Yak & Yeti

Very good filling food! Stews and curries over a bed of rice, mostly in bowls. About 8 – 15 $ meals. Lots of chai tea and fresh baked pastry deserts. Right next to The Titlewave Bookstore.

I hesitate to give a bad review because I like that Anchorage is diversifying their cuisine but Yak & Yeti (the café) has really gone down in the quality of their food and service recently. I have had their chicken tikka masala many times before but had it recently and this time it was very dry and flavorless, and when I mentioned it, the staff just told me to write a review on Unilocal.So I am haha. I hope they will try to keep up the quality of their food and service, because I like the atmosphere and they do have decent desserts and drinks.

Horrible service! Stale, crumbly cookies and mediocre food. I went there for lunch after the Rondy and ordered a rice bowl to go and a S’moreo (big mistake). I was given my food in a glass bowl and had to remind them that my order was takeout. The server then proceeded to DUMP my food into a takeout container and gave it to me; a nasty mixed-​up mush (rice with a topping should be rice with a topping not mixed up mush). I was horrified. When I asked him to make me a fresh one to take he got visibly upset and kept asking me why I needed a fresh one. I explained that I was not eating any mixed up mush dumped into a takeout bowl and he reluctantly agreed to give me another one then walked off. The guy in the kitchen made it for me and tried to pass it to the server to give to me but he was gone. The kitchen guy ended up having to give it to me, no bag, nothing. Just a leaky bowl. They may have just been having a bad day because I saw another woman getting hassled because she wanted a takeout bowl for her leftovers. The place was not full and there were 3 staff so the really need to make an effort to be kinder to their patrons.

Think of it as a fast food/​quick bite meal and you’ll have the right mindset to enjoy. If you go in with the expectation of complex/​intricate flavors or beautiful dishes, you’ll be disappointed. The rice bowls are a fun way to sample the menu and find favorites. The potato soup is great and the gyros were pretty tasty as well. The bakery has some intriguing items; we went with the gargantuan «moreo (more oreo)» and had a good time working our way through it. Grab a book at the Wave, get a chai, and enjoy!

Highly disappointed that this Yak & Yeti’s food could not at all compare with the location on Spenard. Looking online, it looked like it would be similar, but it was little more than a fast food version. My rice bowl with chicken tikka masala and daal was bland and there are no chutneys available as at the other location. The cookies were good, but not good enough to make up for the failed entrees. Oh yeah, the pork curry had a huge chunk of fat in it the my boyfriend literally spit out.

Can’t recommend this place enough, go here if you want good food. If you don’t like good food then don’t come here.

I almost always get their shapta sandwich & salad. They’re so good! The combination of spices impart a uniquely delicious flavour to their food. Moreover, they have giant deserts, of which I’ve probably tried most. The service is quick & friendly.

Gross.
Should have listened to the bad reviews. Had the pork vindaloo and chicken tikka, husband had the chana masala and pork vindaloo. The only decent dish was the chana massala. The pork vindaloo had canned vegetables in it and tasted like the sauce was made from cheap tomato paste. The chicken and sauce of the chicken tikka was inedible. The sauce tasted weird and fake, like they got it out of a jar/​can.
I LOVE Indian food and have eaten it everywhere. This was disgusting.
Oh, and I had gotten a peanut butter cookie — it was also gross. Hardly tasted like peanut butter, more like an overly sweet sugar cookie. Another fail.

Its a indian fast food type of a restaurant not much variety. We ordered a mango lassi but what i got was a mango smoothie, guess these ppl don’t know what a lassi is, otherwise food was ok.

Had a late lunch right before 2, still some people in there, but the cashier took enough time to explain the menu out to me and explain what was good. They let me sample a few toppings before choosing a meal. Decent price and good portions. Their chai tea with the palak paneer (spinach and cheese) and pork vindaloo (spicy pork) on top of a bowl of rice was excellent. Highly recommend going if you’re in the area.

I had high expectations. Didn’t meet any. Food was dry. Old. Tasteless. Really disappointed.

Yak & yeti is on my favorite list but oddly that only speaks to the main location. This one is sorta the express one for lunches etc but sadly it falls short for me.
The palak paneer Always has something going on «not enough flavor» or «is not smooth but gritty»
The worst was this visit. I pulled out long looking hair out of my bowl which of course came after I had almost finished it. Not sure what the difference is attributed to but I don’t know if I will be returning again.

Delicious, affordable and convenient! My 8 year old loves the chicken Tikka masala, my 10 year loves the pastries and I love it all. Great Chai too!

I stumbled on this restaurant by accident. The rice bowls were good and affordable.
This place is good for an impromptu brunch or lunch.

I love this place! One of the few places you can get a yummy affordable meal in Anchorage. I usually get the rice bowls with Shapta (Tibetan stir fried pork) and Palak Paneer. They even have some decent desserts and way yummier than the chocolate items in Kathmandu;) I’ve only tried the mousse.
The owner is Tibetan and was raised in India but he’s mostly at the other restaurant. Know that these recipes are authentic!
The ambiance here could be improved by some soft Nepali or Indian music in the background but I usually get things to go anyway. The service has always been fast and courteous!

Recently ate here after finishing up a very intense workout at the Alaska club. I was starving and needed some quick fuel that would provide an equal balance of meat and carbs.
I had purchased cookies and sweets, a gyro, and their chop salad a couple times but never tried one of their rice bowls. Tonight I ordered a rice bowl. It was $ 8.99 for two choices. I got the Pork Shapta which is a Tibetian stir fried pork, and the beef curry, served over rice. It was pretty good, and definitely hit the spot. I liked both of them and would be hard pressed to choose one over the other. It was simple but good, and exactly what I was looking for. I do recommend ordering it and eating it immediately though. Since it the items are served over rice if you wait the rice absorbs the moisture from the meat sauce and it becomes kindof pasty, thick, and less flavorful. It’s not rocket science but it was a great grab and go meal that hit the spot. It was tasty, filling, and the serving size was just right.
A few days later I went back and tried their Shapta Sandwich. It was also very tasty. It is served on one of their special homemade bread (hoagie type) rolls that are very thick, and just way more bread then I would ever want. I ended up pulling off a good amount of it, which didn’t detract from the flavor at all though, and I was absolutely stuffed when I was done. I think you could easily share this sandwich with someone and be comfortably full.
Overall for the niche they are filling I think they are doing a great job. The place is frequently packed when I stop by, and even when I go to Kaladi’s next door I often see them full of customers. If your looking for a filling, savory, quick, meal, that hits the spot, and is flavorful this is your place. My son also eats here a lot and loves it! He is always starving and says this is one of the only places he can grab a meal an actually feel full and satisfied afterwards.
I should add that the gyro I had here was good too… a little different from other places, but had a lot of meat, and was very good sized. I really like their chop salad too!

If you are new to the area, or just stopping by, let me emphasize this: this is NOT the same as the Yak & Yeti restaurant. They are VERY different experiences (although the food is similar).
They’ve got a pretty unique setup here. I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen anything quite like it, anywhere.
This place is kind of like a grab-​and-​go bowl setup. You usually see this for Teriyaki shacks and/​or some types of Mexican food. I’ve never seen it for Himalayan/​Indian food.
On top of that it’s also… a bakery? And it’s also connected to a fabulous bookstore (if you’re from the PacNW, think of it as the «Powell’s of Anchorage») and also connected to a great coffee shop. (to continue the analogy, the «Stumptown of Anchorage»).
Anyway, this is a great place to go when you don’t have a lot of time (or money) and want some filling, tasty food. The bowls are about $ 10 (this is cheap for Alaska, a land that has never seen Subway’s footlong priced at $ 5), and you can get them to go if you’re really strapped for time. You get to pick two different types of curry; you can pay more for 3 types. It’s served on a bed of basmati nice. I almost always get Pork Vindaloo because it’s amazing and also… when is the last time you’ve seen pork at an Indian place? Maybe this is where the Himalayan aspect comes in?
The experience here is very different than the restaurant in that this is the «order at the counter» and then «go up to the counter when your name is called» type of establishment.
Definitely worth checking out!

The rice bowl idea is cool and convenient, I just wish the entrees were better tasting. I ordered the Chicken Tikka Marsala and Palak Paneer.
I am a palak paneer lover, but this one lacked substance. It did have a nice texture and delicate flavor, but it was not as rich and creamy as the other places I have tried. The big let down was that my scoop of palak paneer only came with 2 small cubes of paneer cheese. Didn’t exactly take away too much from the dish because those two cubes were pretty bland and rubbery. I was mostly disappointed with the chicken tikka marsala. The pieces of chicken were extremely dry, and the sauce was just not enough to lube it down the hatch. The sauce needs spices and did not have that marsala kick. Forking the entrees aside, I noticed that the bottom of the bowl was very watery, not exactly sure if it came from the chicken or spinach. I’d have to say my favorite part of the meal was the rice, perfectly light and fluffy (just drowning in water).
Sure, it may be a great deal, $ 8.99 for a 2-​entrée bowl, but I’d rather load up on my carbs elsewhere.

Perfect take-​out or quick lunch spot next to Tidal Wave Books. At $ 8.99 for a two-​entrée rice bowl, for that price you can’t buy more flavor in this town. Keema curry, chicken tikka & the chana masala are my faves, along with that punchy cauliflower salad. I never thought a crunchy salad like that could be so good. Mango & strawberry lassi are also a nice compliment to the spicy dishes.
Desserts are crazy: always heavy, clunky looking things and very over-​the-​top sweet. They are basically things you would make for a Paula Deen Bake Sale. That said, sometimes you want a dense indulgence. The brownies & inside out carrot cake cookie seem the perfect stoner food/​PMS remedy.
The staff is very nice, and I like supporting the owner with my lunch money. Good people deserve to succeed.

Yak & Yeti Café is a little slice of heaven tucket in between the behemoth REI and Title Wave Books at the Northern Lights strip mall. I sat there, on the very first snowfall of this year, cozied with my chai and Anchorage Press just about as content as a person could be. I like café atmosphere at this Yak. Nice chill tunes, pleasant aromas, lots of people watching, and of course, outstanding food. Best palak paneer I’ve ever had. Respectable chai, although it isn’t homemade which is irksome (since it is so damn easy to make I don’t understand why everyone uses the store-​bought kind! Sigh.)
I really enjoyed my lunch and decided the Yak is gonna be my new hang-​out. I had my table for 2 hours and no-​one batted an eye lash. The Northern Lights complex has some of the coolest shopping and people watching in Anchorage, so this is a great place to hang and enjoy the people zoo. Food is delish. I agree the portions are a liiiittle skimpy, but the price is also excellent by Anchorage standards, so I’m not complaining.
I was surprised by their American dessert selection. They even had soft Almond cookies, which I’ve been scouring Anchorage for years for. Yee-​haw! Yummers.
Hit the book store, have a great meal at the Yak, do a little shopping… this is what weekends are made for. :)