Airport Food

Who likes being stuck in an airport for several hours, especially around lunch or dinner time, given the exciting food options available? You usually have a choice between your well-known fast food, chain restaurants, or pre-made sandwiches in combination with high-calorie, high-fat pastries that are way overpriced.

Things do seem to be changing up a little in some airports. Food and Wine magazine recently published an article on airport food and how some celebrity chefs are making their way into the U.S. airports. Wolfgang Puck has been around in airports for quite a while, but others are now jumping on the food bandwagon. Chicago, one of my frequent stopovers, now houses Rick Bayless’ Tortas Frontera in two terminals – a nice little place that offers freshly made hot sandwiches for sit-down or to-go. You can get fresh salads, guacamole and chips, or drinks, but the main star on the menu is the tortas. He has several options with various flavor combinations. Since I discovered it about two months ago, I tried the full-flavored Chipotle Chicken Torta and this past week, I gave the Roasted Garlic Mushroom Torta a try. That one had the flavors of chipotle mayo, cremini, oyster and shitake mushrooms, goat cheese, and arugula, topped off with a hint of lime. Prices range between $9 and $12 so if you consider your options between a pre-made sandwich at around $8 or this one, I hope you don’t have to think twice about it. To get a torta at Tortas Frontera is about 10-15 minutes, but it’s well worth the wait.

This past week, I also had a stopover in Houston’s Intercontinental Airport for a little over three hours. As I explored the food options, I was surprised to find Cat Cora’s Kitchen, a place to enjoy some nice entrees as well as some creative burgers and neat tapas. 

I tried the lamb meatball and also the chicken chimichurri sandwich. The meatball was very juicy and not dry at all and it came with a nice tzatziki sauce. Very delicious but at $8 a bit overpriced. The chicken chimichurri sandwich was delicious. The chicken had a wonderful flavor but the piece was honestly a bit too small for the bun. The sandwich also came with sweet potato fries, which I saw came out of a frozen bag. So the food overall was pretty good but I would have expected a bit more from an iron chef.


In summary, next time you travel and you find yourself at an airport for several hours, make sure you check out your options carefully before picking the first thing in your view. Who knows, there might be some good food waiting for you just around the corner.