Sam’s Sourdough Cafe

If you’ve never visited this restaurant you’ll be left wondering if you are a burden to the staff. I worked in the service industry for over 6 years and my experience was less than welcoming. I came in as a one top and my server didn’t say more than 3 words during any of our interactions. She practically threw my food at me, didn’t ask if there was anything else she could get me once she dropped my plate, and eventually once she dropped my bill she stormed off without saying anything. unpleasant wait staff is an understatement. The food is typical greasy spoon, nothing extraordinary, with subpar service. I won’t be visiting again.

You get your meals in less than 15mins. I dined here twice in 1 week, both times meals came out at 15mins for 4 people. Breakfast was Great.

When we were in Alaska, breakfast at Sams was a must! Best breakfast location in Fairbanks.

The food started off pretty good! I been eating at this place almost 6 years. And liked it, for some reason why I rated a 1 star on this breakfast place. I don’t know if there a any problem on Unilocal,anyway I still like the food and rarely come here because I trying to eat at other breakfast places. I recommend the food is really yummy, but the table and seat were dirty with breakfast, lunch and dinner food, but only a little bit of mess.

Honestly there was a time that I would give this place a 4 star review but in the last year or so it has really gone down hill. The wait staff is either very new or very rude, the food quality has dropped to something that tastes like it came out of the freezer section of Wal-​Mart, and just in general I have been disappointed the last couple of times I have been in here. I tried to give it time to see if maybe the new staff needed time to adjust but I have had to strike this restaurant from my list of «While you’re in town try this place…»

This is a secret little gem of a place right off University. We’re tourists & happened upon it for lunch. It’s Clean! Cozy! Great Service with a smile! Good food, quiet enough to have a conversation! I had fish N chips (cod) excellent, no heavy breading, I did have to ask for a lemon wedge. Dad had a hot roast Beef sandwich w mashed potatoes & gravy. All was good except dinner salads were limp iceberg lettuce which seems to be the norm for Alaska. Coffee was very good here. I would definitely come here again. Comfortable & warm environment. Excellent friendly service!

Sam’s Sourdough
Fairbanks, Alaska
Ordered: Chicken Fried Steak and Eggs
French Toast
This restaurant offers a country diner atmosphere and menu. I found the food and service to be perfect. Coffee was filled frequently and the waitress checked on me numerous times she was both friendly and pleasant. The food came fast and it was an overall great dining experience. It’s not a modern fancy restaurant however it’s clean well maintained and the back room is decorated with a number of framed photos of classic cars. The restaurant is located close to the university. You can catch the red or blue city bus lines to get to this restaurant. I would DEFINATELY return to this restaurant and I’d recommend having breakfast here because it tasted good.

The service was friendly but the biscuits and gravy were the worst I’d ever had.
I got charged $ 2.50 for a side of salsa, about half the cost of my whole breakfast!
I probably won’t go back…

The waitresses at Sam’s Sourdough are pretty nice but it’s not to say that everyone is. When we entered, we were simply stared at by the woman at the cash register so we asked if we could get a table. She told us to take a seat. We wandered around the entire restaurant looking for a table and only finding several empty but dirty tables. We returned to the front where she simply looked at us again and then leaned back and grabbed a drink while watching us uncomfortably stand there. Finally a waitress told us to follow her. She took the dirty dishes off of a table and told us to grab a seat. I didn’t want to sit because the table was still dirty. As a couple of other tables were being cleaned, another waitress saw us standing at a table and came over to wipe it off. I was about ready to leave. I’m no quitter so we took a seat and quickly ordered our drinks. After awhile, our waitress came back and we ordered a breakfast and a fish sandwich. When our food arrived, we still didn’t have our drinks. They came shortly after. My sandwich was good but the breakfast wasn’t. The eggs were undercooked, the hash browns were burnt on the outside and mealy on the inside. The biscuit was good. When we decided we probably would never return to Sam’s, we went up to the front to pay and stood there as the woman just looked at us until someone else came up and took our money. Not a comfortable experience. I can find other businesses that don’t mind doing business with me.

Halibut burger = good, fries = good. Service = pretty bad. I think this might have been the first day on the job for our waitress — she sure didn’t seem to know what to do. But… I could hear other servers chatting with each other nearby, when they should have been working, or at least helping out. I’ve been a waitress, so I know how it works. Pretty lazy stuff here.

Fast mediocre food — hellaciously bad service. Really, really bad service. Really. If it weren’t for the unsuspecting tourists that come here for the name, this place would starve.

First of all, you walk in and nobody greets you. Unsure if it’s seat yourself or wait to be seated. Lady running the cash register never looked up. When we asked, we were told to seat ourselves, but it was busy and the tables that were open were dirty. And then told to wait because there was a family of 6 ahead of us (we had 4). The family ahead of us had to put 2 tables together themselves and we finally got a booth. The good was forgettable, their version of adding cheese to an omelet is to throw a slice of American cheese on top. Wife’s burger was tiny and my sourdough pancakes had flavor but needed a couple more minutes of cook time.

Great meal for a good price. The service is good depending in whose working. Always a favorite place to go when visiting my family.

One if the best omelettes I’ve ever had! I had the Northern Omelet and it was hearty but not ultra huge. Also it was made with real eggs. Came with hash browns and wonderful toast. Service was excellent.

Worst breakfast ever. Eggs were raw, ham was burnt, and the cheese on my son’s omelette was a Kraft single I’m pretty sure.
Server had a bad attitude, and portions were small.
Go down the road to the Oasis.

We went there for breakfast. The cashier laughed at me when I told her it was my first time here so I needed a menu. The walls were empty when I walked in so I didn’t know where or how to order. After her terrible laugh, she told me to take a seat.
Luckily, the waiter was very nice and pleasant to talk to. The food came out fast too. My biggest disappointment was the quality of food. The hash browns had no taste, the pancakes tasted like rubber and looked old and saggy. The only food I slightly liked was oatmeal.

The waitress was very nice. However this place is even slower than ihop. No body came to us until 18 minutes later. We asked few times can we get menu and order, someone always said ok they will come soon.
So far 3 stars. Ok let’s see how long does it take to deliver our food. It’s 12:50 now.
1:05
Well the food took 15 minutes (fish & chips) to arrive at our table. And they apologized for the delay and slow service at beginning.
So now back to 5 stars. The food taste great by the way :)

I’m fortunate enough to live in a city with fantastic food so maybe its not fair to expect similar fair while traveling but this place left me longing for even a Denny’s breakfast. The hashbrows were basically raw. The french toast was so crusted in egg that it barely tasted like french toast and the watery brown substance they gave us to put on top of it couldn’t possibly be considered syrup by anyone whose ever tasted it.
To be fair, the coffee and orange juice weren’t bad and the wait staff was polite and attentive.

In my opinion its a decent café. Good selection of items on the menu, friendly service, and reasonable prices. Quality of the food is good for the price.
Give the Reindeer sausage a try if you like pork sausage; it has an interesting flavor.

Wow!!! This place is awesome!!! The restaurant is clean, the staff is friendly and the breakfast was SO delicious! We had our food in a matter of minutes and it was exactly how I asked for it. Our waitress Jocelyn was great, so nice and knew the menu! When she asked if she could get us anything else we both wanted to say everything all over again! I will never eat breakfast anywhere else in Fairbanks ever again!
Can’t wait to try lunch!