restaurant review #13

Channel Club in Sitka

If you had been to the old Channel Club in Sitka you might have remembered a dark, smoky place that had a decent salad bar and very popular for the carnivores for the best steaks in town. Then at some point they closed down, demolished the building and rebuilt. They reopened a couple weeks ago and have a lovely building with open beams and windows all along the waterfront.

We had an early dinner (5:30) on Saturday night anticipating getting done before sunset (around 7). The menu was pretty much limited to steaks (various cuts) and some alaskan fish entrees. They have a very nice salad bar although when we went up to get our salads there wasn't any salad greens and had to stand around for several minutes before getting someone's attention to brings more. They did have some delicious chunky blue cheese dressing. They had various veggies for the salad, potato salad, a nice fruit salad, mixed grilled marinated vegetables and two different soups: salmon chowder and fresh tomato basil soup with big chunks of fresh tomatoes in it. Unfortunately, none of us tried the soup but it looked delicious.

We didn't place our order until after going through the salad bar (mistake #1) and when we finally got that done we were almost done with the salads. Tim and Lois ordered the prime rib (mistake #2), BG ordered the 1/2 roasted chicken (mistake #3) and I ordered the seered Halibut (mistake #4). The side dishes, carmalized onion mashed potatoes, rice pilaf (with pine nuts and craisins), and steamed asparagas were very tasty.

Mistake #1 - we should have ordered before going to the salad bar because it took forever to get our entrees.

Mistake #2 - once you've gone to the Turtle Club and had the prime rib you just can't be satisfied anywhere else and Tim has tried many, many times, in many, many states. Besides the flavor there were issues with the meat not being cooked long enough so both had to be sent back.

Mistake #3 - when you order a 1/2 roasted chicken you should be prepared to get messy, preferably with a roll of paper towels and butcher paper as a table cloth. Its hard to eat the pieces without using your hands to pull pieces and parts out. BG said that the breast was dry.

Mistake #4 - the halibut was moist and flaky and looked beautiful but had very little flavor. I thought it was supposed to be a lime buerre blanc but I think they forgot the lime.

They were very busy - the place was packed and sitting was at a premium. We didn't get out of there until way past sunset and we did enjoy the views from the waterfront window. Would I go back? Yes - I think they'll get things worked out in a few weeks. I would probably wait on going back to dinner but would go for lunch if I had a chance.