Dutch Harbor Fast Food is about diversity, not speed

VICTORIA BARBER

September 11, 2008 at 2:15PM AKST

Dutch Harbor Fast Food is a bundle of contradictions. While the name calls to mind drive-through windows and greasy French fries, the restaurant looks like a Mexican eatery, with deep booths, fluffy window treatments and terracotta-colored tiling. The south-of-the-border decor seems at odds with a menu that features both General Tso’s Chicken and double-bacon cheeseburgers alongside Meat Lover’s Pizza — but not an enchilada in sight.

The menu is split almost exactly in half, featuring “Asian Cuisine” – items like pho, pad Thai and kung pao chicken – on one side and “American Favorites” – including nachos, sandwiches and a host of burgers – on the other. On the back is a selection of pizzas.

Restaurant manager Khue Do said that the unusual menu combination was a response to Unalaska’s population.

“It’s split down the middle because the locals are so diverse,” Do said. “We don’t know our customer base yet and we’re always taking suggestions.”

Dutch Harbor Fast Food operated out of the AC building for six years before moving to downtown Unalaska, in the building just off Broadway that used to house the now-closed Three Amigos restaurant.

Do said that restaurant owner Lee Huynh decided to move the business when the Alaska Commercial Co. (widely known as “the AC”) sold its space to Alaska Shipping Supply.

So far, he said, the response from locals has been positive, and the restaurant has been busy just about every day since it opened. Do said many people ask when the beer/wine license will go through, a process he said would probably take a few months.

On my visit, and facing the uncertainty of my afternoon – weather, flight conditions and wondering whether I’d forgotten my alarm clock at the hotel – I was craving something warm and comforting. To me, that meant soup, and what could be more comforting than Vietnam’s gift to the soup lovers the world over, pho ($9.95).

I ordered pad Thai ($10.95) for good measure and, because I could not help my curiosity, some grass jelly drink ($1.50).

As it turned out, either the soup or pad thai alone would have been more than enough for a meal plus leftovers. The pho arrived in an enormous steaming bowl, with a broth that was richer than the pho I’ve tasted in the past. The soup had lots of noodles, slices of beef and was dotted with green onion and what looked like sliced sausage, but what Do said were meatballs.

The pad Thai was a towering, gloriously dense mound of noodles. Slightly gooey and studded with a generous portions of shrimp, chicken and crushed peanuts, the rice noodles were layered over by large slices of cooked egg and served with a sweet fish sauce on the side and a big slice of fresh lime. While satisfying, the pad thai did not have much of a kick, though I later learned that cooks can adjust the spiciness on request.

The grass jelly drink – alas – was a failed experiment. I had imagined something verdant green and somehow bouncy. Instead, the canned beverage tasted like just like flat cola (brown, of all things!) but sweeter, with squishy floating gelatin-like bits.

“A lot of people order it but not a lot of people drink all of it,” Do said.

Despite offerings like burgers and fries, Dutch Harbor Fast Food doesn’t have much in common with the typical fast food joint. Do said that the misnomer name is a leftover from the store’s old location, where space was limited and customers picked up their orders at the counter.

The old name stuck because “we wanted to keep the name so our old customers would come over, and it’s too much paperwork and time to change it,” Do said.

However, those expecting traditional fast food, who don’t need driver’s side window service, are in for a pleasant surprise – whether their in the mood for burgers or more exotic fare.

Victoria Barber can be reached at 907-348-2424 or toll free at 800-770-9830, ext. 424.