Kahiltna Bistro — Restaurant in Alaska

So it was a dumpster fire from the start. We asked for a beer/wine list and were told to get up and walk over to the bar to see what we wanted from the random stack of open and closed wine bottles. Next were the forgotten appetizer. Server completely forgot one of the party members soup. Next the seafood Mac and cheese was ordered by two of our group and was basically tasteless. Even adding a large amount of salt was useless. It just tasted like cardboard. Both dishes were identical. Fail. Next the Salmon that another member ordered looked and tasted like they had heated it up in a plastic bag in the microwave. Myself and one the other members of the group ordered the Filet and I ordered mine medium rare and the other was ordered medium. We got our steaks much later than everyone else’s food and my was served to me well done as was the other steak. They also looked nothing like any filet I’ve ever seen. They offered to replace them, I was still hungry even though everyone else had already finished I said ok. We were sitting by the kitchen and overheard that the grill cook overcooked those too and finally got two steaks with some red in them on plates. They served me a medium well steak and the other steak was medium well also. I was super hungry and everybody was ready to go so I ate it, but again it wasn’t a filet, not sure what it was. It was meh at best. Also very under seasoned. At the end we asked for a split check and that was basically impossible. We all ended up paying for each others drinks or apps just to be able to get out of there....

We were hoping to grab an early supper and head to the air bnb for the night, but 5 was too early to order supper, which wasn’t a big deal we just didn’t expect it. We ordered a hummus platter with salmon, which was really good but originally tried to order the salmon artichoke dip which was out. We asked for a drink menu but instead was asked what my husband likes “light or dark,” then was brought an extremely hoppy beer. Not a fan of those, but a fan of lighter beers.

Our waitress was super nice, we ordered supper but was out of the seafood Mac and cheese, so I opted for the rack of lamb, husband got the crab legs. While waiting our waitress was finished with her shift so we were switched to someone else, we sat for over 20 minutes after she left until our food came out. The waiter dropped the food and left, not saying a word. Mine was cold, we should have opted to move inside, food was barely warm when it came out and then sitting outside it got cold extremely fast. Our waters were nearly empty and then didn’t see the waiter again until we were almost done. He refilled the waters, I smiled and said thank you, and he didn’t respond at all.

Our experience wasn’t horrible by any means, it was just quite a few unfortunate things in one. The mixup of the time we could order supper, by itself, no biggie, but then being out of a lot of things, the waiter being kind of rude, and the food being kind of cold. I’d just one of these would’ve happened it wouldn’t have made the experience bad but it was just...

My father and I went in on 7/3/23. We went in bc they advertised oysters. We were greeted by the nicest possible person right away and she was so helpful and was able to point us in the direction for beer we were looking for. It was a slower night there, being a Monday so not surprising. As we drank a couple beers and I ate oysters she was so friendly and we talked about our time in alaska. She needs a raise! This girl is wonderful and I'd come back just to see her! But also, the beer was great, oysters were awesome, I saw what I assumed to be the owner saying she was shocking clams, and when I see an owner jumping in like that, you know it's a good spot. It's not on the main strip, but I highly recommend this place. Great people, great food and...