Dining review: ADN food writer Mara Severin’s best bites of 2024

Some people evaluate their year by tallying professional accomplishments, taking stock of resolutions kept, and measuring personal growth. I rely on a simpler metric: How much delicious food did I eat? Viewed through this lens, 2024 was a very good year.

Here are my favorite bites of 2024 (in no particular order).

My Shawarma House (lamb shawarma wrap, $13)

If you haven’t yet heard of this humble eatery serving African and Middle Eastern dishes, then you’re part of a rapidly shrinking demographic. The fan base of this fast food-style diner which just celebrated its first anniversary is ardent and growing. And with good reason. Every dish I’ve eaten from their surprisingly wide-ranging menu is a winner, including a variety of house-made rotisserie meats and their fragrant, savory beef sambusas encased in a perfectly flaky golden crust. But my absolute favorite menu item is their lamb shawarma wrap ($13). A generous portion of sweet, earthy lamb, sliced thinly off a spit, is layered onto a warm, flaky naan wrap along with lettuce, onions, peppers and bright, briny pickles, with a garlicky, creamy yogurt-based white sauce. It is perfectly assembled so that every bite is perfection. Extra credit for having the friendliest service in town.

Jens’ Restaurant (frikadeller med rokal, $17.50)

After an inexplicably long hiatus, my husband and I found our way back to the dining room at Jens’ Restaurant and it was like getting together with an old friend. The meal was as good as memory promised and it was no surprise that our favorite bite of the night was from the classic Danish portion of the menu. The pan-fried veal and pork meatballs known as frikadeller med rokal are more or less like a hug on a plate. These hearty bites are served in a small lake of creamy, velvety gravy and a heap of bright, acidic red cabbage (“My favorite way to eat cabbage,” confided our server). Both transporting and homey, it is the perfect winter dish.

907 Bagel Co. (The Morning Glory, $14)

My love for the perfect breakfast sandwich began in New York, where both bagels and the occasional hangover were involved. The recent bagel renaissance that has taken hold in Anchorage has been one of my favorite surprises of the last few years and has brought a taste of the East Coast home to me. In 2023, Birch and Alder’s elegant bagel sandwich took a spot on my list of top five bites of the year. This year, I’m handing the torch to 907 Bagel Co.

In warmer months, this business is a roving breakfast and breakfast-for-dinner truck that specializes in hot, gooey, overstuffed bagel sandwiches using the exceptional scratch-made bagels baked by Wooden Spoons Alaska. This winter, they have settled in for some weekend hours at the Box Office Kitchen at Williwaw Social. The steamed sandwich process is exactly what it sounds like and magically fuses the ingredients together in a way that can only be described as transcendentally melty. My favorite is the Morning Glory ($14), which features cream cheese, bacon, egg and a more-is-more blend of American, pepper jack and provolone cheeses.

City Boy Burgers (double smashburger, $11)

Another habitue at the Box Office Kitchen at Williwaw Social is City Boy Burgers. Ordering is straightforward with a single, double or triple ($9, $11, and $13 respectively, and an additional $4 for fries). These are smashburgers the way they should be done — crusty, flavorful and full of smoky char — and topped with a well-balanced classic mélange of onion, cheese and pickles. This past summer, this new pop-up burger operation saw lines forming before the 10 a.m. opening bell at the O’Malley Fresh Market. I was in those lines.

Meraki Hellenic Grill (Pork Yerro, $17.95)

Meraki Helenic Grill, tucked into a nondescript strip mall in an off-the-beaten-track location in South Anchorage, is serving up some of my favorite food in Anchorage, full stop. I had to think long and hard about my favorite bite. Their foursome of dips was in contention — especially the silky, garlicky roasted eggplant. The smoky, savory kebabs were also in the mix, and I have a true weakness for their grilled haloumi drizzled with honey. But I landed on their classic pork yerro. This tender, savory, highly seasoned pork, thinly shaved off of a vertical rotisserie, is wrapped in a pita with lettuce, tomato, onion, tzatziki and a few steak fries. It’s the perfect combination of hot and cool, earthy and tangy, soft and crunchy. To describe it is to crave it.

As usual, my new year’s resolution is simple — to eat well with people I love. And I wish the same for all of my readers.

(Correction: A previous version of this story referred to the Swedish section of Jen’s menu. Jen’s specializes in Danish cuisine.)