Torchon Bistro

Over priced. The meat in the entrees is excellent but the sides and other courses are just ok.

This place is amazing! Keep up the good work chef, I will be a returning customer for life.

A very pleasant atmosphere. Lighting was perfect. Our professional waiter was attentive, not intrusive. Every course of our meal was superb. While meat is their specialty, and the black cod is utterly delectable, their vegetable plate was absolutely the freshest and most fantastic main dish I’ve had in awhile.

Definitely worth your while to stop by. We tried the Torchon Taster and the Crispy Fried Sweetbreads– both very well done in both taste and presentation. The entrees (Prawns and Wild Boar) were out of this world. Service was truly amazing as well. Will be returning to try out the Brunch menu!

You can tell how much care and dedication goes into every meal. Amazing food experience!

Torchon’s Roasted Garlic Caesar Salad.
The Torchon Taster.
Alaskan True Cod & Prosciutto.
Wild Boar.
Torchon’s Banana Cream Pie.
Torchon’s House-​cured Bacon & Mustard Seed Ice Cream.
Loved the Ambiance!
The Food did not disappoint! That was some Fine Swine!
Desserts were REALLY GOOD too!
It was a great place to celebrate my birthday. :)

This place has the makings of something special but just seems to have missed the mark on my first visit.
The atmosphere– upscale modern bistro
The staff– polite, professional, and trained on the menus.
The menu– well put together, with unique offerings you wouldn’t expect from Alaska.
The price– reasonable
The food– in my opinion, doesn’t quite live up to the hype. It’s not bad but simply underwhelming.
I ordered an interesting version of biscuits and gravy and a side of their In-​house cured bacon. The biscuit was cut like a slice of cornbread, which I liked. The gravy draped wonderfully around the slice. The gravy was not bad, perhaps a touch under seasoned. Unfortunately, the biscuit was so bland that the sausage gravy couldn’t save it.
The bacon had a good smoke and the initial flavor was tempting. The finish was overly salty even for bacon and the fat seemed to have a oxidized finish giving it a slight fishy flavor.
She ordered the cure Benedict. It was plated wonderfully but the eggs were slightly overlooked. Over all s decent dish.
I will make another visit sometime soon and possibly upgrade my review.
Overall– beautiful place, comfortable atmosphere, and good service. The food? Perhaps it was an off day.
Stopped by to give them another try.
CLOSED at 5:30 pm on a week day?

Very good! I ordered the chicken wings! Who would have knew that you can make such a common food so delicious. I recommend for a nice dinner out.

From the menu, the customer service, and the quality of food, Torchon leads the way with renovative and modern approach to up to date cuisine. Although pricey, it’s great for special occasions.

Best brunch in all of anchorage. Bacon at Torchon changed my life. Really. Biscuits and gravy were out of this world.

Over a year later, and I still love this restaurant. Every experience I have here is PERFECTION.
I’ve had dinners and brunches here. I’ve tried all of the appetizers here, several more than once (and I had the pleasure of the first test of the golden sweetbreads), and they are all really creative and tasty. I’ve had the fried chicken, ribeye, chop, and cod – all wonderful. I’ve tried every dessert, and they are excellent. I don’t even normally care for banana cream or crème brûlée, and I would take both of theirs any time.
The wine list is always great, and I’m glad they keep the Roederer on as their basic by the glass sparkling because it’s the best!
And they still have the best servers! So knowledgeable, so good at pacing, so helpful and friendly. I love that they remember us (I’m talking to you Jaime!).
You can’t go wrong here.
Caveat: I am drunk Unilocaling, full of exuberance from yet another amazing meal. I may have left out details, important people. It’s like giving an Oscar speech. My point is that this place is just as great as ever. So check it out!

I don’t even know where to begin. We’ve been wanting to check this place out for a while now but every time we went in or called (this was months ago… after opening) it was fully booked. Our first red flag should’ve been that on a Friday night, we were able to get a table immediately. The food went from OK to worse to horrible, ending with the WORST attempt at a Crème Brulee. Here it goes. We started with a bottle of wine an appetizer & salad. The appetizer menu seemed to be the best thing on the menu in general, and our rillette wasn’t half bad it was just loaded with salt but the two puny hard-​ass pieces of toast left me wanting some proper french bread. The caesar salad was probably the best thing, however I didn’t care much for the «hazelnut poppy bread crumbs»…seriously…is it worth mentioning the hazelnut poppy part? But for what its worth it was really a good salad. We were mildly entertained by the presentation of the salad. They put the bowl on a folded napkin so that every time you fork into the salad, the bowl moves. We ended up removing the napkin from under the bowl to eat properly. So much for fine-​dining presentations…
Entrees eventually came. Took a little longer (there was a lot of waiting) for a half full room than expected. I had pork, my dining companion the fried chicken. Lets start with the chicken. It was under-​cooked. Big time. Not to mention that it’s served in a bowl, so the heat from the pieces on the top, end up steaming the fried skin right off the pieces underneath them. The waffle is actually an ice cream cone holding the slaw. The slaw tastes like the kale salad bag you can get at Costco & by the time you get through it the cone is all gross & soggy. Let me simply state, pretentious fine dining or not, if you’re going to include the Southern staple of chicken & waffles, please do it justice or simply don’t do it at all. My pork was overcooked & the stuffed ingredients were pretty good but a little heavy on the salt again. Once again, if a restaurant is going to advertise with a pig, it well damn be a good piece of pork. The best part of the dish were the 5 pieces of asparagus & whatever that «decorative» sauce was on the bottom. The sauce was delicious with the pork, I wish they had put more of that on.
The epic failure came in the form of a small bowl of Crème Brulee. We cracked the sugar shell only to see what resembled a scrambled egg. Two bites & we were done. I’m surprised they pass that off as a Crème Brulee but even more surprised at how the server really played it up & didn’t even notice (or bother to notice) how little we ate.

First time here was not a good experience. Had the fried chicken. Presentation was beautiful. Bad part… Chicken was undercooked and it was just over battered. The coleslaw was wonderful. My dish ended up with lots of fried battered. Also had ordered the pork chops. Chops were badly undercooked. Redness all around the chops. Atmosphere was very pleasant. The waiter was awesome. Just sucked that our food was poorly cooked for a nice establishment. Would I come here again… Probably not

At first, we thought it would be good: renovated restaurant, professional service, upscale look…
First mistake — I ordered the southern France wine flight. The waiter brought me my first glass, and then when I was done, asked me if I wanted another glass.? This was a flight of 3 different wines. So I said yes, and he came back poured a glass of the same wine. Ok. That’s fine I will just drink this and move on. (so instead of $ 16 for the flight, now I’m at $ 20 for 2 glasses of wine).
Amuse bouche — small fried mozzarella ball with Parmesan on it — was good. Hopefully, everything from this point on would be even better.
Unfortunately, from that point on, we found that what Torchon did not have: good food. We had the foie gras appetizer that was just bad. Like really, really bad. I have had foie gras in many different places and countries, and this was the WORST rendition I’ve ever experienced. Tiny, tiny portion of what was like demi-​sphere of a foie gras «ganache» which was more like an ice cream consistency, with a berry in the center. Then a tiny container of foie gras mousse with a CRÈME BRÛLÉE topping — individually ok flavors, but not good together. Also, not knowing all the right accents to in the name says something. I was really looking forward to some great foie gras, and this was a serious disappointment.
Then, $ 7 each, we had a small salad that was spinach leaves (that looked the same as I get from Costco) with just a little roquefort on top and a little vinaigrette. Not a $ 7 salad.
My husband had the feature plate — wild boar, which had an OK flavor, but was tough. The gruyère whip gold potato had a funny texture — like when you make mashed potatoes from potato flakes. Really weird. The one or two roasted Brussel sprout halves were the best thing on the plate.
I had the Elk chop — unacceptably tough. Like my jaw is tired of chewing this one bite so much, tough. I didn’t like anything about the entire dish.
Then we noticed that the electronic music that had been playing all night kind of reminded me of the movie American Psycho, with Christian Bale. Kind of douche-​y, wanna-​be cool, 90s upscale vibe, but happening right now.
For dessert, we shared the pecan pie bread pudding. It was a huge slice, with a tiny ball of ice cream on it. It was horrible. One of my pet peeves are desserts that do not have the right balance of ice cream to (cake/​pie/​pudding/​etc.) — this was a great example of poor ice cream to bread pudding ratio. Both the ice cream and the bread pudding like substance were bland, and on top of the bread pudding was granola — tons of oats and pecans. It was weird, and bad, and the waiter could tell we didn’t like it. He asked us why, and said he’d tell the kitchen, but they didn’t take it off the bill (FAIL!).
$ 170 later — complete and utter disappointment.
So much so, that we drove all the way to the Paris Bakery and Café to get a desert to make up for the horrible meal. Got the Royal — something chocolate and French — divine.
I went to work, and it turns out that my coworker has the same bad experience. He had also ordered the Elk, and had also found it unacceptably tough. So, it wasn’t just a bad night — this place is just bad.
I know it’s trendy, and people who don’t know any better might be fooled by the décor and high prices, but anyone who’s been outside of Alaska knows that THIS IS NOT GOOD FOOD!
Well, now we know. Don’t make the same mistake we did — it’s not worth it!

I have been meaning to write this review from a visit a couple months ago. It was such a terrible experience that I felt I still needed to write the review after a few months had past. I hate to write bad reviews but this meal was really off.
I ate here with 3 other couples and it was one of the worst dining experiences I have had. I really wanted to love this place but it didn’t deliver on anything. This was the second time we had given Torchon a try as the first time was right after they opened and we chalked it up to the place being brand new and still working out the kinks.
We were seated right away which was great but it took quite awhile to get our drink order in. After we ordered a couple bottles of wine we put our order in for appetizers. The appetizers took awhile to come out and were somewhat tasty, although the portion size was off in my opinion.
Where things really started to go south was our entrée selections. When we ordered our entrees — Lamb, 2 Rib Eyes, 2 Hog Rib Chops and I believe the wild boar — we all ordered the dishes rare to medium rare. After waiting for almost an hour and the restaurant almost empty at this point, the server came out and apologized that it was taking so long and gave us an order of humus, which I will say was the highlight of the meal — amazing! We also ordered more drinks as we had been waiting forever.
Finally our dishes come out and 4 out of the 6 dishes were totally overcooked. The rib eyes had to be sent back as they were the worst but the other people in our party were just so hungry that they ate their dishes anyways. I can’t remember the exact dish that my husband ordered, but the server brought out an additional plate saying that the awkward bowl it was served in was difficult to eat out of so they recommended also using the dish.
We voiced our concerns on the meal and how a place that prides themselves on farm to table, top quality meat should, at the very least, be able to cook it to temperature. Especially for the prices they are asking on each dish.
The server simply said they would share our thoughts with the chef and the bill was brought over. I have dine all over Anchorage and understand that restaurants will have bad nights or things can sometimes be off but this was just terrible — both the service and the food. To make things worse, the meal came to over $ 400 dollars. I absolutely love dining out and have no problem paying for good food and service but I left feeling like I had really been ripped off.

Overall opinion: hit or miss. My husband and I had dinner here with some friends a few weeks ago and I have mixed feelings. The interior was clean and polished, the service was good (although our server didn’t completely know the menu), and the dishes were all beautifully presented.
That said, the food itself didn’t blow me away. Our table started with the Torchon Taster, the fried sweetbreads, and the house mozzarella. The pork belly and the pork rind were the stars of the Taster, but the rest was just so-​so. The sweetbreads were good, as was the blackberry-​basalmic gastrique with the mozzarella plate.
For my entrée, I chose the wild boar with spring morels and truffled mushroom ragu. Portion size was just right, and the mushroom ragu was one of the best parts of my meal. The boar itself was a little overdone and not as deeply-​flavored as I had hoped. My husband had the heritage pork chop– THAT was quite good. Great seasoning, large thick chop, and cooked just right. I would recommend that for sure.
Our friends had the elk chop and the Alaskan cod. Like the pork chop, the elk was cooked perfectly (I will most likely choose that on a future visit). The cod, however, was just okay.
On to dessert. Our table shared the chocolate brownie, the bread pudding, and a stone fruit crisp. The brownie had good flavor, but it was overdone (a bit too tough for my taste). The bread pudding was excellent, but the fruit crisp was just so-​so.
Our overall experience was pleasant; it was a nice intimate place to catch up with our friends, the service was good, and it is obvious the staff cares about what they are doing. That said, I wasn’t as impressed as I had hoped I would be, but there are some good menu items to enjoy.

The detail in each dish and the attentive service was astounding. Not even counting the fact that I think this was easily the best meal I have had in Anchorage!
The chefs creativity and skill are in sync. Lovely place and I will definitely return for multiple visits whenever I can.
I am guessing that ALL of the food is delish but as an FYI, we got the prosciutto wrapped halibut and the fried chicken. I favored the fried chicken. The cheese platter was quite petite, I don’t think I was able to appreciate the platter for the price. The toast with mozzarella was a good size and yummy. The cheese squeaked with freshness! The bread pudding was soooo good, my only regret was ordering one to share, next time I go for the gold and get my own!

Torchon… Torchon… Dinner last night was amazing I had a great time it’s nice to meet a restaurant that I could meet up with on a Saturday night and who will hang around for Sunday brunch.
I love that this place is BYOB, partly because after a recent walla walla trip my apartment now seems to be a bit over run… but mostly because sometimes you have something a little special you’d like to share with friends. And the corkage fee is more than reasonable.
The Torchon Taster was the perfect intro to a fully pork filled evening, although maybe I’m not one to judge as I never met a piece of pork belly I didn’t like the pork belly was fantastic, not glazed and overly sweet as some pork belly’s can be but crispy on the outside and melt in your mouth good on the outside!
I did go with the wild boar, mostly because I’m a sucker for morels, but that chop did not disappoint. as I took my first bite dipped in tasty morel ragu the first word that popped into my head was «tenderwellseasonedmeatygoodness» which actually is a work in the Torchon-​Webster dictionary.
Then Torchon you brought out that dessert menu, you tease «just to look» you said and «just to look» I said, then you drew me in with bacon mustard seed ice cream! Too intriguing for me to turn down! And am I glad I didn’t. This ice cream is a little salty a little sweet and a whole lot of delicious and the great this about the Torchon dessert menu is that the portions and prices are perfect for after you just ate a huge entrée and just want a little something sweet, I wish more restaurants took this cue instead of trying to shove a gallon of crème brûlée and whipped cream at me!
In closing thank you Torchon, I look forward to when we shall meet again!

Took my hubby here last night :) It is in Hott Stixx’s old location. (boo– yes it is truly gone!!)
Appetizers
We got 2 apps– The Torchon taster
The squab with morel mushrooms, fiddlehead fern tendrils with a dab of hazelnut crème stuff and a dab of raspberry stuff
(they had sweetbreads, foie gras sampler, and bone marrow… all I have had prior in hit and miss versions… So I played it safe with my hubbies tastes buds. I only like to introduce him to odd stuff when I know it will be exceptional… otherwise he may not be so eager to try it again.)
Sampling the Torchon taster was more of an adventure instead of amazing. The flavor fell flat for us personally… but it was FUN to share and eat each part! Me and my hubby too turns picking what we would try next. Overall– I EXPECTED each item on the Pig sampler to be fabulous. None really made me say «holy crap that is amazing». The pulled pork was bland– just plain smoked flavor. The tendril I liked– cartilage and fat with a sweet terriaki flavor. The headcheese on celery salad I was worried about (not a headcheese fanatic) but it was more roast beefy tasting and was uneventful in flavor. Cracklin with truffle sea salt was yum… but you cant really mess up piggy fat and truffle combo. The pork rind was a huge disappointment to me. (Now that Lawreys has microwaveable pork rinds that are AMAZING at home– I kinda expect la’ fancy restaurant to make one awesome rind.). Alas the pork rind was hard and flavorless. The pork belly was also kept plain in flavor. and was tougher than I would have expected. I liked seeing the layers of subcutaneous tissue fat and muscle… but no memorable flavor. The spare rib was my favorite. Drier than I like ribs but the smoky flavor was good good good. House bacon dipped in chocolate also ehh– okay.
The squab was yum yum yum. My hubby says okay. I loved it! I have been eager to eat pigeon ever since I learned it can be served more rare. It had a good flavor, and the morels are well amazing cause they are morels! And was psyched to eat fiddle head fern tendrils since I know you can collect em’ and eat em in Alaska. I would like to have an opportunity to try them in a larger portion!
Entrees
Fried Chicken and stroopwaffle cone filled with kale salad.
Wild boar {Feature plate} with wild mushroom ragout etc etc etc
My chicken was superbly cooked. Never had such tender fried chicken! And portions enough to feed 3 people– Kale salad was fabulous, and I devoured the fancy ice cream cone swiftly…
Hubbies Boar was AMAZING!!! He is a a red meat steak man is not wild about mushrooms… but was giving thumbs up on Torchon Bistro after one bite. The sauce on his– the mushroom ragout… is frigg’en delicious.
Dessert
Raspberry preserves cooked in a Lemon crème burlee
Tasty but nothing I will have to have again.
They had this crazy bacon and mustard seed ice crème that was intriguing… but wasn’t wanting to ruin the experience by getting too crazy on dessert. I like weird… but i try not to ruin dessert… so sorry guys… I played it safe
Overall– we had fun eating here. It was more of an adventure than an amazing taste sensation. It was pricey– 110 $ before tip– so if your not a «go big foodie» who likes the adventure of fine dinning this place may not be your cup o’ tea!

It’s only been a couple of months, but I still feel compelled to write an update.
Made reservations to have dinner with two dear friends and we came in at 7 PM. It was busy and there was still people eating at the table that were reserved for us. No biggie, but that was a booth and the area we were sat at was a table and half booth next to another 3 top. The manager was watering us and I asked if we could sit at the booth in the corner and he said no, it is reserved for the chef’s guests. Apparently he sat people there yesterday and got in trouble. Lame.
Ordered the mozz appetizer and the torchon sampler since it seemed interesting. It was so weird, and I don’t usually mind unusual but hard pass on trying it again. The ear reminded us of a rat tail. I ordered the rack of lamb while my companions ordered the rib eye. All of our heats were off. I ordered med rare and got med, while they ordered med and med rare and got med rare and rare. Too bad. Maybe a new line cook? For dessert we got the crème brûlée and the brownie. Oh man, I don’t like dessert I get that from wine, but that brownie was super great. Get that.
All in all I had a great time. Take time to sit back and eat a 2.5 hour meal, the ambiance and food is great, even if your food is cooked wrong…