WHAT IS IT: Gwennie's is the Alaska answer to Polynesian kitsch with a snarling stuffed bear and wacky moose sculpture instead of tiki gods and fake tapa cloth. Think La Mariana meets "Call of the Wild." It's also got something else Islanders will appreciate: Alaska-size portions at snowflake-size prices. (And with summertime hotel rooms, rental cars and gas at Hawai'i-and-higher prices, a meal that fills you through an entire day of sightseeing is a much-appreciated bargain.) In tourist Alaska, taxidermy is the inevitable decor; Gwennie's is home to the aforementioned bear, a beaver, moose and caribou heads, salmon, birds. The building of river rock and timber also boasts a totem pole, wildlife lithographs, a wishing well and other tchochkes that look like they've been there since the Gold Rush.

THE FOOD: Gwennie's serves three diner-style meals a day, but we favored it for breakfast, going there twice in a visit of just four days. My husband ordered the chicken-fried steak for which Gwennie's is famous, and it arrived in a slab that all but overflowed the edges of a sizeable platter, slathered with creamy, pepper-spiked white gravy, plus eggs and toast ($11.50), and I couldn't resist reindeer sausage and eggs (also with choice of toast or hash browns; $9.75). The fine-textured, mildly spiced slices were like Portuguese sausage without the fat and garlic. Delicious! Prices range from $5.50 to $12.25 for steak and eggs; omelets range from $8.50 to $11.25; combos of eggs and toast are $4.25, and hotcakes are offered as a side or centerpiece. They give you full carafes of water and coffee so you can keep topped up throughout the meal, and the bar produces a killer from-scratch Bloody Mary (virgin or with liquor) spiked with pickled green beans.

THE SERVICE AND ATMOSPHERE: The placemats are a map of Alaska with lots of useful Alaska facts. The waitresses are the jolly, matronly kind who've been at it for decades, know all the regulars by name, never get an order wrong and call you "honey." They're tolerant of children (the one drawback of the place is its somewhat chaotic atmosphere, with all the chattering family groups and children marauding among the tables.) When, the morning after a long, long day of flying north, we responded enthusiastically to our waitress's query about whether we wanted coffee, she quipped, "Wow! I should have brought an IV." The friendly banter continued throughout.

FIND IT: Gwennie's Old Alaska Restaurant, 4333 Spenard Road, Anchorage (Spenard is a main drag through downtown Anchorage. The restaurant is minutes from Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport); 907-243-2090; www.gwenniesrestaurant.com (includes map and directions).