An awesome bad review of some heinous airport food comes from the New York Times:
O’Hare — the nation’s second busiest airport, with 76 million passengers in 2007 — was easily the worst airport I visited, particularly disappointing since Chicago is one of America’s great restaurant cities. Instead of Air Alinea or Tobolobampo to Go, however, diners will find: Chicago-style hot dogs so poorly assembled as to cast doubt on the city’s architectural heritage; collard greens so bland and peach cobbler so mucoid they’d start riots on the South Side; and greasy, flavor-free cheeseburgers whose only claim to fame is that they inspired a “Saturday Night Live” sketch...
I watched my fellow diners with envy: a woman who pulled a packet of Alka-Seltzer from her purse; a bald, beefy man in handcuffs who was no doubt looking forward to decades of prison food...
[A] Greek diner praised on AirlinePilotsForum.com, was miserable. The meat on the gyro platter (“awesome!” wrote ghilis101) seemed to have come from a “Jungle”-era slaughterhouse...
“Advice? Don’t eat!” joked the hefty fellow...
I can vouch for this assessment of O'Hare's "food."
On the other hand, I extracted the good reviews for our Restaurants in Airports wiki.
(via Cathy Yang via Twitter)
Hi Bryan,
I tried to edit your wiki but it requires a password.
The local airport in my town, Columbia, SC (airport code CAE) has only a small food court right as you enter the inner courts of the airport. Once you pass security, and then walk a spell, you find a cross roads which splits the airport into two "wings" if you will. In the center is a small food court.
On one side, there is a small cafe, with sandwiches, fruit, and other small snack foods. On the other side is a small bar.
Neither is too good, but not awful either. Most folks don't eat in Columbia, but as I've seen tend to enjoy a coffee and newspaper before departure. Prices are higher than you'd see outside the airport, but lower than major cities. The airport itself is quite homely, with rocking chairs along a large panel of windows overlooking the tarmac.
Chris
PS...Seems some Spam got through on the comments on your internet addictions studies being flawed post.
Posted by: Chris Craft | December 20, 2008 at 16:11
Greetings, Chris! Many thanks for this snapshot of Columbia's airport food.
Where do you usually fly to, from CAE?
Top-secret pw: research123.
Posted by: Bryan Alexander | December 26, 2008 at 11:49