Crush Wine Bistro & Cellar — Restaurant in Alaska

Ive been into the wine store upstairs twice and bistro downstairs once. Ill start with the good.

The bistro was top notch as far as atmosphere and quality go. i got the burgundy trio sampler i think it was like $15 and the pour into each glass was very generous. i will return without a doubt while I'm downtime shopping with wife. The bad side of the bistro is that the bartender/ waitress was not very familiar with the wine list. When i asked what the price was on the DRC she didn't know what DRC stood for, then when i explained she had to call upstairs and came back with a price that almost made me fall out of my chair, normally bottles of DRC are way above $1,000 per bottle she said they had several bottles ranging from $485-950, which either means that Crush bout tons of DRC at an amazing price and dosnt make any money off of them or they are selling fakes.

Now the bad, the wine store upstairs has hands down the worst customer service out of any shop i have ever visited. both times i was never greeted when walking through the door nor, the first time i was not asked if i need help finding anything the second time i was after almost 15 minutes of looking around. Both times i asked the counter worker if they carried J. Lassalle Rose and was told they didn't have it but would look into ordering it for me and give me a call, i never received a call from either visit. i also asked the first time about buying an older Sercial Madeira and was never contacted about that either sadly and had to find one online to buy instead.

On top of the poor customer service they are very overpriced on a lot of their wines, most of which you can get online at 1/4 of the price before shipping about 1/2 price after shipping which is crazy because their wine list downstairs is one of the most reasonably priced wine list...

It was our last night in Alaska and the last night of a 2 week vacation. We wanted a great local meal that offered something for vegetarians and that led is to Crush. We made a same day reservation on their website...it was a Tuesday night and spots were limited and the place was packed when we arrived. We were first offered a seat in the bar area. Sometimes that's okay but it's easy to not really feel like you're actually in the restaurant so we opted to wait a little longer until a table opened up in the main dining area. Didn't take long!

We started with the Rosso red wine flight...the owner is a sommelier so we wanted to entrust them with our experience. We're not wine experts and found the three offerings good enough for our tastes.

My wife had the salmon special which had lots of ingredients on it including gifs, rice balls and stuffed squash all of which she liked. She found the salmon to be a little overcooked though it had a nice char on it.

I got the Veggie Wellington. Our server told us this used to be a Christmastime season-only dish but it's her favorite dish and she convinced them to add it permanently to the menu. It's the only vegetarian main dish on the menu, though a number of vegetarian salads and small plates are offered including Crispy Brussels, Toasted Goat Cheese, Ravioli, Baked Mac and Cheese and Polenta. So vegetarians won't go hungry.

I liked the portobello-filled wellington...the first few bites were tasty though it got rich kind of quick. It came with a side of broccolini which was overcooked...not as al dente as it should have been...or at least as I would have liked it.

It's a nice place. Our server was very friendly. With limited vegetarian options in Anchorage we'd come back again and try some of the small plates we didn't get this...

We were recommended a visit to Crush by a local and looked forward to dining there during our one night in Anchorage last Thursday. While we were seated promptly and the drinks were great, our dinner took over an hour to arrive without communication from our server. When we finally asked for our salad first or crackers to tide over our hungry teen (after 55 minutes), we were denied both, told the kitchen was slammed and that they would get our meal out to us asap. Dishes trickled out over 20-25 minutes, meaning we couldn’t eat together. The food was delicious, but the service was disjointed and disappointing.

Despite the server’s apology and mention of possibly comping items, nothing was removed from our bill. When we asked about it thinking she maybe forgot she had said that, first she came back with no, there’s nothing she can do. We told her how disappointing that was under the circumstances, and she said she understood. She then came back again and offered to comp a 3rd dessert - odd, since we didn’t need it and had already paid for two. It felt like a missed opportunity to turn a frustrating experience into a positive one.

The bill was over $200 so choosing not to comp a glass of wine or a dessert that would have cost them $5 or 6 (if even) is just bad business. We had planned to buy a bottle of red to bring back to the hotel room. The tip was cut in half and the $20 they would have made on the wine sale forfeited...all for what exactly? Lost $, this bad review, and no future recommendation from us.

In conclusion, we were confused and disappointed by the lack of hospitality. Would...