Talkeetna Roadhouse

We had some friends come up from Tennessee to visit us so we took them to Talkeetna for the day. It was one of our few glorious days this summer. The sky was blue and the temperature was perfect.  We decided to try out the RoadHouse for lunch upon recommendations from a few friends.

Seating is Family Style but since there was 7 of us on this trip we got an entire table to ourselves. The menu is small but full of old fashioned comfort foods like Chili and Macaroni and Cheese. Their featured item are traditional English pasties.  With 7 people were ordered 8 different items and shared (we are all foodies!). 

The kids got the baked Mac and Cheese which was probably the best baked mac and cheese I have ever tasted outside Grandma’s house!  I quote my extremely picky eater son, “I dont like this, I LOVE IT!”  

We had to try the pasties too, so we ordered 3 of them! The cheesy potato, beef, and the Salmon. All 3 were very good. Personally I liked the beef best. For $7 it was chock full of meat! More meat then I would have dreamed possible actually. And there was nothing but meat. It was tender and full of flavor, the pasty crust was lite and flakey. Yum!  The Salmon Pasty was not as good as I had hoped. I realize that pasties, by nature are supposed to be dry but when the menu advertised a dill cream sauce I mistakenly assumed it would be dilly and creamy. On the contrary, it was dry and not dilly. They added Broccoli to the wild Alaskan Smoked Salmon pasty. This addition was overkill as the strong flavors of the broccoli nearly out shown the amazing flavors people desire when eating Smoked Salmon. 

My husband ordered up the Homemade chili. They offer 2 kinds of chili here at the Roadhouse, a Vegetarian Black Bean and a Reindeer Meat Chili. You can also request a combo bowl. My carnivore husband chose the later.  I have particular preferences about my chili’s and this bowl was right on par with all the good things and none of the bad. Lots of meat, lots beans, no huge chunks of onions or tomatoes to contend with and all the right seasonings.  It was delightful and definitely something to dive into after a long day of snow-machining.

Our only complaint was the service was sluggish. We had to approach the front counter 2 times in order to get waitress to come take our order. And they were not very busy that day either. 

Two Big Thumbs Up for the Food at the Talkeetna Roadhouse! 

A Thumbs Down for Service. 

Mile High Pizza Pie ~ Talkeetna

One of my most favorite towns in Alaska is Talkeetna!

2 summers ago we stopped in at the Three Bears Cafe for some Musk Ox burgers, and reindeer bratwurst. We were hoping to revisit that same stop on our way to Fairbanks this past month.

Much to our disappointment they were no longer there and the lot was empty! :(

So we wandered up and down Main Street a few times trying to decide where to feed 7 people. Finally we choose the Mile High Pizza Pie restaurant located near the end of Main Street.
The tables are the first thing to catch your eye as 3 of the biggest ones are fashioned from TREES! And of course the interior paint was intriguing with bright colors and circles.

Our waitress was nice enough but very quite and seemed shy. We asked her some questions about the menu items and decided upon the Pepperoni and 5 cheese pizza. In addition we ordered some chicken strips for the little kids just incase.

It took a long time for the pizza to arrive. A long long time, about 40 minutes. While waiting my Husband decided to pull out the video camera and add to our ongoing You Tube video collection.

Gratefully our Pizza arrived and since we were all famished from our long ride in the car we soon had nearly all the pizza devoured along with the chicken strips............
After our meal we had more time to reflect upon the actual taste of it all.

The chicken was highly disappointed as it was nothing but a chicken patty cut into strips. Something the menu failed to disclose. It came served with Frank's Buffalo dipping sause and a side of BBQ as per our request. $10 no fries

The pizzas were okay. I cannot think of any worse pizza but some have come close. The crust was limp and dull. The sauce was too thin and kinda on the sweet side. The cheese pizza was a blend of 5 cheeses but all I tasted was greasy cheddar. The pepperoni, a large, had about 20 pieces of pepperoni on it. Very disappointing. :(

Even if I lived in Talkeetna, I would not eat there.

The restaurant has many great things going for it. It is bright and cheery with a great outdoor deck. The ambiance is nice, the tables are totally cool! The location right on Main St. They all wore T-Shirts with the Mile High Pizza Pie logo on it and sold Mile High hats.............they just need to work a bit on their product.

Click here to see a Video of Mile High Pizza Pie