This was published 4 years ago
World's best airport restaurants: The 10 best airports to eat at
Airbrau brewery at Munich Airport.Credit: Flughafen Munich
MUNICH
Munich is famous for its Oktoberfest but, any time of year, get a mini-taste of the event in the airport courtyard before check-in. Airbrau brewery serves local beers with cabaret acts and other live entertainment. The hungry can dig into Bavarian favourites such as pork shoulder, giant schnitzels, sausages and beer goulash. The breakfast platter features meatloaf, pork sausages and potato salad with lashings of mustard. See munich-airport.de
LOS ANGELES
Nothing epitomises the recent trend towards quality burgers more than boutique chain Umami Burger, which has an outlet in Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX. The signature burger comes with a whopping 170-gram slab of wagyu seasoned with soy sauce and shiitake mushrooms, topped by slow-roasted tomatoes and caramelised onions. There are vegetarian and tuna alternatives. Truffle or sweet-potato fries are satisfying side nibbles. Great for transit passengers in a hurry. See umamiburger.com
LONDON HEATHROW
Gordon Ramsay's Plane Food in T5 is among several impressive high-end Heathrow offerings from notable chefs. Upmarket British classics such as fish and chips or Cumbrian pork are at its heart, but there's also an Asian bar that looks into an open kitchen. Best, though, is the three-course picnic you can take on board, featuring the likes of caesar salad, teriyaki salmon and a chocolate tart with raspberries. See
DUBAI
The Kitchen by Wolfgang Puck, the Austrian-born, Michelin-starred American celebrity chef and restaurateur, is located in the food court at T1, but its fare is far from food court-ish. Among the dishes at this industrial-chic outlet are satisfying tenderloin steaks and Scottish salmon, sophisticated pastas and tasty pizzas, some with inventive toppings. Desserts come in whopping American sizes – the chocolate cake with toasted almonds is magnificent. See wolfgangpuck.com
AMSTERDAM
Bubbles Seafood & Wine Bar is the place to be in departure lounge 1. It has a great selection of fresh oysters in the shell, sushi and sashimi, prawns and other seafood. If you want to go Dutch, order the salted herrings with chopped onion, eaten with bread. This venue is especially good for its champagne (more than 50 varieties) and wine, particularly its whites from Burgundy. See schiphol.nl
HONG KONG
If you're in the airport mid-morning, delve into the dim sum at Maxim's Jade Garden overlooking the frenetic check-in counters at T1. This outlet of a city chain restaurant presents quality, MSG-free Cantonese dim sum dishes such as steamed chicken, lobster and other dumplings, preserved eggs with pickled ginger, spicy ribs and deep-fried pork fillets. You can order roast goose takeaway and eat it on the plane. See maxims.com.hk
SINGAPORE
Don't hurry through security in Changi's T2, because Penang Culture in the public area offers authentic hawker (street) food from Malaysian island Penang, such as prawn noodles, coconut rice, rojak fruit-and-vegetable salad and a great char kway teow or stir-fried flat-rice noodles topped with beansprouts, Chinese sausage and prawns. An interesting Penang-style laksa comes without coconut milk but with mackerel and pineapple slices, and is slightly sour and lemony. See gdgroup.com.sg
NEW YORK JFK
Five Borough Food Hall in JFK's T4 brings street food into the airport with its novel concept of food-truck fare in a food-hall setting. There's even the occasional actual vintage food truck, one of which serves an interesting variety of world sandwiches such as Vietnamese banh mi and Italian salami baguettes. Elsewhere, you can also choose from among Korean noodles, Mexican tacos and Middle Eastern wraps. See jfkt4.nyc
ABU DHABI
You'll find something a little different in T3 at the Montreux Jazz Cafe, a chain founded by Montreux Jazz Festival's legendary founder Claude Nobs, who trained as a chef in Switzerland. Screens play concert footage of jazz greats in action. The menu wanders the globe, providing quality salmon cakes with scrambled eggs, duck spring rolls or Thai red curry. Follow up with a blackberry cheesecake, an Ella Fitzgerald favourite. See montreuxjazzcafe.com
VIENNA
Ready for dessert? If so, you could hardly get a better name in confectionary than the legendary Demel, which once served the Austro-Hungarian imperial court. Its T3 outlet provides a mouth-watering display of cakes and pastries, including its own chocolate-and-nougat demel torte, strudels, Hungarian dobos layered cake, the Eastern European speciality gugelhof and various cream slices. You can get authentic Viennese coffee varieties as an accompaniment. See demel.com
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