Joseph Lancaster

Review of Simon and Seafort's Restaurant

Food: The food was very good, but I thought the po...

Food: The food was very good, but I thought the portions were a bit small for the price, even in the context of fine dining. Our party ordered the New England Clam Chowder, French Onion Soup, Seared Halibut Cheeks (special), Seafood Etouffe, Norton Sound Alaskan Red King Crab Legs, Warm Seasonal Fruit Cobbler, and the Warm Pear Bread Pudding. All were enthusiastically consumed. Dinner was also served with a delicious, crusty french bread with both butter and salmon aioli. We enjoyed their wine selection as well, though we only sampled the whites. The scalloped potatoes with the crab were a bit bland, the cobbler was a bit tarter than we would have liked, but overall, our main complaint was the size of the portions. I was waffling between very good and excellent, but decided there wasn't enough negative to outweigh the quality of the food.

Decor: The decor is very old-fashioned. Some of it is gorgeous, such as the warm, wooden beams, and the floral patterns on the ceiling panels. Other parts, such as the awfully tacky translucent colored glass windows encircling the top of the walls, are much less pleasant. All in all, it was a pleasant enough environment in which to eat, but it could really do with some updating.

Service: This was such a sad, missed opportunity. I suspect that our server saw that we were young and less well-dressed than some of her other clients and assumed that we wouldn't tip well. As a result, she would disappear for almost half an hour at a time, rarely refilled our glasses, and was very slow with the food. To demonstrate this, a gentleman that was seated near us about 10 minutes after we arrived had almost finished his meal by the time our entrees had come out. And she was VERY on top of the tables a few feet to the side of us, spending most of her time serving them.

Overall: It was a nice, upscale dining experience for our last dinner in Alaska. Go there for the food more than for the ambiance or the service. Note: came out to about $65/person, with wine and soda.