Altura Bistro

CITY GUIDES | THE WEST

The 12 Best Restaurants in Anchorage Right Now

Here’s proof that the Anchorage restaurant scene is having a moment

By Mei Chen | Jan. 13, 2026

AUTHOR BIO: Mei Chen has worked for nearly a dozen start-ups in as many years, taking her to several West Coast cities. While she’s sure her current day job is permanent, she also has her eye on Carmel.

The first time I went to Anchorage, I was a personal assistant to a man with a hunting lodge and the kind of calendar that treated Tuesdays like most people treat the weekend. He would fly north, disappear into the woods with other men who owned serious boots, and come back sunburned and pleased with himself. I did not hunt, and I was not about to sit in a lodge pretending I had opinions about antlers, so I started spending those days in the city instead.

That is how Anchorage became mine. I learned where the good bowls of ramen were, where to splurge on Alaska seafood without getting the feeling I was being taken for sport, and where to eat something fried and perfect when the weather felt like it was trying to negotiate.

Now I go back because I want to, not because I am on someone else’s leash, and I keep finding more reasons to stay an extra night. After years of trying everything in the city and constantly updating my running list, these are the best restaurants in Anchorage right now.

Altura Bistro

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Chef-owner Nathan Bentley runs a tight, prix-fixe dining room that is calm, confident, and uninterested in gimmicks. The meal is the point here, which is why it can move from a lobster salad with avocado and mango salsa into whatever the kitchen is doing with the season, and it still feels like one steady thought instead of a pile of ideas.

Best for: A special-occasion dinner that still feels like Anchorage

Crimson

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Crimson is the signature restaurant at The Wildbirch Hotel, and chef La Mont Caldwell gives it a real point of view: Alaska staples with Pan-American Latin energy running through the menu. Order the seafood stew built on aji amarillo and chorizo stock, then keep going with beer-battered Alaska halibut and fries with lemon remoulade or carnitas with pineapple-habanero salsa and cilantro-lime saffron rice.

Best for: A downtown hotel restaurant that actually earns the hype

Crow’s Nest

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Crow’s Nest is the white-tablecloth restaurant room at Hotel Captain Cook, and it’s the restaurant that’s spoken more than any other as Anchorage’s most ambitious. Start with king crab and corn bisque, then go straight to Alaska black cod in chamomile consommé with salmon roe and a quinoa cake, and accept that this is the kind of place where dinner is allowed to feel dramatic. There’s no Anchorage Michelin Guide, but if the inspectors ever make it this far north, they should save ink for Crow’s Nest.

Best for: A big night out with Alaska seafood and a view

CRUSH Wine Bistro & Cellar Anchorage Alaska Best Restaurants

Crush Bistro

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Crush is what happens when a wine bar refuses to phone in the food, which is why the menu is full of dishes that sound casual until they land on the table. I like starting with deviled eggs done “New York deli-style” with crispy chicken skin and caperberries, then moving into ricotta gnocchi with sautéed mushrooms and a marsala reduction or the baked mac and cheese for two when the night turns indulgent.

Best for: Wine-first dinners with smart small plates

Ginger

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Ginger has long been one of Anchorage’s go-to restaurants for big-flavor Pacific Rim comfort, and the menu is still built to keep a table moving. I order the spicy chicken soba noodles, then add something that sounds like bar food until it hits—BBQ broccoli tacos with napa slaw and lemongrass vinaigrette—ending with a signature dessert that’s equal parts earthy and sweet, the green tea crème brûlée.

Best for: A lively dinner that covers a lot of cravings at once

Hearth Artisan Pizza

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Hearth takes pizza seriously enough to carefully source the toppings, ending up with winners like the Spicy Vito: tomato sauce, mozzarella, Alaska soppressata salami, Calabrian peppers, basil, and house hot honey. The Beet Pizza is the other move: house beet pesto, kale, roasted garlic, goat cheese, balsamic reduction. This place is not just doing the greatest hits, which is what makes it a real original.

Best for: Pizza night with a little ambition

Kami Ramen

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Kami is the strip-mall ramen stop that stays busy because it does not overcomplicate the assignment. The Kami Tonkotsu comes loaded with pork chashu, kikurage, marinated egg, bamboo shoots, and fish cake, which is exactly the kind of bowl that makes Anchorage feel like a real ramen town.

Best for: A no-nonsense ramen fix

Kincaid Grill

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Kincaid Grill chef Drew Johnson cooks like he knows how to put the freshest seafood on the plate without overcomplicating. Start with fresh Alaska oysters with cucumber-jalapeño mignonette or green curry Manila clams with kaffir lime coconut milk, then go for the pepper steak filet with green peppercorn demi glace when a steakhouse mood shows up without warning.

Best for: A polished dinner built around Alaska seafood

Moose’s Tooth Pub & Pizzeria

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Moose’s Tooth is still the loud, busy, worth-it pilgrimage, especially when the order goes beyond a basic pepperoni. The Call of the Wild is the move—garlic and olive oil, mozzarella and provolone, reindeer sausage, steak, bacon, wild mushrooms, and red peppers—because it tastes like Alaska decided to make a pizza and did not hold back.

Best for: A high-energy pizza night that feels like a local rite of passage

Rustic Goat

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Rustic Goat is comfort food with a sharper edge, and chef-owner Frazer Buchanan leans into that “worth coming back for” feeling. I go straight at the menu’s bigger swings—Moroccan cauliflower, seafood arrabbiata, or the espresso-crusted tenderloin—and then remember the place also knows how to behave like a neighborhood spot with a burger and pizzas and Taco Tuesdays when the night needs to be simple.

Best for: A cozy dinner that still feels chef-driven

South Restaurant + Coffeehouse

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South is where I go when I want brunch that just might be the only meal I eat that day. Order Love on a Plate—poached eggs and pulled pork on a biscuit with andouille gravy, smoked gouda, fried oysters, and green chile hollandaise—and accept that plans the rest of the day may need to be canceled afterward.

Best for: Brunch that just might hold you over until breakfast the next day

Whiskey and Ramen Anchorage Alaska Best Restaurants

Whisky & Ramen

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Chef Michael Dodge built Whisky & Ramen as a place where the ramen bowls can share the stage with a serious bar, and the menu makes that clear. Start with whisky pork buns—whisky-miso crisped pulled pork, pickled cucumber, candied Fresno chile—then order “The Hook,” a tonkotsu bowl with pork belly chashu, a six-and-a-half-minute egg, wood ear mushrooms, and mayu.

Best for: A date-night ramen bar with a real whisky program