrives in.

Taco King - Gov Hill sits in the 99501 zip code, across the Ship Creek bridge from downtown, which makes it a short drive rather than a walk. The comparison that matters is El Green-Go's at 390 L Street, which serves a Mexican menu in the downtown walking circle but closes at 19:00 and skips Sunday. If you want downtown convenience, El Green-Go's is the call. If you want consistency, lower prices, and an extra hour of service, drive to Taco King - Gov Hill at 848 East Loop Road.

The direct line is 907-771-6055. The counter takes orders until the 20:00 close.

8 Ray's Place Vietnamese Cuisine Runs a Split Shift That Rewards the Prepared Visitor

The broth at Ray's Place Vietnamese Cuisine has been on since before the 10:00 opening, and by the time you sit at 2412 Spenard Road the bowl arrives trailing the deep, slow-cooked aroma of beef and star anise that means the kitchen started hours ago. The fluorescent lights are unforgiving. The tables are simple. None of that matters once the steam rises and the warmth hits your hands through the ceramic.

Ray's Place Vietnamese Cuisine runs a split shift. Lunch from 10:00 to 15:00. A closed kitchen for the afternoon. Dinner from 17:00 to 20:30. Monday through Friday only. The weekend is dark. That schedule is the entire verdict. If you plan around it, you eat some of the best Vietnamese food in a city that has no particular reason to have pho this good at the 99503 end of Spenard Road. If you do not plan around it, you find a locked door on a Saturday afternoon.

The Spenard corridor address puts Ray's Place Vietnamese Cuisine a short drive south of downtown, closer to Ted Stevens International Airport than to the cruise terminal. If you are flying in and your hotel is near the airport, this is the honest lunch stop before you reach the 99501 downtown grid.

Ray's Place Vietnamese Cuisine is right for the visitor who knows what good pho tastes like and wants a bowl without a downtown markup. It is wrong for the visitor who needs dinner after 21:00, a weekend meal, or a room with atmosphere. To be fair, the comparison within this tier is Queen of Sheba Ethiopian Restaurant at 2813 Dawson Street, which keeps a similarly particular schedule, Wednesday through Sunday, closed Monday and Tuesday. Both rooms reward the same kind of eater. Someone who picks the kitchen first and builds the day around it.

Call 907-279-2932 if you are cutting it close to a shift change. The afternoon gap from 15:00 to 17:00 is real.

If you plan around the split shift, you eat some of the best Vietnamese food in a city that has no particular reason to have pho this good.