Red Basket

Red Basket is located in the space formerly occupied by Alba's Pizza in the Longhouse Hotel. When they opened a few months ago they came out with a bang and seemed to have their act together. What I am finding is that they cannot sustain in the long haul.

They have the very Bethel-esc task of making Korean-Chinese, standard American fare, Pizza, and breakfast. The one improvement I have seen is that there is someone who speaks enough English to take your order now answering the phones. Speaking a foreign language on the phone is really hard to do. I know that from personal experience. They now keep someone around most of the time to help with this task at least so you can ask questions and be understood.

I have not personally tried breakfast, but they do serve it all day which is nice. When out with a friend his omelet was ok at best, they got the toast wrong, and when he asked for salsa (Mexican Omelet) they brought him jelly and then upon second request offered him hot sauce.

You can get also unfortunately get much better Korean-Chinese food elsewhere in town (can you say SAM'S!!! and for straight up Korean VIP has a lot of the exotics, BBQ123 makes the best Kim Chi in town). They are not the most expensive though so if you just want cheap it is ok. I have tried a couple things and every time it was just not quite great. Flavorless fried rice, katsu that was almost all breading, in general just sort of "meh..."

The Pizza was their original claim to fame and they could fill a real void and make some serious money if they get their grove back on. I ordered 3 large pizzas and 2 orders of shrimp fried rice this weekend for $140...that's right $140! I would just suck it up but the rice was really bland with fishy shrimp that still had the stupid tails on them (double pet peeve) and the pizzas were so undercooked that they bordered on that take-and-bake stuff you can get from Papa Murphy's. When kids won't eat it, it is pretty bad.

It is Bethel so I will probably wind up giving them a shot again (I only ordered pizza because Dimitris...best Pizza in Alaska... would not answer the phone!). But I really really hope they get their act together.