Gold Creek Salmon Bake

Unbelievable! What awesome place! Great music, great food, beautiful!
Stopped by as part of a cruise shore excursion, whale watching and salmon bake. Salmon bake was by far the best part!

We did a gold pan and salmon bake excursion. Gold panning was fun and our driver Steve was a hoot! Ask for him when booking your outing! Salmon bake was pretty good. Take the time to walk/​hike some of the small trails. Scenery is beautiful with old mining equipment and amazing waterfall to boot!

We arrived at the Gold Creek Salmon Bake after our whale watching tour. The staff was amazing, James, the cowboy singer, was also amazing. The food was great, especially the salmon, cooked over an open fire. Yummy! A short walk among the trees found us at 2 beautiful water falls. The gift shop left a lot to be desired and the cost of the dinner should have included beer and wine. All in all, an outstanding experience.

The salmon bake is a nice thing to do as part of a tour package, I would not recommend it as a stand alone outing. The location itself is nice, there is a little area further back where there is a stream to take pictures. The food itself is nice nothing out standing. The buffet area is some basic sides, salad, and desert. They offer hot cider and some other hot beverages. The salmon is cooked on a pit grill and is served with a sweet glaze. It is truly the best part about the bake, of course fire grilled salmon is good all on its own. The glaze can be too sweet for some, it can always be served without.

This was a fun time. The food was very good. The grilled salmon with brown sugar sauce that was the centerpiece of the meal was excellent (although watch out for the bones), and all the accompaniments were very enjoyable as well. There was plenty of food, both option-​wise and as all-​you-​can-​eat. The staff was friendly and helpful. The live music is a great touch — there was an excellent guitarist the day we were there, with a rich voice and excellent skill, and playing a wide variety of music.
The plentiful seating includes awnings over most of the tables and benches. Two fire pits include marshmallows for roasting — another fun touch. Outdoors in crisp, clean air, the setting is such that, although there are roads on two sides, you can easily forget you aren’t more isolated in the woods. A short trail along a stream leads to very pretty waterfall and old mine entrances, with old equipment around in the undergrowth. The area includes a small gift shop.

Not my idea of good food. Salmon grilled with bones. Wouldn’t eat here again.

This a great little getaway that gives you a small taste of the Alsakan Frontier. The best thing about this restaurant is the all you can eat salmon flavored with brown sugar marinade. I took a look at the amazing waterfall located down the trail. And ended with the roasting of marshmallows by a fire. The food in generally average but really filling.

Went to this after a fun gold panning experience in a river at an old gold mining spot. Expected this to be great… It was not. First let me warn you THEY DO NOT DEBONE THE SALMON! Pine bones everywhere! When we asked for a deboned piece we were told that the bones are soft so just eat them. Well, one lodged in my throat and cause me serious trouble for days after! The food was on par with what you’d get at hometown buffet honestly. This is one you can skip

Really great salmon. We came her thru a excursion from a cruise we are on. I expected little because of this but the value and quality was excellent. We were also blessed with perfect weather, is no rain so I wild expect if it was raining you might not like this place a much as the reading is outdoors. They do have canopies but it still eokd be better to be indoors when it rains.
The food consisted of salmon with a row sugar glaze and she of Mac and cheese, corn and others. The food was super filing and really great. The salmon was so fresh and the experience was really great. Would return if we were ever back here.

I went here as part of an Alaskan Cruise Ship excursion which also included a trip to the Mendenhall Glacier and the MacCauley Hatchery. I really enjoyed the atmosphere of the Salmon Bake. It was like an awesome campsite set up for eating and drinking. There was plenty of food (buffet) including salads, au gratin potatoes, chicken, lemonade, ice water and of course freshly cooked (on a camp fire) salmon. Also available for purchase were some decent local beers (and I think wine too). There was a guy playing acoustic guitar to entertain the group too. It was very informal and comfortable, which is perfect for me.
Around the back is a quick jaunt to a really pretty waterfall and if you’re lucky to have sunshine, some misty light shining down on you. You can pan for gold (for free but I seriously doubt you’d find any) too.
I see that people have rated this with three dollar signs so I’m guessing it’s not cheap but if you’re on vacation and can get in on this, I thought it was very cool and cute and a nice experience.

All the food ranged between gross and awful. The clam chowder was gritty and sour. Most of the side items tasted like they were from a can or frozen. Salmon not cooked thoroughly. Total tourist trap. Skip it.

Open air buffet with some pretty decent salmon. There was a place where you could roast marshmallows over a camp fire.
I would not want to do this if the weather was not nice.

Fun, a little touristy, a little kitsch, but fun…
Warnings first… If you don’t like rain and cool summer weather, don’t come here (both the Salmon Bake and Juneau). It’s all outside. That’s part of the Alaskan (and NW) experience. And the comments about the pin bones in the salmon made me laugh. It’s salmon. Real salmon. Even fileted, there will ALWAYS be pin bones. It’s not that Atlantic crap they call salmon. If you don’t want pin bones, don’t eat salmon. If you’re getting pin bones, you know it’s really salmon.
Coming from Oregon, the rain was a relief. Yes, we have salmon in Oregon, too. But you can never have too much (and in Oregon, we secretly lust after Alaskan salmon). This was just a fun event, it was great to get my duck feet wet again after a too-​long summer drought, and loved the outdoor space. Just a pretty place to hang.
I like my salmon rare — I asked for a rare piece, and got it cooked to my perfection. There’s lots of other food; it was all good. This isn’t Bern’s Steakhouse, or another high-​end equivalent. But it’s Alaska and it’s the sum of all the parts that made it a memorable day. Like my McMenimans review, where it’s not about the food, it’s really the entire experience that makes for a unique day.
And, loved the music. The musician was also an Oregonian, and it was fun to listen to both his music and jokes. Not originals, but not stuff you normally hear all the time. Bluesy. Would have bought a CD if he had them. Oregon is small — maybe I’ll stumble across him again…

Great salmon cooked over an open alder fire! Great atmosphere and staff and views. Make sure you take the walk out to the beautiful falls! Great value for the price.

So after a long day on my Cruise Excursion to the Mendenhall Glacier and the Salmon Hatchery it was time to finally EAT. When we got off our tour bus we were greeted with chocolates from our bus driver which I thought was very nice… but then the real treat appeared… HOT & DELICIOUS NEW ENGLAND CLAM CHOWDER. It hit the spot right away on a cold an rainy day in Juneau. We continued on to the buffet line where cheesy chicken… scallop potatoes… baked beans… coleslaw…cornbread…blueberry cake… and the SUPERSTAR of the meal FIREWOOD SMOKED SALMON… awaited us. While it was NOT 5 star cuisine… it was very good for the money we paid for the entire Excursion (79 bucks). So why not 5 stars you ask… well as you have seen with other reviews we were outside which was awesome because there was a nice waterfall and stream running behind us and we were covered by the nice tents they provided… but they could have least had us in an indoor facility nonetheless. There were heaters to keep us warm and even live music… but I think on a cold and rainy day most of us would have preferred to be inside. All in all though it was an awesome experience and if you like Salmon this is definitely a trip worth making. Eat, Drink, and be Merry my Friends!!!

The idea of the salmon bake was a lot better than the execution. The brochure advertised it as a evening in a rainforest. This was no rainforest. It was regular BBQ food – simple and salty – except for the salmon, which was covered in a brown sugar glaze. That was delicious! However, the employees at the bake seemed like they wanted to be anywhere else (including the solo musician) and all the little details that could have made this more enjoyable were overlooked. There was no milk or cream for the coffee or hot chocolate. There was no clearly designated area for the marshmallows and sticks so that you could use the campfires. It was like a treasure hunt to find what you needed to roast marshmallows. No one in the know wanted to disseminate that info to the herd of people packed into the covers tents.

This was one of my favorite things I did while on our Alaskan cruise. It really gave me the Alaskan feel I was looking for. The people were really friendly, the food was delicious and the scenery and atmosphere were amazing.
It was raining while we were there, surprise surprise. But the eating areas have covers. The food was great, especially the cheesy potatoes and salmon. The salmon, even if you don’t love salmon was great, moist and sweet. The dessert was just ok. There was a guy playing guitar that was really good and it really added to the atmosphere.
After we were done eating and browsing their gift shop, we walked the very short distance and go to an amazing waterfall and old mine area. It was absolutely beautiful and our kids loved the gold panning that was there for them to play with.
We LOVED this experience!

This was good and bad.
Good — the food. The salmon was extremely amazing. It had this awesome maple syrup type glaze on it and the salmon just melted in your mouth! I also had some corn bread, some kind of potato with cheese thing, and caesar salad. All were great!
Also good — the music. The guy playing guitar was very enjoyable.
Bad — the eating space. In Juneau, it is usually cold and raining. And for some reason, they decided that having seating outside was a good idea. They had cover, but it was still cold, and I really wish it had been indoors.
Also bad — the transportation. The guys there were like «the bus comes every 15 minutes». Um, no it didn’t come every 15 minutes. We waited for at least 30 minutes, and when the guy gets there he said that since someone was late to get onto the bus (the bus showed up with 6 people), that was why he was so late.
Overall — I don’t regret doing it, but there are some serious improvements they could make! Keep making good food though.

Very disappointing. We did this as part of an excursion during our cruise. The first part was a trip to the Mendenhall Glacier, then a tour of a salmon hatchery, and it ended here at the Salmon Bake. This last part was just a huge disappointment.
Firstly, the staff were not friendly or even remotely happy. They all hated their jobs and showed it. The costumes were terrible, and all the staff were wearing modern clothes layered under or over the costumes. In fact, it took me a while to realize they were even wearing costumes; the first two women I saw, I thought they just had quirky taste in clothes.
The staff care so little for their jobs and the guests, in fact, that they don’t even do their jobs well. One man carrying an empty dessert tray was in such a rush that he squeezed past our table (which we picked deliberately because it was out of the major traffic stream) and he dumped powdered sugar all over my clothes and purse. Did he apologize? No. I don’t think he even noticed.
On top of that, the food wasn’t even good. For a «salmon bake,» we expected to eat tons of salmon, and for there to be salmon in nearly every dish. This was unequivocally NOT the case. The only salmon was grilled fillets, and they were sadly overcooked. Very dry. They tried to compensate by putting a sweet glaze over it, but it didn’t help much and ruined the flavor of the fish. AND the fish was FULL OF PIN BONES! This is NOT a safe food practice; someone could have choked! All the rest if the food was normal picnic or backyard barbecue fair (cheesy potatoes, Cesar salad, corn bread, pasta salad), and it tasted no better than stuff I frequently make at home.
The entertainment was only okay. Just a dude singing with his guitar. A band would have been better to add some liveliness and excitement, since the dude was pretty mellow. There was a sign posted on the stage behind him basically saying that they don’t pay their performers a living wage, so please make sure to tip. I thought that was tacky. They shouldn’t have to beg for tips.
The only part of the salmon bake that was any fun for us was roasting marshmallows over the campfire. That got sticky and brought back happy memories of summer camp as a kid.

For most people, when they think of Alaska, they think of insanely fresh seafood. When I think of Alaskan fresh seafood, I instantly think of salmon. So it goes without saying that I was looking forward to eating at the salmon bake at the end of one of our shore excursions in Alaska.
The set up was there: there was a stand you could pick up a cup of chowder at. The all you can eat salmon was cooking on the grill and there was a buffet line where you could snag cornbread, pasta salad, caesar salad, baked beans, rice and chicken.
I filled up my plate with a little of everything and sat down. I was basically foaming at the mouth by this time. The more I ate, the less I was satisfied. The chicken was dry. The cornbread was dry. The salad dressing was watery and the salmon was just plain old okay. The glaze that was on the salmon was the best thing that they served us that day. And that’s a little pathetic.
I did like the ambiance at the bake though. There were heated domes you could eat under. There were a few fire pits to roast marshmallows and while I didn’t see it, there was a trail you walk that ended with a waterfall and some place that you could pan for gold.
Sadly, I wouldn’t come back here for the food. I would come back for the marshmallows and the gold panning though.