North Fork Restaurant — Restaurant in Alaska

Terrible Experience at North Fork Restaurant – Extremely Poor Management and Hospitality

We visited North Fork Restaurant in Denali on June 2nd for a pre-booked brunch for 10 people, while staying at Mount McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge. Unfortunately, this turned out to be one of the worst restaurant experiences we've ever had.

Despite having a confirmed reservation for 10, we were told by the manager on duty, Frank, that we could only be seated 6 at one table and 4 at another, citing internal policies that a server can’t handle more than 6 people. When we requested to be seated closer together – considering we were a family group on vacation – we were denied even the basic courtesy of sitting 5 and 5 (with 5 adults and 5 kids). His tone was dismissive and completely lacking in hospitality.

Things only got worse. The table of 6 received and finished their meals within a reasonable time, but the other table waited over 45 minutes with no food in sight. We politely checked with the server a couple of times. Instead of addressing the delay, the server got offended and called Frank, who then approached us in an arrogant and confrontational manner. Rather than apologizing for the delay, he reprimanded us for "questioning the server" and rudely told us if we had a problem, we should only speak to him – in a tone that made it seem like he was doing us a favor by letting us dine there.

When we finally decided to cancel the delayed order, his sarcastic response was that he’d “love for us to do that” – and walked away.

This entire episode felt more like a dormitory mess hall than a restaurant in a luxury lodge. We’ve traveled extensively across the world, and this was hands down one of the most unpleasant dining experiences we've had, solely due to the behavior and attitude of the manager.

We did escalate this to the lodge management, but sadly, they showed no concern or follow-up.

Until Frank is held accountable and a formal apology is issued, I would strongly advise others to avoid North Fork Restaurant. Hospitality should be about service, empathy, and care – and sadly, this place failed...

The service was exceptional! Every person who works in this restaurant was amazing - the hostess who checked us in, the young people who took us to our tables, the young woman who took our order at dinner & delivered most of it, and the young man who took our order at breakfast & delivered it, and the young woman who kept our water glass full and cleared our plates.

We ate dinner here our first night. For starters Husband had shrimp cocktail and I had the blueberry spring salad. Both were good and filling. For our entrée, both had the ribeye with green beans and mashed potatoes. All was good, but it was too much food! We thought we didn’t have room for dessert, but we did - vanilla ice cream for Husband and huckleberry ice cream for me.

The only reason for four instead of five stars is the limited menu. It is the same thing each night. The same goes for breakfast.

For breakfast, Husband had a skillet of scrambled eggs and reindeer/caribou/bison sausage with sourdough toast and I had the scrambled eggs with bacon and sourdough toast (Dakota allowed me to substitute toast for biscuit). The strawberry jam was delicious. The food was good and filling, but I don’t know how I’d feel if I had to eat here for more than...

May 2025 Our group was not overly pleased with our experience here. They are unable to accommodate a group of 10 together (even after calling ahead and requesting), so we asked to be seated next to each other since we had to be split up. Still would not even do that. Our waiter at the group of 6 was friendly but basically told us about all the things on the menu he would not eat or recommend! Once we got our food, my fish was overcooked & the vegetables were undercooked and cold. For $40, I've had way better food elsewhere. One of our group made a similar comment as her meal with a salad & wine as well as a main was over $70 and she said she has had far better meals at that price point! The rest of our group at the table of 4 received their food after us at the 6 had finished eating - they had to get up and ask their waiter where the food was. It came immediately after asking and the filet that had been ordered medium rare was well done on the edges and the plates had obviously been sitting under a warming light for ages. Another disappointment with Princess. I can't recommend eating here, but when stuck with minimum options & hunger you have to take what...