37 Best Airport Meals Around the World, According to Travel Editors

28.06.2024 - 11:29 / cntraveler.com

This article is part of our airport food survival guide, which includes tips and tricks—even a hot take or two—that challenge the notion that airport meals are always dull, overpriced, and tasteless.

Would you believe me if I said one of the things I look forward to most when I land in India is an idli-vada combo in a cup at Hyderabad International Airport? Probably not. Would you roll your eyes at me if I said I actively crave it when I’m back home in New York City? Likely.

I wouldn’t blame you. Airport meals don’t have the best reputation for being memorable—at least not for the right reasons. Ask any traveler what they think of airport food in general and you’ll likely hear the words boring, sloppy, tasteless, and highway robbery thrown about. None of which sits well in a setting where your fate is somehow always teetering precipitously on the brink of disaster.

But surely it doesn't have to be so. Could it be that we're missing a trick or two, and that, in the morass of generally unappealing airport food, there lie some real gems? We put the ask out to our favorite travel editors and writers around the world and were flooded with responses in the affirmative. So much so that we had to get them to drop their pins on these spots—and share their favorite dish at each—all in the name of urgently needed public service.

Some of these are outposts of beloved dining establishments that let travelers savor that last little slice of local culture before they leave. Others are childhood favorites that continue to serve up Proustian madeleines as adults. Still others are surprising discoveries that become an opportunity to try something you’d never gravitate toward under usual circumstances. All of them have, at some time or other, served up comfort, even deliciousness, in the liminal space that is an airport.

Bookmark these for the next time you find yourself wondering what to eat at the airport—you may even find yourself looking forward to a layover.

Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport

Several years ago I discovered Enrique Tomás on account of a flight landing earlier than expected in Madrid. I hadn't eaten on the seven-and-a-half-hour trip, so I was positively hangry when I landed and stopped at the first thing I saw open: this spot, which I assumed was a regular airport café with mediocre, overpriced sandwiches. When I got closer, I was ecstatic to discover it was, in fact, a Spanish jamón bar that also had exceptional espresso—we're talking the 100% Iberian acorn-fed ham kind of ham stand. It was everything I needed at that moment: a jamón ibérico de bellota bocadillo that came in under 10 euros, which is a steal for airport food, and just the right size for pre- or postflight fuel. En route to