Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Where to eat in Seward

Been there a few times and haven't really found a place I wanted to rush back to. Have eaten dockside and wasn't impressed with the quality of the meal compared to price. Not looking for fancy, just a decent burger/seafood joint with cold beer of course. Thanks.

In general most places in Alaska won't be happy with the quality vs. price ratio. I haven't eaten at a restaurant in Seward for over 10 years so can't give any recent advice. We usually just stop at Carrs on the way to or back from fishing to grab a bite.

The bus Reds for burgers, Woody,s for Thai food, there slow, but good.

Had lunch at Woody's last summer and the bill was way beyond ridiculous!!!!!!!!!!!! The food mediocre... No alcohol and a simple lunch for two was over $60 before considering a tip for lousy service!

The food at Chinooks is very good, but cheaper than Woody's! They often have black cod on the menu and it is very, very good!

Reds burgers are very good!

I had a good meal of halibut at a dockside place, but my friend's halibut cheek chowder was what really impressed me. Hopefully someone that knows Seward knows the name. Not cheap, but good.

Ray's? Next door to Chinooks?

Ray's is priceier, pretty good, but I have liked Chinooks better.

Chinooks understands a scallop needs to barely touch the heat...

In 2013, the better half and I had supper at the Salmon Bake in Seward. It is not fancy. Good service and friendly people. Just checked their menu to refresh my memory. I think we had the Ale Battered Red Snapper which I understand in AK, is rockfish. It was really good. Beer was good and cold also and was probably the Glacier Blond Ale or Amber. Stayed at the Windsong hotel right up Exit Glacier road, close by. On the two week trip, rockfish or red snapper was my favorite. Cod was next and then halibut. Restaurants are notorious for changing so who knows how it is now.

Yelloweye rockfish (red snapper on some menus) is an outstanding fish and far better than halibut...

And I prefer cod to halibut under most circumstances...

Every place to eat in Seward can be spendy, so if you use that as your litmus test you'll be sorely disappointed, but for pure satisfaction get the smoked scallop mac 'n cheese at Chinook's. You can thank me later...

Chris

+1 to both.

I always suspected you were a pretty smart guy1

+2

The best compliment I can give halibut is, it freezes well! But for fresh fish, I'll take rockfish and cod all day long!

Jeff

I agree with the rest of you, rockfish or cod before halibut.

Thank you all for the suggestions. We've spent enough time in AK to know things aren't cheap in any restaurant, that's a given and that's okay. Figuratively speaking, I don't mind paying for a Caddy if I'm driving a Caddy, just not interested in making those payments and driving a Yugo. Hadn't found a place yet in Seward that we really enjoyed eating at, looks like we'll be trying Chinook's this time around. Many thanks, all.

We have always liked Chinooks. Last month we tried the Alaska Salmon Bake and it became our new favorite. We also like the Showcase Longe, especially if they happen to have halibut cheeks available.
JM

Well, I've been called a weirdo because I do not care for salmon. I guess I haven't tried Rockfish as I've always favored halibut.

We were trying to remember the name of the bar we stopped in, it was the Showcase, thanks for the reminder! Had a great time there and planned to go back. We just stopped in for thirst reasons last time, maybe we'll give them a shot as well, menu looks good. Thanks to all, we now have at least 3 places to try.

Back from our trip, great time, excellent fishing. We went to the Showcase in Seward for the seafood chowder and were not disappointed a bit, really good. Also hit Chinooks for supper and liked that very well too. As a side note to Chinooks, a black bear walked down the sidewalk right outside our window while we were eating, it was the third pass he made that day.

Now, another question for you fish experts. We brought home salmon, halibut, ling, and yellow eye. We've always brought home halibut and salmon, but this was the first for the yellow eye, and though we baked it like we do the other two, it came out very tough and chewy. It seemed to take a lot longer to cook than halibut, maybe we didn't cook it long enough? We sure didn't over cook it, any suggestions for the next try?

You did, without doubt overcook it. Baking is not a good way to cook much white fish.

I suggest lightly flouring the filets, add a little dill weed, salt and pepper to the flour and pan fry in butter. Measure the thickest part of the piece and cook for 8-10 minutes per inch. It is best to cut it into pieces about the same thickness as yelloweye filets vary greatly. It is one of the best sashimi fish we get. It is easy to overcook.

If you like halibut Olympia substitute lingcod or yelloweye for an immediate improvement.

THE important thing to remember... eat the yelloweye and lingcod soon. At 6 months it is history, regardless what you do to keep it. Halibut is bullet-proof in the freezer and will keep well for years (it's only redeeming feature).

Halibut is currently selling for 3x the price of lingcod or yelloweye and is not close to as good, IMO.

Thanks Art, have to believe you're right on this. The fillet varied from thick to thin, so by the time the thick was cooked, the thinner part was undoubtedly over cooked. Good heads up on the 6 month window too, we tend to hoard the fish we bring back, which never works out well anyway.

Don't try to ration your frozen fish. Get it eaten.

Halibut bakes up okay if you a.) shave it all to the same thickness, and b.) slather it with a mix of parmesan, green onion, butter and mayo a minute or two before it's done. Kick the broiler on to put a lightly brown scorch on the cheesy topping. Don't overcook as noted above.

We can put away a lot of halibut fried in batter or panko. Same story: cut pieces to same thickness, and don't overcook.

Crab fishermen friends used to send me fish packs FULL of crab clusters that would be #2 (missing claw or leg, broken she'll, etc) with the warning that if they ever saw their crab in the freezer they would never send another! Get it eaten while it is at its best!

Halibut is very good. Not that much of a fan of the bigger halibut though. They get grainy with some fat marbled in and quality goes downhill.

Most of mine is lightly breaded in panko and breadcrumbs and cooked on a light layer of olive oil. Then eat as is, or put in baja tacos. Halibut enchiladas are very good too. Grilled, it's ok. With Mayo, sour cream, and cheddar, very good.

Deep fried, very good especially if you know how to do it right. Brother Bill has a ranch dressing recipe that was pretty good too.

Very versatile fish, that has it's place in my freezer for sure. It's on the every other week schedule.

We eat more Halibut than ling and yelloweye at the house--but only because my wife prefers hali to the others. Admit we eat more yelloweye than anything else when we are doing our longer trips in PWS--so I do not make it home with as much anyway. I love them all and have a favorite for each of my intended recipes so it all gets eaten--but super important, as correctly mentioned above--eat the yelloweye and ling first. It simply doesn't store as well-as long-as the hali.

On places to try in Seward, I had a great meal and beverage at their new brewery down by the Sealife Center. I didn't even know Seward had a brewpub till last month. We hiked up to Harding Icefield and after a long trail day were starving. I had suggested we hold off hunger till we got to Cooper Landing to hit one of my favorites which is Kingfisher, but another group we had met discussed going to the brewery in Seward. We decided to give it a try and was glad that we did. Was very good--

Went into Chinooks but they had went to fall menu , Halibut or Salmon were choices so we passed, should have tried the Scallops and Mac N Cheese but wife did not want it. So made a bad choice and went to Apollo,s ! Will not be back. The place that looked interesting is right across from the Sea Life center, very good reviews on Yelp!

Having seen a bunch of bogus stuff on Yelp it is a site I would never bother with...

Yes the new brewery is amazing. We got the fish tacos lastvisit which were great. They have a inique menu with tasty items. Try the hangover fries!!!