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Dining at Airports


laniloa

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I flew US Air yesterday (DCA to Memphis via Charlotte - ugh) and today (Memphis to LGA via Charlotte - double ugh). I resigned myself to Cinnabon at National, but opted for the sticks which have to be less caloric than the giant cinnamon bun (and I used very little icing). Today in Memphis I was scrambling for lunch just before 3 and found myself at Corky's. I don't recall liking it before so my expectations were low. But darn it! The pulled pork sandwich wasn't half bad. I looove baked beans, but not these baked beans which were starchy, as if the beans had been cooked for so long that half of them lost the will to live.

Charlotte's terminal D isn't a great place to dine (although there is a spa where you can get a quick manicure, pedicure or massage), a wine bar (serving ONLY North Carolina wines which, if you read the topic about Winston-Salem, you'll see I'm not fond of) and the ubiquitous Starbucks. I grabbed a snack of three chocolate covered graham crackers at the chocolate shop on that strip. I was positively drooling over the candy and caramel apples - probably 10 varieties! - however without a knife and fork, I couldn't risk it. My dentist was smiling over my decision-making process from afar, I'm sure.

DCA MEM CLT

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I was positively drooling over the candy and caramel apples - probably 10 varieties! - however without a knife and fork, I couldn't risk it. My dentist was smiling over my decision-making process from afar, I'm sure.

As was your wallet smile.gif

And the worst, worst, worst aeropuerto in which to be stuck (and needless to say hungry)??

Mexico City

Lock up your valuables, take pharmaceuticals and sleep if you're ever stuck. Don't mess around with Starbucks or anything; it's all bad.

MEX

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Article about the changing entertainment options in airports, including food and wine.

National Airport is in quite a state these days. While Potbelly has opened by gates 20-40 (guessing at the numbers), it seems like many of the other places have closed, including, ahem, the rest rooms. Before proceeding through security, you are advised to use the rest rooms outside the secure area because the inside rest rooms are closed during the construction.

I am not a Potbelly fan (not at all), however Tuesday morning pre-flight I was really hungry and broke down and ordered a sausage, egg and cheese bagel sandwich. Holy cow! Maybe it was just my appetite (raging), but damn, that was tasty for an airport breakfast.

DCA

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Whereas a recent trip to Vegas showed me that the airport had made decent strides in the food department (nothing special, just better), Milwaukee is a horrible airport at which to be stuck for many hours, as I am right now. Out by the D gates, my options are extremely limited in spite of this part of the airport looking quite modern. There's a Starbucks, an unidentified smoky bar (no ban here!) and a combo Pizzeria Uno/NY Bagels/TCBY that looks rather unclean.

This really sucks. And I have a hangover too. sad.gif

LAS MKE

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No, no, no. It was horrible. I suffered yesterday. mellow.gif The pizza/tcby combo was one of those jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none situation. The pizzas looked frightening and my hangover wasn't the sort where I craved grease. In fact, I feared it (and what might happen on the plane post-consumption). I wandered around long enough that I found a small, sad (but apparently new) restaurant called Legends. I braved a cup of cheese soup - made it through half.

MKE

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Note to anyone who has to change planes in Newark and will be traveling through terminal A: it is a very, very small "satellite" terminal (you get there by taking a bus from the other terminals or some kind of monorail from places outside of the airport). It has no decent food/drink options at all. I was happy -- and I suspect, lucky -- to find a cold bottle of diet coke.

EWR

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O'Hare is decidedly not anyone's friend. Wolfgang Puck my @$$... in an airport? I didn't try, but I can imagine from the limp salads and nasty sandwiches in the refrigerator case.

And I think I should have known better, but Burrito Beach takes the bad elements of Chipotle and makes them worse. It's hard to mess up a quesadilla, but they managed. Lesson learned: buy your food before you get to the airport. They could do well with a Garrett Popcorn in the airport.

ORD

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Re: Newark, also be very careful if changing planes across terminals. Some airport staffers will direct you to the Air Train in a way that makes you leave the secure area and you have to go through security all over again.

EWR

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avoid harry carry's at Chicago Midway- food poisoning on this past Thursday for me from the hot italian sausage.

They do have potbelly sandwiches all through the airport- mediocrity abounds.

Best thing about San Diego airport- Rubio's Fish Tacos

ORD SAN

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You know what's good after sitting through a two-hour delay at National, only to arrive at Newark to find you've missed your connection, and the next flight out (that you fortunately have a seat on) is delayed another two hours (oh, and they can't promise that your luggage will make that flight)?

A Brooklyn Weisse at the diner in C terminal. And some chicken fingers and fries. ohmy.gif

Hey, I didn't say it was good per se, but desperate times call for desperate measures...

EWR

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There isn't much (actually, perhaps nothing) to eat at Tulsa's airport, at least not near the American gates. The area around the C gates in Charlotte (mostly US Airways) particularly sucks. The least chainy is Philips Seafood.

Sincerely hoping to stay in DC through 6/25,
Jennifer

TUL CLT

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sweetwater 420 pale in Atlanta. Not very good, but still better than the rest of the swill on the 11 other taps. And the bartender even paused his cellphone call to take my order!

Last week was a surprisingly good fordham at BWI

And hopefully some good stuff in Denver and Boston next weekend. This trend of an occasional good tap at an airport bar is one I can get behind.

I had mcdonalds for breakfast this morning at DCA

ATL BWI

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I find Memphis' airport a tough spot to locate breakfast. The B Gates' (?) food court is better for lunch with Neely's Interstate BBQ, but it seems like every establishment has the same, sad re-heated eggs and sandwiches made from the same. I usually end up getting a mediocre bagel from Einstein's Bagels near the US Air gates.

Flying on Northwest, instead of my usual US Air, out of Greensboro (NC), I found that the options by those gates are pretty much as lackluster as the gates where US Air's flights depart. One of those miserable "Sam Adams" pubs.

Heading back to New Orleans on Wednesday--that's truly an airport to avoid in terms of food selections.

MEM GSO MSY

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There is a bar at DCA that has 25 taps. Of these, maybe 3 are worth drinking, but hey, I'll take it. Reuben "dippers" were ok, but the fries were surprisingly good. Can't remember the name of the place, but it's right near the fuddrucker/potbelly area in the aa gates.

Blue mesa in Dallas in the d terminal is an ok place for a beer. Looks like a decent tequila selection too.

Last week I got a chance to stop in at my favorite o'hare stop: the little hot dog stand in between terminals that has goose island honker's ale on tap.

DCA DFW ORD

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In the NWA terminal in Detroit-Rock-City there is a really good sushi place. 4 real. I have also heard that the Westin that is attached to the terminal has a really nice bar with pretty good chow. They have their own security line there so it is easy to get in and out of.

They also have a place in the airport that does nothing but PB&J including a PB and bacon.

DTW

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In the NWA terminal in Detroit-Rock-City there is a really good sushi place. 4 real. I have also heard that the Westin that is attached to the terminal has a really nice bar with pretty good chow. They have their own security line there so it is easy to get in and out of.

Agreed on both the sushi place and the bar in the Westin.

There's also a mediterrantean place that focuses on mezze rather than entrees that is worth eating at, also in the NWA terminal.

DTW

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Austin TX is my favorite airport for food... seriously, multiple good options plus Amy's ice cream if you so desire.

The Westin in Detroit is a great spot for a lay-over. I often go there and just sit in the lobby, it is very relaxing.

The chic-fil-a that used to be in the B concourse with the burger king in ATL is gone. It's now in A I think. The T concourse has some nice options.

My favorite food option in the Memphis airport is the Einstein Bagel unless I want BBQ.

Hartford Connecticut should be ashamed of their airport. Just sayin'.

AUS DTW ATL MEM BDL

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Anything new re: Frankfurt? I have two hour layovers there en route to and from Barcelona next week, flying Lufthansa.

Ugh. I've flown through there at least 10 times in the last year. Frankfurt is just generally a bad dream, and an all-out nightmare if you're arriving between about 11pm and 7am when everything is closed (not only are most of the vendors closed, but so too are many of the gates, making navigation even worse than usual). One standby is Goethe's Bar, at the confluence of the terminals. It's loud and unsightly, but the sausage and coffee are decent and you can find a place to sit in the middle of chaos. Upstairs is a McDonald's, if you're craving home, and next to it is a sandwich joint that I've always been intrigued by but never tried. Otherwise, there aren't a lot of places to kill time like there are at Amsterdam, aside from the duty-frees (particularly seek out the caviar joint just off of Goethe's) and the reasonably comfortable chairs in some secluded hallways.

If you have a very long layover, I might recommend buying a day pass for the Lufthansa business class lounge, where you can eat and drink endlessly for free, and also have a shower in their private (very, very clean) bathrooms, or a nap in a leather chair in a darkened lounge. Or you can just get a big pile of peanuts and brown bread, a beer, and a free newspaper and connect your headphones to the TVs and veg in front of CNN for endless hours.

Frankfurt is just not good. Kill time. Buy electronics and cured meats. And then fly out quickly.

FRA

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Austin TX is my favorite airport for food... seriously, multiple good options plus Amy's ice cream if you so desire.

The Westin in Detroit is a great spot for a lay-over. I often go there and just sit in the lobby, it is very relaxing.

The chic-fil-a that used to be in the B concourse with the burger king in ATL is gone. It's now in A I think. The T concourse has some nice options.

My favorite food option in the Memphis airport is the Einstein Bagel unless I want BBQ.

Hartford Connecticut should be ashamed of their airport. Just sayin'.

Austin looked to have some good food as I had about 5 hours to kill there last sunday, but I was full after a good bacon cheeseburger at some place in downtown Austin.

AUS

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A brief two hour layover in Changi International Airport in Singapore yielded the following: 1 really good Roast Pork bun from Wong's on the first floor "restaurant" area; heaven if you have a sweet tooth, as there was at least 3 well-stocked, wide-variety candy/chocolate stores; my favorite jerky place with free samples (Mei Zheng Shang); and a 7-11 upstairs if anything is forgotten. Also upstairs open for 24 hours was 1 Subway, featuring a Tandoori Chicken Sub special, a busy Burger King, and less frequented other varieties, with a very lonely looking conveyor-belt sushi place. Stick to the first floor for a variety of options, including a bustling Starbucks, but the better bet is to get a Phoenix (Yuan Yang) coffee/tea popular drink (they sell it at Maria's in DC-area) from Wong's or 1 of the other coffee-selling places.

An extremely long layover in the International Transfer section of the Beijing Capitol International Airport was extremely trying, as there was a near-empty Pizza Hut (which I wasn't brave enough to try), 1 Korean restaurant, and many Duty-Free shops. I was grateful for the lounge access I was given due to my transfer, and although there was food to eat (although nothing edible) in the lounge, the only nice and comforting thing to report was the nice cushion to soften the 8 hours there.

If anyone has advice on which places to eat/chill at Bangkok International (providing I don't get rerouted given the current political situation), I would greatly appreciate it (2 hour layover).

SIN BJS BKK

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If anyone has advice on which places to eat/chill at Bangkok International (providing I don't get rerouted given the current political situation), I would greatly appreciate it (2 hour layover).
In the transfer area I was in (the C Concourse area), the third floor yielded one fruit juice bar and candies or dried fruits available from the other three or so duty-free shops. Your better bet is on the fourth floor (which, incidentally, is the "shops and food floor," as kindly pointed out by the map), although choices may not be much better. For familiar places, there are Burger King and Starbucks available. There are also 3 cafe/coffee shops (not including Starbucks) practically right next to each other, only 2 "local" eateries, and 1 juice joint. My flight to Bangkok was delayed and shortened my layover time, for which I was grateful, as there was not much to choose from, much to my disappointment.

BKK

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Do not believe the Houston/Bush Intercontinental Airport website or posted signs for Terminal C. mad.gif There are no barbecue or Tex-Mex joints to be found. Fortunately, I'd gotten my Tex-Mex fix for the reals during the business day (not that I would ever rely on the airport for the important stuff). I was therefore content with the decent ham and Swiss on baguette from Panopolis. The accompanying "mudslide" cookie looked delish and had good flavor, but was unfortunately dry.

IAH

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Do not believe the Houston/Bush Intercontinental Airport website or posted signs for Terminal C. :rolleyes: There are no barbecue or Tex-Mex joints to be found. Fortunately, I'd gotten my Tex-Mex fix for the reals during the business day (not that I would ever rely on the airport for the important stuff). I was therefore content with the decent ham and Swiss on baguette from Panopolis. The accompanying "mudslide" cookie looked delish and had good flavor, but was unfortunately dry.

You could have made an updated airline version of M.F.K. Fisher's "railroad sandwich" that she wrote about so vividly in With Bold Knife and Fork--a baguette sandwich with butter and ham, well-wrapped, that she would sit on in the train until lunchtime, at which point the sandwich was pressed and warmed by body heat and all of the flavors had melded.
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While flying British Airways this summer we found that the Veggie-Asian (Indian) meal option was actually pretty good. We had eight meals during the various flights and they were all solid...mostly a mix of rice, dhal, veggie/bean curries, little pappadum, and a couple chutneys. Definitely better than flaccid chicken breast or "mystery meat" lasagna!

You can change your meal options via online check in.

BA

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You could have made an updated airline version of M.F.K. Fisher's "railroad sandwich" that she wrote about so vividly in With Bold Knife and Fork--a baguette sandwich with butter and ham, well-wrapped, that she would sit on in the train until lunchtime, at which point the sandwich was pressed and warmed by body heat and all of the flavors had melded.

I could have! Or I could've waited for the plane: the snack on the IAH-DCA nonstop was a choice of ham or turkey sandwich, and they bring it early on in the flight.
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Jomo Kenyatta (Nairobi) Airport remains the most desolate waiting room in modern airport life. Even Wilson (Nairobi), the tiny domestic airport, has more offerings, and is cleaner and has better coffee.

The only thing NBO has going for it is the macadamia nuts they sell at duty free, which are the best in the world (I'm talking to you, Hawaii) and sell for--no joke--less than ten bucks a kilo. The bagged Dorman's coffee is pretty good too, and you can pick up all the kikoys you neglected to buy during your trip for a price comparable to what you would have paid anywhere else in the country.

But the airport is so desolate, so grungy, so miserable, with the same duty-free shop with the same goods cloned over and over for 20+ gates, that a middle seat in coach is actually a refreshing change (for at least an hour or so).

Note: when they announce that you're boarding, you're not. They're just herding everyone into an inner sitting area with no access to a bathroom, food, or drinks, where you will sit for over an hour before you actually are allowed onto the plane.

Bring a book. Like, War and Peace.

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Try not to find yourself flying from Ft. Lauderdale after forgetting to pack a lunch. You will regret it. McDonalds would be an improvement.

But just a few minutes drive from FLL there are some decent places to eat, so if planned correctly, you can get a meal to/from the airport. I agree that once you're at the terminal, you're pretty screwed.

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Amsterdam Schipol is growing on me. I used to love it if only for the smoky casino bar at the hub of the wheel where drinking at any time was not only acceptable but encouraged. These days they keep moving and down-sizing their smoking section, which now consists only of one small glass bubble in the G terminal which is so far gone from the rest of the airport I think it's actually in Delft.

But I digress.

Duty-free offerings are impressive, including loads of Dutch cheeses and cured meats and fish. For tween-flight nosh, I usually jump for one of those fabulous batard sandwiches (brie and rocket is my favorite) or a pasty with some sort of exotic obscenely expensive juice. But on this particular eight-hour layover, after napping in the bizzaro but comfy Yotel, I got a rejuvenating bowl of ramen at the Japanese noodle stand. It needed some sriracha, soy, and vinegar, but was a nice change and infinitely better than most American airport offerings.

AMS

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Eating raw herring from a cart at Schipol (while my family looked on in horror) when I was 15 was such a revaltory food experience for me. Man, that brings back good memories. Do they still have those carts?

I've only been in F, G, and B lately, but the last time I saw a cart at Schipol was a few years ago in a construction zone, and it only had coffee, pastries, and Heineken. So, sadly, I think no. sad.gif

But great memory!!

AMS

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I've only been in F, G, and B lately, but the last time I saw a cart at Schipol was a few years ago in a construction zone, and it only had coffee, pastries, and Heineken. So, sadly, I think no. sad.gif

But great memory!!

I haven't been in Schipol since I was 18 and they didn't let us stop for food -- except we got to buy those HUGE Lindt bars at duty-free. We'd eat them on the flight home and land WIRED, then crash for 24 hours.

Ah, the life of a teenager abroad... smile.gif

AMS

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If you are ever in the Eastern Iowa Airport in Cedar Rapids, Iowa (CID for us geeks), make sure you stop at the Steak n' Shake in Coralville before you arrive at the airport. Pre-wrapped sandwiches and yogurts that costs $2.50 were an option at the Java House Coffee House, or you can have a jolly time at the Millhouse bar, where there is bar food and local beer (didn't have a chance to try it though...).

CID

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Made two trips out to Denver last month. We went to Paradise Bakery on a whim and found it to be pretty good. They included free cookies which were tasty.

Atlanta-Hatfield on the other hand was just plain vile. On the return journey I had a less than hour to make my connection, while changing terminals with 4 people, all their carryons and an extraodrinarly well behaved 8 month in tow. We had about 10 minutes to grab food to eat on the plane. I decided to stop at moes since the whole family likes fake-mex. We were treated to a lovely exchange reminiscent of Monty Python's cheese shop. They were out of every meat except chicken, half their toppings and salsa.

DEN ATL

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I have an 8 a.m. flight tomorrow, and the DCA website tells me Delta is in Terminal B ... and then lists all the food by "North Pier," "Center Pier," and so forth. Um ... help?

I'm flying into Hartsfield, where I will not have time to find caffeine or sustenance before getting on the slow boat to China -- ah, I mean, the company-mandated slow airport shuttle in lieu of a cab.

(I will shunt this to the "Airport Food" thread after tomorrow morning.)

DCA ATL

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Had a really good meal at Pappadeaux in the Houston airport. It was recommended to us by multiple people, and did not disappoint. Hubby had tuna and I had mahi mahi with dirty rice and shrimp and crab. It was a nice sit down meal while we had a decent size layover. I think it is probably the best thing in that airport.

IAH

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