Chena's Alaskan Grill — Restaurant in Alaska

We are staying a week at River’s Edge RV Park. Chena’s Alaskan Grill is a part of the resort. We went there to eat for the second time during our stay and had an absolutely horrible experience.

We have two pet dogs, a four year old Labrador Reteiver and an 11 year old Siberian Husky. As I mentioned we are staying at the RV Park and decided to walk down with our dogs to eat.

Alaskan health code is very specific, service animals are allowed access anywhere their owners may go. Restaurants with outdoor seating areas may welcome dogs who are well behaved and on a leash. The restaurant has no posted policy about pets in the outdoor seating area.

We were approached by a gentleman whom I assume is the manager on duty. I don’t really know for sure because he didn’t identify himself. He told us having dogs in the outdoor seating area was a health code violation. I pointed out that it was not. We were asked to remove the dogs.

When I returned, my wife was in the lobby with this gentleman and a second person who also failed to identify herself. The gentleman kept insisting that it was a health code violation to have my dogs in the outdoor dining area.

Now mind you a quick internet search of the area will bring up a plethora of pet friendly venues. Plus the Alaskan health department states that while only a service animal has access to indoor spaces, establishments are welcome to allow pets in outdoor seating areas. So, either this manager of multiple decades didn’t understand health codes, or they were lying to avoid taking personal responsibility. I suspect the latter.

The second person claimed the information is posted on their website. It is not. Nor is there any signage announcing the policy.

From the reactions of the young lady who first approached us, I would guess she was scared of dogs. But rather than deal with their employee, they told...

So,..I'm not usually one to write a negative review. We are currently on an Alaskan vacation so weren't sure what to expect for eateries or facilities etc! This place was quite hyped by the staff at the lodge we are staying at so we were happy to try it! We went in with pretty good expectations. Sadly, we found, the prices are high for what you get and we live in a popular southern tourist city and the prices there are still a bit less or at least you get what you pay for back home. I ordered an Asian Chicken salad as my entree...for $23. You would usually expect for that you would at least get a full chicken breast cut up on the salad with nice vegetables etc. What I got was a smallish bowl of mostly just spring mix greens, with 5 small chunks of grilled chicken on top. A few onion slices and like 3 cucumber slices and like 5 mandarin orange pieces. And a bunch of wonton strips on top to make it look like more. I think it was supposed to also have carrots and almond slices on it but there was not any. So, I was so disappointed as this was basically a dinner salad but for an entree price. My husband got the burger and house fries which was $22. Both he said were just okay but even a slice of cheese on his burger you had to pay $2 extra to have on it. Wow.:( The waitress was very nice so she was the highlight basically of our visit. The food is basically just bar food which can be great in places but this was just lacking and way to expensive. Most other entrees on the menu with fish filet or steak or chicken or something was starting at $40 and up. The atmosphere isn't that nice inside..its just ok. So sadly, we can't recommend this restaurant if you have other choices. We won't be back while we are...

Chena's Alaskan Grill tries to sell itself as a fine dining experience. However what you actually get is bland food that would be found in a run down retirement home.

We started off with the calamari with was just sad looking. It looked like someone had served us 6 fish sticks. I've never in my life seen calamari look like fish sticks. That being said, what was there was decent in terms of taste and the sweet chili dipping sauce was pretty flavorful.

Moving into the entree, I order the honey lavender halibut. The fish was not grilled and appeared to be baked in an oven. It was an extremely small cut of the fillet. The diameter was probably about 2 to 3 inches. It was bland and the sauce did all of the heavy lifting in terms of what flavor there was to be found. I've lived in Alaska for the past 11 years and this is the worst fish I've ever had.

The vegetables seemed to be steamed vegetables that lacked any seasoning at all. I had to apply a copious amount of salt to even make it palatable.

The mashed potatoes were really good. While the rest of the dish was an objective failure, they really know how to treat those mashed potatoes. I never thought that be mashed potatoes was be the star at fine dining establishment, but here we are.

We opted to skip dessert considering how bad our dinner service was.

The service was really good our waitress was attentive and tried to make sure our experience was great.

I'd highly suggest Lavellel's Bistro if you want a fine dining experience. Otherwise Chena Pump House is also fantastic and...