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Alaska decor, Paul Bunyan eats... I'm not as into the greasy, heavy breakfast as others may be and would be much quicker to give this place three stars; however, my dad ADORES Gwennie's and must come every time he visits from TN. How can I three-star one of Daddy's favorites?!?
I do like the decor - I guess it's the hunter/gatherer in me. We have always gone on the weekend in the morning, so it is always super busy and more than just a little rowdy. The food is pretty darn good, it just sits heavily on my "cereal for breakfast" type belly.
If you are looking for a big breakfast for a good price...then this is the place. I read some reviews about their not so great cheese sauce on their omelets, so I asked for it to not be added...and just use normal shredded cheddar cheese...they had no problem with that.
We also had the Reindeer Sausage....Denver + Cheese Avocado Omelets...Sour Dough Pancakes, and overall it was really a good experience. As long as you set your expectations right, you should come away with a very fulfilled appetite and overall pleasant experience. I would totally trust this place with my breakfast again.
I go here for one dish only...Chicken Fried Steak!
I've tried many other dishes and the food was kind of icky, but they do very well with their fried steak.
The decorations are a little out there, but they have some pretty neat things upstairs.
Tourist trap for sure, and we made the mistake of sitting at the dining room bar at breakfast time where I was forced to endure meaningless conversations with strangers about the weather, politics, and the home fried potatoes.
All food was disappointing and somewhat pricey for what this place was. Wish we could have had this meal "back" and had gone to Snow City one more time instead.
I was TRICKED!! I asked the locals to recommend a great *authentic* Alaskan meal for me and they pointed me here. If I learned anything during my time in Anchorage it is that any restaurant with taxidermy'd wildlife in the dining room is not some place you want to eat.
My waitress, whose name wasn't Gwennie, was very sweet but something about the way she said "sir" sounded like it had been beaten into her, which made me feel uneasy. I scanned the menu, horrified by such things as reindeer sausage, and eventually decided that despite being pricy and in a place I didn't feel was totally sanitary, I was going to have the Alaskan king crab. After all, when would I ever be in Alaska again?
Now, I have never had Alaskan king crab before, so when my food was brought to me and it didn't taste "right," I had just assumed that this was my fault. I didn't know what it was supposed to taste like, but I knew this tasted BAD; however, I ordered it and I felt like it was kinda my own fault for ordering something that I wasn't familiar with. In this situation, I didn't feel justified sending it back. So I forced my way through this pile of what I would later learn was rotten seafood. I thanked my waitress, tipped her generously, and left the number for a local women's shelter on my check.
Turns out good ol' Gwennie gave me the worst case of food poisoning I have ever experienced. I was bedridden for a good 3 days and probably will never be able to eat (or look at) crab ever again. Thanks, Alaska! You sure know how to make a guy feel welcome!
update,
Love this place, so hearty, so affordable, good food and alot of it! It is a greasy spoon type of joint, why so many haters on here?
Great place for a hearty breakfast! this place truly serves an Alaskan meal. i wish i could go every… Read more »
I've used Gwennies as a venue to meet up with old friends, get a quick bite before heading off to the airport, and host lunches with co-workers. Service has been fairly responsive and the cashier is one of the friendliest I've met.
Their food is classic American presented well. I've had a few of their breakfast dishes and burgers. The omelettes here are filling! They appear overpriced in the menu, but when you see the hashbrowns and toast they come with you'll understand. The seafood and reindeer sausage kinds are money. Hits the spot. And the cheese sauce draped over the omelettes? Love it!
The burgers here are satiable and come with a mountain of fries that I had no trouble finishing. If memory serves, they even come with a large crunchy dill pickle wedge that I munch separate. Delightful.
The atmosphere is different at every table. If the parking lot is crowded don't be discouraged - there's plenty of seating room inside. I never had to wait.
We lived a few streets away from this place and walked over to try it one weekend. It is filled with some creepy taxidermy/kitsch but we loved it. The food and the atmosphere were charming and the service was great.
If the idea of eating your food surrounded by a menagerie of mangy dead mounted animals grosses you out, you should take a pass on Gwennie's, because it's damn near like something out of Psycho up in here. But then again, you do know you're in Alaska, right?
They do greasy breakfasty food here the best, including the reindeer sausage - which tastes like sausage. My mom loves the real seafood salad, which does come in a huge quantity, but I thought it tasted recently thawed out.
And yes. The animals are a little creepy.
Whisper:
*we came here for reindeer sausages. yikes. it was actually good*
Now, hubby and I are Tri-state area northeasterners, and hubby was more game than I was. He was excited, and I dragged along.
The atmosphere was warm and rustic. Think fireplace, think flannels, think home cookin', and think of the warm fuzzy family environment. There you have it: it's Gwennie's! If you're ever in Anchorage, this has to be a destination for a warm fuzzy breakfast! Oh, don't expect to finish ANY of the food. If you do actually finish it, then you've got a problem.
Now I feel like having Alaskan beer and singin gay 'ol pioneering songs! Anybody know of any??
I am not sure why people rave about this restaurant. Don't tell tourists to visit this restaurant. If that's the only restaurant they visit while in Alaska, they won't want to return!!! We went here to order breakfast. I ordered an omelet with home fries. The omelet came out with a cheese sauce covering it. It looked COMPLETELY unappetizing.
The portions are HUGE by the way.
I ate a couple bites of my home fries and it looked like there was a pubic hair in the fries. ICK. When I asked the waitress what this was, she said "Oh, that's just a string from the Potato bag" like it was no big deal! ICK!!! Obviously they don't clean the potato's before cutting them up and cooking them.
Needless to say, I will never go back. The place is dirty and the food is just as dirty.
Ate here about ten times while in anchorage. Only had breakfasts, though. Order the chicken-fried steak, eggs over-easy, and then douse it all with tabasco. No need to eat till the next day after consuming this. Omlettes are pretty good, also. Very nice staff in the bar-area. Nice to talk to some locals.
Guess the previous reviewers did not know the history of the building. In the 19th century it used to be, well, a whore-house. Probably never thought you would ever eat in a whore-house, did ya??
With my first trip to Alaska going well, I was instantly captivated with the sight of being able to order reindeer sausage. So of course, I ordered the reindeer sausage and eggs with a coffee on the side. The setting is very old school. Very wintery look with a bear in the middle of the 1st floor. As far as the food goes, it tasted pretty good. For reindeer, it pretty much tasted like good ol beef to me. They do have hearty portions, which is great after a day of walking in the forest.
Prices were pretty good. My meal with a coffee came out to a reasonable $12.
When in Anchorage and you're scrounging the area for a hearty, satisfying breakfast - you MUST come to Gwennie's! The staff is wonderful and friendly and the breakfasts here are absolutely delicious!
When you walk in, there is the counter and a lot of seating. Over to the right there's a bear above a small make-shift pond that accumulated many a coin tossed by previous customers. We had to walk over a bridge to get to our table. :)
I had a tough time deciding what I wanted. I knew I wanted an omelette but I couldn't decide between the Reindeer Sausage Omelette or the Crab Omelette. When I asked our lovely waitress what she recommended she immediately said the crab.
Holy crab!
I am so thankful for her recommendation. It was big, and crammed with fresh crab. The outside had a nice, thin layer of cheese sauce that was the perfect touch to enhance the overall flavor of the omelette - not too thick, and not overpowering the lusciously fresh crab. This was the first time I didn't have to work to get all the meat out, have so much of it on my plate, and be so satisfied. That Crab Omelette really hit the spot! It also came with biscuits and potatoes. Total was $10.50 and worth every penny. :)
Tip for when you go:
Go early or be prepared to wait. We were so excited about our breakfast adventure that we got there at 7:40am on a Sunday and it opened at 8am. By that time there were already a bunch of other cars staking out the restaurant around us.
We also chatted with a regular customer of their's and he recommended breakfast - dinner not so much. :x
Cool atmosphere, good sausage, humongous portions -- split your meal, you'll still get enough.
Service was good, wait was short at 9am on Saturday.
This place may be a good breakfast place by Anchorage standards, but don't expect too much.
Our waitress was friendly, the portions were big, and the decor is pretty funky -- lots of mounted heads and historic photos -- but the food is just so-so. I ordered the Crab Omelette with grits. Grits were good and the crab serving was generous, but there wasn't much to it flavorwise for the price. (I think it was $13.)
We had breakfast at Hogg Bros Cafe the next day, which I thought was better.
Yucky, rustic decor. Kind of a musty smell when you enter. The food is like homemade food made by a so so cook that is overly generous with the grease. Nothing is special or signature. The only defining thing about the food is that it is all stuff you could fix easily and likely better at home.
Gwennie's is awesome. Have the reindeer sausage and eggs. I choose the grits, but you can have home fries. I get the biscuit, but you can have toast. Or sub in some cottage cheese or tomatoes.
The coffee comes quick and they leave a carafe at your table.
Gwennie's is classic Alaska. The walls are decorated with old-time memorabilia from such far-off days as the 60s and 70s, back when there really were 10 men for every women. The menu still reflects this, giving you lumberjack-sized portions of reindeer sausage, scrambled eggs, and anything else that might be of use for a hard day's work building an oil pipeline. If you are a office-working pansy like me, this is almost certainly too much food. Prices are reasonable, though, so don't feel bad when you can't finish that third link.
For the style, I prefer Jackie's Place. Although Gwennie's is certainly a recommended stop for your out-of-town visitors (especially the big city types who keep asking you if you'll take them to Mystery), they definitely don't try as hard as a place that lives and dies on repeat business.
Fear not the crowded parking lot, for the restaurant is huge. We drove past many weekend mornings before realizing this. Just park on a side street and walk, lazybones.
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I live here, and only been here once. Frankly, the experience was so completely lame, I can't bring myself to go back. The food was about $5 more expensive than it needed to be, on each plate we had, the decor was tacky, cheap, and really not impressive in any manner. The service was friendly, but I cannot, for the life of me, figure out what all the fuss is about.
Gwennie's is one of those classic places you have to go to for breakfast in Anchorage, but the food isn't really exceptional. They have the typical diner food, except most of the plates have reindeer sausage instead of regular sausage.
The place hasn't changed much in the past 20 years. It looks a bit run down, but I guess that's part of the rustic Alaskan atmosphere.
This place is crap. I went here several times during my 13 years in Anchorage and there was always an issue. It was either the food tasting like crap...or the food was eehh...and the service left me wanting to kick someone's ass. Do not bother...there are other places that will offer better food and service.
We had a decent lunch here but this place is nothing to go outta the way for. We had the Crab Imperial and the Pork Chop special with mash/brown gravy and carrots. It wasn't too expensive but the food won't blow you away. The beef barley soup was chock full of beef and chunky veggies. The crab was fresh but the dish altogether didn't work. They toast english muffins then smother them with the crab, a thin cheez whiz-like sauce and top it off with tomatoes, black olives, a hard boiled egg and one stalk of whilted asparagas. Others in the place were eating standard bfast fare and the server was zero help in steering us to anything that Ole Gwennie's excelled at so -1 for that. Nothing special here.
If you want to see some great Alaskan Memorabilia, and check out the "Old Time Alaskan" atmosphere, then please visit them at Gwennie's. The second floor was the old "Ladies Of the Evening Lounge", and it is even equipped with a specter from the past! Unknown if you will see her wandering about, but she is there!
The menu at Gwennie's runs the gamut of normal restaurants, with some exceptions. If you have never tried Reindeer Sausage, then this is the place to be. The Reindeer Sausage and Egg breakfast is worth the money, and will fill up as well as any of the breakfast dishes. In the mood for Pancakes? Plate size, (Big Plates) cakes, with lots of butter! The lunch specials are good, and the dinners always hearty. If you want Fancy, the Millennium Hotel is right down the Road, if you want a taste of Old Alaska, with photo's and stories, then this is the place. If you get a chance, try the Moose Wine! See if you can get the secret ingredients! Then again...you may not want to know. IT IS WORTH A VISIT.
This is a very unique restaurant with quite a bit of Alaskan history within. The walls are covered with nick knacks and photos of Alaska before and after the 1964 quake. Come hungry the portions are large. Breakfast is very good I am partial to the chicken fried steak and gravy but everything on the breakfast menu is good. Lunch is just as good with daily specials. If you like chili you must try it here. It gets very crowded on Sundays. Enjoy.
would you care for some heartburn with that hangover?
this is where the kids go after a night of partyin'.
and the old folks go for cheap eats.
large portions.
good pancakes.
This is *the* breakfast destination in Anchorage. The food is amazing, just beware: portion sizes are HUGE. Also note, there is often a wait to be seated on weekends
fantastic place for breakfast, especially if you love potatoes. i don't go there for dinner, but the food has always been great, the prices reasonable, and the waitstaff terrific. you may have to wait for breakfast, especially on sunday, but it's worth it.
i always stop by when i am in town.
This place is over rated. It's housed in an old prostitution/gambling house in Spenard. The decor is taxidermy and "sourdough" type stuff. The service is fine, but the place smells of the old cigarettes (it's now non-smoking). The food is normal breakfast slop, but rather unappealing. I suppose it might be fun if you're visiting from out of town and enjoy that fake rustic Alaskan dining experience. Otherwise, I'd avoid it.
I researched Gwennies before I went. I was going for the experience and didn't expect any thing amazing regarding the food. We were seated right away on a Saturday morning. My group ordered a array of omelets and egg and sausage combinations. The avocado omelet was loved as was the Denver. The reindeer sausage was fine and was ordered to say that it was tried. The homefries were delicious and not too greasy. The biggest complement goes to the breads and biscuits. We were dying with hunger based on these items that we saw on others tables as was waited for our food. Overall, it was a fun. The huge eaters in the group felt that they had found a new breakfast spot since they are now locals. The decorations were priceless(stuffed animals, dusty snowshoes, and knick knacks) and a conversation piece. The lighting downstairs was odd and the pond kind of smelled- I still liked the food though and accepted the place for what it was. So my advice is do it do it- as in co- at least once :)
Anchorage, AK
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