You’re a foodie and you love to travel. We’re not going to suggest that you deliberately reroute your flight to check out these airport restaurants that won a place on the Family Vacation Guide’s list of foodie airport hotspots, but if you’re there on a layover, indulge! This list has three categories of worldwide airport restaurants, but we’re chuffed to see that U.S. airport restaurants did pretty well. Let’s take a look!
In the category of highest-rated airport restaurants, the upscale One Flew South in Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport has gotten attention with James Beard nods. Japanese cuisine meets Southern food with a build-your-own “deviled egg experience,” an open-face meatloaf sandwich called the OFS Dirty South, and the Omakase box of sushi, sashimi and nigiri selected by the sushi chef with a can of chilled sake. And tying for first is Root Down in Denver International, with its vegetable-focused American comfort food (and you have to check out the 1960s-inspired dining area) like pozole or Colombian griddled cheese—or embark on meat with the Colorado lamb sliders. Second place went to an overseas restaurant, but third place came back to the U.S. with La Carreta, offering Cuban-style cuisine in the Miami airport.
In the category of highest-rated airport restaurants where top chefs voted, the winner was Tortas Frontera by Rick Bayless, offering Mexican food at Chicago’s O’Hare airport. Try the hand-crafted tortas, guacamole, molletes and more; the menu tells where all the ingredients were sourced. In second place was Cat Cora’s Kitchen at San Francisco’s airport (she’s also in Atlanta and Salt Lake City’s airports), with a focus on tapas and cocktails. Third place was taken by a restaurant in Geneva, Switzerland’s airport.
The final category, airports with the most featured restaurants, has San Francisco International tying with London’s Heathrow for first place. Both have four featured restaurants on the longer lists. The next spot was a tie between six airports, each with two featured restaurants: Miami International, London’s Stansted and Gatwick airports, O’Hare, New York’s JFK and Manchester Airport in the UK.
The methodology behind all this: the source looked at restaurant lists from reputable news sources, then compared each restaurant on Yelp, Google and Tripadvisor to collate the review scores. No matter the method, you want to have a fortifying—and maybe even exciting—meal before you head to your next destination.