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Hey guys,

My wife and I are going down to Fairbanks for a few days next week. Passed thru there once a few years ago but not familiar with it. Any suggestions on good eating places and other things to do?

Thanks,
Dave

PM/hook up with Randy 2 legit. But ya gotta be quick to grab the check, he's fast.

Chena Pump House is nice and has pretty good food.

1. The best meal I have ever eaten in my entire life was last Sept at Alaska land/pioneer park - The salmon bake. It was a $30 buffet with all you could eat prime rib, salmon, and crab legs, plus all the trimmings & veggies. It's not open at this time of year, just offering this for those who may be visiting Fairbanks when they are open, in season.

2. Another very good buffet that sticks out in my mind, is a sports type bar In North Pole, it has the bar downstairs and the buffet upstairs. Located on the north side of the highway.

3. One of the best burgers I have ever eaten was in North Pole, right near safeway, but I'll be danged if I can recall the name. Sports bar type of place.

Number 2 & 3 were like 6 years ago, so memory is not serving. I hope Randy can name these places based off my descriptions.

Pikes landing has good food, but a touch spendy.

Pizza hut in North pole, bad service, but tastey grub.

Pikes Landing has a great ambiance during warm weather, A very nice outside deck overlooking the Chena river,I guess that wont apply next week, However the food was great.

+1 on getting a reco from the Ranster.

I bet BIF Bear In Fairbanks knows a place or too.

15 years ago I would have been more help, but things have changed.

The Pump House is just that. It was a water pump house that pumped water to the hydraulic giants to remove the overburden to access the gold-bearing gravels. It was turned into a restaurant in the 80s (IIRC).

The "Senator Saloon" is named for Frank the Bank (Liiisa's daddy) who helped get the PH on the Nat'l. Historic Register when he was the senator. I always called it the "drunken senator saloon". The McKinley burger with a couple pints of AK amber used to be a Friday night highlight.

I like the Turtle Club in Fox for prime rib and Pagodas in North Pole for great chinese food.

I think the best place to eat in the Fairbanks area currently is the Silver Gulch in Fox. Great food and an extensive beer selection, local, domestic, and imported.

Mayan Palace for Mexican Style.

Big Daddy's for BBQ.

Brewster's for Burgers.

Turtle Club for Prime Rib.

Llavelle's Bistro for Yuppie Style Food.

Pagoda's in NP is best for Chinese Food.

Breakfast at Hilltop.

Chicken Fried Steak at the Cookie Jar.

Sincerely,
Thomas

+1 for the Pagoda... and a slice of strawberry rheubarb pie at The Hilltop.

I'd agree that the Pagoda is very good.

but we prefer Thai food, Thai house downtown is our fave, but Bahn Thai, Pad Thai are both good too.

think Mike/Peterbilt was referring to Elf's Den in NP, change of ownership last few years. the burger joint in NP he referred to is Food Factory, closed in NP, still open in FBKS by Sam's Club

I have good eatin joints close to home, the Vallata is still my fave for fine dining, but no flies on the Turtle Club, though I prefer their seafood over the prime rib, but their salad bar is what i really love, simple, limited selection, but oh so good.

imo best ribs in town was at Sockeye's/Players, shut down as the owner got pinched growing 200+ what looked like parsley plants

Pump house is often good, sometimes not so good, great Sunday breakfast buffet love their flown in fresh oysters

also fond of Ivory Jacks, down the road from the Vallata on Goldstream road, Silver Gulch and TC are at the other end and I do like SG beer, specially their pick axe porter


one of my fave sandwich/soup shops is Chowder house, good food


also for dining I really like Zach's in Sophie Station but much prefer to eat in the bar, very comfortable and great food

Ajimi is a great little Japanese place down the street from Chowder house

Oasis serves good cheesesteaks and other grub, but a bit of a dive, but sometimes I like that


it's a good place to get fat for such a small town


as far as stuff to do, not much, in March we'll have the Ice Art Championships that are actually worth coming here for and dog mushing events, but imo dog mushing ain't much of a spectator sport

UAF often has college b-ball but they ain't all that good these days, had a few glory years when Sokitas coached them.

UAF museum is cool but small, don't know why they built such a big azz fancy bldg for it

there's all kinds of local theater production that happens here it seems but we don't take much of it in, we get our social needs pretty well fulfilled at work and spend the rest of the time at our kids ball games it seems

you can always get a massage for two at Elements (shameless plug) my wife's salon/spa or get the missus a pedicure, manicure or her hair done up, all your body hair waxed off (yikes) I'm trying to talk them into offering the frozen OJ concentrate, shave yer junk package, but they ain't big thinkers like Northern Dave, even though I certainly benefit from any dollars spent there, I will have to admit, the place is very, very nice and momma would probably enjoy her time there if she likes to be pampered

other than that, it's just the usual shoppin stuff that ain't in Barrow....yet, Walmart, Frontier Outfitters, SW, Barnes and Noble etc.

give me a jingle when you're in town Steve, life is resuming to normal hectic instead of super hectic (gettin her new place opened up last month) 388-4515, if time and schedule permit, would love to have a cuppa with you or buy you a drink, and have a FTF, though even our normal hectic doesn't leave us a lot of free time.

going thru the lists, you should be able to grab a good meal, see some stuff not before you every day and relax a bit.

if you have time or inclination, would love to hear from you and see if we could get together. Randy

Good post on the eateries, Randy! I'm tempted to print dat out for future visits..

Thanks to everyone for all of the information; looks like I will be eating 24/7! LOL Looking forward to getting down to the "big city".

It's the Turtle Club, hands down for prime rib. Nobody (except my wife) does it better. Out in Fox about 10 miles.
For Italian, it's Geraldo's on College Road. The other Italian place, Gambardella's on 2nd Ave. seems to be "iffy" at times.
For Oriental, we like the Pagoda in North Pole and, since it's pretty close to our house, we go there quite often.
Another Oriental place we like is Lin's Asian Bistro. On Airport Rd., across from the movie theater. It's got a full menu and has sushi, if you like that.
The Pump House, as mentioned above on Chena Pump Rd. is pretty good as well.
Since we don't care for the owner of Pike's, we don't go there.
Another place you never hear of is Zack's on Univ. Ave. It's upstairs in the hotel complex. Nice atmosphere.
The Salmon Bake mentioned above is in AlaskaLand (we old timers still call it that) but it's only seasonal so isn't open now.
Another place that has since reopened after the owner was killed in a vehicle accident is Little Richard's Diner. (Harley's to you local old timers). Off the Rich Hiway about a mile west of North Pole towards Fbks. Atmosphere is a 1950's style diner, complete with music, period posters, etc. Since it's so small, it can get kinda crowded but has REAL JUMBO buffalo burgers & milk shakes. If ya have lunch there, I don't think you'll want dinner later.
Finally, for Mexican, we usually go to Gallo's at the intesection of College & Illinois. Pretty good & clean. They have soappapea's (sp?) AND flan. UMMMM!!
This list oughta keep ya fat, dumb & happy for quite awhile. Enjoy your time in the burg.
Later, Bear in Fairbanks

Bahn Thai is another good one if you like Thai.

+1, After spending 10 days in the Brooks, prime rib at the Turtle Club really hit the spot!

When did the Food Factory in NP close Randy?

My favorite restaurants in and around Squarebanks are:

Turtle Club

Pagoda

Elfs Den

Badgers Den (for grill your own steak)

Pump House

Silver Gulch Saloon

[quote=AkMtnHntr]Turtle Club

Pagoda

Elfs Den
/quote] & My house... http://www.newsminer.com/view/full_...ts-Alaska-in-world-championship-cookoff? there fixed it for u

2legit2quit "I have good eatin joints close to home, the Vallata is still my fave for fine dining, but no flies on the Turtle Club, though I prefer their seafood over the prime rib, but their salad bar is what i really love, simple, limited selection, but oh so good."

+1 for the Turtle club and their prawns are huge!