Chena's Alaskan Grill - Fairbanks

We used to love this place and looked forward to it opening every year. We always sat on the outer deck because you sure felt like you were on vacation, even if you lived here, like you were on a cruise ship, even. The food was really good, probably still is, but for a restaurant that's only open in the summer and is located on the river with a beautiful deck to CLOSE said deck and ONLY serve inside is just a deal-breaker. For a while they had the upper covered deck open, but now they're not seating outdoors at all! They say it's because they're understaffed, but then, for heaven's sake, close the inside and just leave the deck open or something! Now they have a buffet (I hear it's 50 bucks). So, wouldn't that take care of the staff shortage? Let people get their own food and seat themselves. Add a fixed gratuity to the price if you have to so that the staff that does work there get tipped. We are sooo disappointed.

$50 bucks, plus a required 20% gratuity for mediocre food. Dry halibut, dry salmon, and greasy meatloaf are on the menu. We thought that arriving right at opening would mean freshly cooked fish. Nope, it meant warmed up leftovers from the day before, at least that is how it tasted. I was ready to spend $120 for my wife and I to have an exceptional meal. What we got was a $10 buffet at best. Please find somewhere else to eat!

We arrived early and were seated. Took a while for our drink order and then it was misplaced. After a long day this was a bad start. Turns out we were there as they were paring down there wait staff, and it showed. After the slow start the services was great. Best Salmon I had in Alaska. We sat in side as we requested. On another trip we would have tried outside which look great. After dinner we had a cocktail on the bar deck overlooking the river. Very nice. My wife had the best Lemon Drop she has ever had.

The food was wonderful and the river view on the veranda was an added bonus. We had a large party of 10 and they accommodated us at a last minute reservation.

Overall the experience was moderator to poor due to overwhelming reviews and what I assume is limited selections in the destination. We ordered wine, water and apps and the order they arrived at the table was apps, wine and water. I suspect this is due to lack of back-up support and the waitress staff having to take on every chore. The table next to us was not seated and was getting glasses of water filled while we are sitting with no water. I suspect that this might preferred service for Holland tour passengers as there was many of them ordering from what appeared to be a preset menu. For apps we ordered had a home run with the salmon spread with Cream Fraiche and chips/pita however the portabella fries were only ok. for the entree we split the lavender honey halibut and it was over cooked and dry. When it came to desert there was no offer of coffee so we just shared the cinnamon bread pudding and it was really nice but would have been better with coffee.