Annabelle's Famous Keg and Chowder House - Ketchikan

We arrived in Ketchikan on the Island Princess and immediately set out for a bear watching excursion to Anan Bay that involved a flight on a float plane.

The Island Princess docked in Ketchikan, viewed from our float plane. 

One of the bruins we viewed.

By the time we got back we were hungry. I was in salmon mode, I'd seen bears eating salmon and wanted some for myself. I really wanted to try coho. I'd tried chinook and sockeye several times and coho was the last of the big three I'd not tried. We got several recommendations for places we could get salmon and started out. Our first choice looked great, but was closed because it was between lunch and dinner. Our next choice, Alaska Fish House, was quite a walk, was completely out of salmon, except that they did have salmon tacos and were using coho. Judy patiently followed me as we turned around and left

I wanted a filet, so we tried several other places. One was a commercial fishing house that sold fish, and had coho, but would not cook it. We were running out of time and were getting hungry, so we went back to Annabelle's, a place we'd passed earlier, and found that they had chinook salmon filets, and decided to stay. 

We got off to a rocky start. Our server let us sit and sit before taking our order. We were hungry and it was a very late lunch. Then when we did order, she did not write it down, which always worries me. It took quite awhile for our food to arrive and it trickled in. I had to remind her to bring my Diet Coke, which arrived well after our food arrived, except for the clam chowder, which never did arrive. I decided not to remind her of it, I didn't want to have to wait for it.  

We started out with a pound of steamed clams in an herb garlic wine sauce with bread and butter. I adore garlic sauce with clams and mussels, more so than the clams and mussels themselves, because it is so good to dip bread into and sop it up. The broth had an extra spicy quality to it that detracted from it, and I left a good portion of it untouched, something I'm generally not inclined to do. So it was a little disappointing. 

Judy ordered wild salmon tacos, with cabbage, cheddar cheese, green onions, tomatoes and a lime cilantro sauce. She really liked them and I tried a bite and it had a nice kick to it, which worked with the tacos.  

I ordered the chinook filet and it lacked something, I'm not sure what it was. I'd ordered grilled and it looked fried. I'd had salmon many different ways by then and missed the accompanying ingredients, such as rice, greens, capers, peas, etc. I found that those ingredients really enhance the salmon and I missed them. 

They did have fantastic fries. In fact, Alaska in general, serves great fries. Cooked just right, nicely seasoned, nice size, and particularly good dipped in the accompanying tartar sauce. 

This was one of my least favorite meals in Alaska, all around.