Seafood Restaurants in Cooper Landing, AK

“Came for breakfast, stayed for dinner. Visiting the area & wife and I decided to go out for a date night dinner. The result was a wonderfully memorable meal and a very pleasant evening.

The service at Rod & Reel was exceptional. Arrived early & chose to wait in the bar. Ordered a couple drinks and both were on the warm & weak side, plus the place was incredibly loud and guests were extremely boisterous, so made short work of our drinks and got out of there as quickly as possible. Expected something a bit more elevated than the loud Honky Tonk atmosphere at Rafters bar. Dinner, however, was a completely different experience. Read on…

We observed the staff carefully. That comes from lengthy experience in the food industry ourselves and a chef as a father. Our hostess was top-notch. She was kind and accommodating of our special needs request. We also listened carefully & observed while she dealt very patiently and diplomatically with a guest who clearly had a bit of an attitude. Very professional. We were impressed again by our server, Jennifer, when we ordered a bottle of wine for our meal and she carefully checked our wine glasses & instantly noticed water stains on them. She quickly handed them off to a busser and had them exchanged in the blink of an eye. On recommendation we ordered the salmon chowder and found it an absolutely excellent dish. Along with the warm bread we could easily have satisfied ourselves with that. But dinner awaited so we ordered.

Found the ravioli offering good but not great, and would not order again. The grilled salmon would've been a much better choice. The ravioli was buried in a thick bison ragu that overpowered the dish and was too much for our taste. A word to the kitchen: If you are featuring ravioli on the menu the ravioli should be the focal point of the dish and not the thick meat sauce that accompanies it. If anything would recommend the ravioli be lightly sauced with the ragu & extra served on the side rather than drowning the ravioli in it. The brined chicken with mushrooms was also sadly a bit dry, either from over cooking or being held too long. The mushroom sauce saved it, however, and on the whole it was quite good. The portion was small, but adequate.

Throughout our meal we observed a very professional and attentive staff, from Kye to the rest of the crew throughout the dining room. They were clearly well managed, well trained, very attentive, appropriately polite and discreet, and very professional. Kudos to the establishment for investing the time and training in them. So rare these days!

Final word? The Princess Rod & Reel is the only place worth dining at in the area. It's a genuine & very good restaurant, and worthy of the name. All other establishments we visited during our week-long stay were a little more than holes in the wall that served food that ranged in quality from very bad to mediocre to barely average. Do yourself a favor and dine at the Princess Rod & Reel. You will thank us and enjoy the experience!“