Humpy's Great Alaskan Alehouse — Restaurant in Alaska

So...21 JAN 2024 was our very first time to Humpy's. We had a rather strange experience with the service. We had a table of 5 adults and one toddler. Before I get into the service issue, I have to say the food was fantastic. The drinks were also great, and the atmosphere was great for watching football. The only thing I'll touch on with "atmosphere" is the seats, of the booths, need to be replaced. The one I sat in was not even attached to the backrest...not great for a recent spinal surgery.

Now, the service: Our server was great! She was attentive, friendly, and just an all-around good soul. However, the incident came when the checks came out. The table was split 2 ways between the party we had. We both paid by card, and tipped, using their electronic system (I think their POS system is Toast). About 20 minutes later, she came up and said she forgot to calculate a few of the drinks into the tab and that her system was still showing our check was "open". A little suspect, but we didn't challenge it and gladly paid. As we were getting ready to leave, she came over and confronted me, in front of our table, and asked: "Did I do something wrong? I thought you guys were cool. Did you not like me?". We were all pretty confused because there was no context as to why that was asked. I told her I didn't understand and could you be more specific. She asked "Why didn't you leave me a tip?". I was really confused at this point and told her that I left her $25.40 as a tip. I even showed it to my wife before signing for her approval. We are 20% tippers, at a minimum. She appeared visually distressed (a bit shaky, tears building in her eyes, shaky voice, etc). I asked for a copy of the receipt and she brought me over to the POS system to show me that it didn't include a tip. I believe this was an error on the POS system because of that "open" status of our check after we had already paid.

Now, at no point did I question the tip. I, without hesitation, had her manager come over to adjust the tip section and I typed in what I had told her I originally gave her. At no point was anyone, especially myself, hostile or "uncool". I gladly corrected it and made sure to let her know that we didn't drive out from the valley to go screw up someone's night at a restaurant. I explained to her that, under no circumstance, given how everything was handled, did she need to keep reiterating the statement "I thought you guys were cool".

Do I think, personally, that she was right to challenge me? Yes, I do. I, personally, am ok if someone wants to ensure I didn't make a mistake with something that has my name on it. I'm in the military...it comes with the territory. Not getting a tip on a $130 check, as a server, would be hurtful in my eyes. Especially when the service, up until that point, was great. What I need to bring to attention is the way the server handled it. In that situation, she should have pulled me aside, out of earshot from my group, and confronted me about it in a professional manner.

TO OUR SERVER: Would you do that same thing to a group of tourists from overseas? A group that, culturally, doesn't tip because of their societal norms? We travel overseas quite a bit. We don't tip in places where we know it's not, culturally, accepted. Not everyone thinks in that manner...and not everyone would handle your actions the way we did. That's why I encourage you to handle it a different way, in the future. Pull me aside, privately, and talk to me like an adult. Have your manager come talk to me, privately, so we can figure out where the mistake was. Don't attempt to shame me in front of my friends/family. If those were different circumstances and different people, that could have ended horribly for you and the establishment you represent. I don't like how the U.S. handles the "tip culture" and liveable wages, but my family certainly aren't going to be the ones to hurt someone's income in protest. Use this interaction to continue moving forward with life in a...

My mum and I came here after it being recommended to us as a place you must eat at in Anchorage. We saw that it was seat yourself and that was fine so we went and found a table. The menus were in a little holder above my mums head so she reached in and grabbed two menus. A server came over and snatched them out of her hand and said no I get them for you! And then just gave them back to us.. she apologised but I felt it was a bit excessive especially when she didn’t know and she did apologise. Because it was seat yourself I went up to the bar just to check if we ordered at the bar as well to which the blonde server behind the bar snapped at me and told me to go back and a server would be with us in a minute and to just wait. I said ok I was just checking she then rolled her eyes and walked away. The food was ok, I had the plank salmon and my mum had the reindeer meatloaf. For the price the salmon was really thin small and overcooked and the rice was soggy but my mum did like her meatloaf. However there was a female European server who was incredibly rude and unprofessional. She scoffed at us when we walked in and was rude to others as well. The last straw was when a man was by himself having his meal and she came over asked him if he wanted anything else and before he could even answer she scolded at him “other people are waiting you know!” And walked away then he said to her oh I can move to the bar and she told him to hurry up and grabbed his drink! Then sat another group of people and said to them don’t worry I kicked him out and they all laughed! I found that completely unprofessional and disgusting behaviour especially belittling someone to other patrons. I won’t ever be back here and I won’t be recommending it to anyone, I just can’t support a venue with such horrible staff who treat...

Visiting from out of town (Georgia to be closer to specific), and ended up being referred to this place. I decided to come and try it out (despite being a bar type environment) as my first meal in Alaska (my first trip to Alaska ever). Prices were....outrageously high (in my opinion), but I was told by several people that is to be expected and by what I saw during my trip....it is a bit more to be expected. I asked for recommendations and it was recommended to have the halibut fish and chips. I looked over the menu and $30 for fish and fries was just too much for me to be able to get past. After looking over the menu a bit, I settled on the meatloaf and a Sprite. Had to do Sprite since that's my backup when a place doesn't have tea (plus it helps settle the stomach in case the food upsets it...not knowing the place...best to have a just in case). They had tea...but it's unsweet...blah...dirt water. Gotta have sweet tea, but I guess Alaska follows the northern trend. The meatloaf had a mixture of reindeer and beef. With the meatloaf came mashed potatoes with gravy. The meatloaf's flavor overall...was okay at best. I definitely could taste a bit of gaminess (or atleast there was an off flavor to it). The gravy helped it out a lot. The mashed potatoes wasn't too bad. The total for the drink and meatloaf meal was $22.75. The waitress (Cydnee) was great. She was friendly and had a good personality. She was the only one working that night by the looks of it. Would I eat here again...based on this sampling, probably not. Even more so...they do not offer a...