Lemongrass Thai Restaurant

"For a city of its size, Fairbanks is flush with Thai restaurants — a fact that has become part of the city’s identity. But all roads lead, ultimately, to Lemongrass. It’s a little hard to find, tucked away in a nondescript strip mall off Old Chena Pump Road, but it is absolutely worth the effort. It wasn’t the first Thai place in town, but over the years it’s become a Fairbanks institution, especially with the university crowd. Like a lot of Thai restaurants in Alaska, the menu covers the spread between northern and southern Thailand, but they also offer some lesser known regional dishes that you don’t often find in North America. Try the panang curry, the pad plick khing, or the moo yang ribs. Better yet, order all three." - Kris Farmen

"Fairbanks has a seriously deep bench when it comes to great Thai restaurants. Like, deep enough that locals have strong opinions on their favorite place to go. They get downright New York pushy about it (this coming from a New Yorker who lives in Anchorage now). Your first Thai food outing in Fairbanks should be Lemongrass Thai Restaurant, where the chefs are equally devoted to both the art of cooking Thai food and using local ingredients. Their menu even has an Alaskan Favorite Menu section. The larb wild salmon puts a super-local spin on everybody’s favorite Thai salad, and the beer scallops put locally brewed HooDoo Brewing beer to work to steam local scallops. Oh, yeah, that’s good."