After compiling the results from Yelp, Zagat, and JD Power, the travel service RewardExpert has named Denver Int'l number 1 in the nation when it comes to the quality and healthiness of its food. The airport is number 2 where price and selection are concerned. There's some pretty good beer there too (personal review)...

http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/ ... ml?ana=lnk

Article quote:

"That's according to travel service RewardExpert's ' 2017 Airport Dining Scorecard,' which said it ranked dining options at the 20 busiest U.S. airports using a combination of Yelp scores, Zagat restaurant reviews, healthiness ratings, and JD Power rankings."

"DIA outdistanced the field, topping Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix and Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in Atlanta.
'Ranked the highest in overall quality and second in price and variety, ... DIA offers a breadth of excellent choices at a low price,' RewardExpert said in a Tuesday statement.
The airport's Root Down restaurant in Concourse C was singled out for excellence."

nitepilot79 wrote:

There's some pretty good beer there too (personal review)...

IMHO, PDX is hands down the best airport for beer. It also has landside prices in the terminal

I wonder which DIA they are visiting?

I work here and the prices are very expensive, the food choices are mostly fast food, and ironically the speed of said fast food joints are SLOW.

I'm obviously partial to PHX, but they have done an outstanding job especially in T4 at bringing notable local restaurants into the airport for quality cuisine and great beer selections. T3, and T2 don't really have the same options, but hopefully the new T3 will be brought into line with T4 once the renovations are complete.

I never found DEN a great food airport. I have always thought it had lackluster options for an airport of its size, but admittedly I haven't really ever sought out food other than walking by since PHX is always a short hop away.

Others that I personally enjoy are ATL, PDX, SEA, SLC and SAN.

jetmatt777 wrote:

I wonder which DIA they are visiting?

I work here and the prices are very expensive, the food choices are mostly fast food, and ironically the speed of said fast food joints are SLOW.

Too bad to hear. I've never had the food, but the local beer offerings are pretty good.

nitepilot79 wrote:

jetmatt777 wrote:

I wonder which DIA they are visiting?

I work here and the prices are very expensive, the food choices are mostly fast food, and ironically the speed of said fast food joints are SLOW.

Too bad to hear. I've never had the food, but the local beer offerings are pretty good.

I'll agree with the beer (off the clock) but I really don't see anything outstanding about the food choices.

FAKE NEWS!

But seriously, as a DEN native and as someone who loves DEN as an airport, I would never say it has the best food in the US. At least in the west, I think SFO is best, or LAX TBIT, with PDX being second. DEN Concourse C has been revamped to have some good offerings, but B and A are still stuck in the last decade. Having more decent coffee options (even just more Starbucks) would make a huge improvement over the overly-sugary Caribous that are everywhere and "I Can't Believe It's Not Seattle's Best."

DEN is not the worst, but I would never think it's the best when it comes to food.

jetmatt777 wrote:

I wonder which DIA they are visiting?

I work here and the prices are very expensive, the food choices are mostly fast food, and ironically the speed of said fast food joints are SLOW.

I was also a bit surprised to hear this as DEN is my home airport and it does seem fast food heavy, and you're correct re: the slowness of service. They have, however, added a lot of really good local places like Root Down, Elway's, the Chophouse, La Casita, and Happy Cakes. I think the experience is also really dependent on which concourse you're flying out of. A's selection is just not as good as B's and C's.

Ask most pax and they will tell you they just want a Mcdonalds/Subway/Starbucks before the flight...

The last airport I ate from was IAH. I bought a chicken-salad sandwich from a little food stand. It really wasn't all that bad and it was cheaper than Cat Cora's.

intotheair wrote:

FAKE NEWS!

But seriously, as a DEN native and as someone who loves DEN as an airport, I would never say it has the best food in the US. At least in the west, I think SFO is best, or LAX TBIT, with PDX being second. DEN Concourse C has been revamped to have some good offerings, but B and A are still stuck in the last decade. Having more decent coffee options (even just more Starbucks) would make a huge improvement over the overly-sugary Caribous that are everywhere and "I Can't Believe It's Not Seattle's Best."

DEN is not the worst, but I would never think it's the best when it comes to food.

SFO prices make DEN seem like they're giving it away.

nitepilot79 wrote:

The last airport I ate from was IAH. I bought a chicken-salad sandwich from a little food stand. It really wasn't all that bad and it was cheaper than Cat Cora's.

Whataburger is the only reason to go to IAH

OSUk1d wrote:

intotheair wrote:

FAKE NEWS!

But seriously, as a DEN native and as someone who loves DEN as an airport, I would never say it has the best food in the US. At least in the west, I think SFO is best, or LAX TBIT, with PDX being second. DEN Concourse C has been revamped to have some good offerings, but B and A are still stuck in the last decade. Having more decent coffee options (even just more Starbucks) would make a huge improvement over the overly-sugary Caribous that are everywhere and "I Can't Believe It's Not Seattle's Best."

DEN is not the worst, but I would never think it's the best when it comes to food.

SFO prices make DEN seem like they're giving it away.

I think it also depends on the terminal/concourse. The WN concourse at SFO is lacking on food options. Then again WN isn't a hub/focus city at SFO so many its area for this doesn't count.

SFO is overpriced. And also less choices in UA's international concourse(91-104?) than before. Seems like they took out a couple of food places in international, and added more shops in their place.

DEN is decent. Can't say #1, though. But the beer is good.

There was a really good Chinese dumpling place in ORD but other than that it isnt too good.

Jshank83 wrote:

OSUk1d wrote:

intotheair wrote:

FAKE NEWS!

But seriously, as a DEN native and as someone who loves DEN as an airport, I would never say it has the best food in the US. At least in the west, I think SFO is best, or LAX TBIT, with PDX being second. DEN Concourse C has been revamped to have some good offerings, but B and A are still stuck in the last decade. Having more decent coffee options (even just more Starbucks) would make a huge improvement over the overly-sugary Caribous that are everywhere and "I Can't Believe It's Not Seattle's Best."

DEN is not the worst, but I would never think it's the best when it comes to food.

SFO prices make DEN seem like they're giving it away.

I think it also depends on the terminal/concourse. The WN concourse at SFO is lacking on food options. Then again WN isn't a hub/focus city at SFO so many its area for this doesn't count.

I think all airport food is overpriced. They have a captive audience, so they can charge whatever they want. Whenever I buy a sandwich at an airport in the U.S., I never really expect the sandwich alone to be anywhere south of $10. So as long as I'm paying that, I might as well get a good sandwich. Klein's Deli at SFO beats anything at DEN in A or B. In C, I suppose Mod Market is on the same level. Maybe Vino Volo in A too, but that's sit-down.

Again, it's not necessarily bad food at DEN — I just would never think to call it #1. I suppose too that I would complain less if there were some sort of decent coffee place anywhere in A or in the low-numbered gate end of B. The Lavazza near Gate A32-ish isn't all that great, and I can't stand the Caribous that are everywhere.

I also wish Chipotle, a hometown company, had a restaurant at DEN. The one at IAD is excellent.

OSUk1d wrote:

intotheair wrote:

FAKE NEWS!

But seriously, as a DEN native and as someone who loves DEN as an airport, I would never say it has the best food in the US. At least in the west, I think SFO is best, or LAX TBIT, with PDX being second. DEN Concourse C has been revamped to have some good offerings, but B and A are still stuck in the last decade. Having more decent coffee options (even just more Starbucks) would make a huge improvement over the overly-sugary Caribous that are everywhere and "I Can't Believe It's Not Seattle's Best."

DEN is not the worst, but I would never think it's the best when it comes to food.

SFO prices make DEN seem like they're giving it away.

True, but the quality is worth it. SFO has the best food, hands down.

Can you get a decent Gumbo at any U.S. airport other than MSY? Get real, people.

I have never been impressed by any of DEN's food offerings...

I don't see it. I've been to DEN a few times and I always thought that as a hub the food choices were poor. Then again I've never been to the UA side of the operation. Maybe things are better there. I always thought MSP had a pretty good selection.

OSUk1d wrote:

nitepilot79 wrote:

The last airport I ate from was IAH. I bought a chicken-salad sandwich from a little food stand. It really wasn't all that bad and it was cheaper than Cat Cora's.

Whataburger is the only reason to go to IAH

Damn! I wish I had known. I didn't see it in the area where I was, but I had been up for 36 hours or so. Put that together with jet lag from the second consecutive leg of my trip (14-hour flight) and still having another leg to go, and I can see how I could've have missed Whataburger. Too bad because I sure could've used a burger and fries without having to pay out the nose for them.

OSUk1d wrote:

intotheair wrote:

FAKE NEWS!

But seriously, as a DEN native and as someone who loves DEN as an airport, I would never say it has the best food in the US. At least in the west, I think SFO is best, or LAX TBIT, with PDX being second. DEN Concourse C has been revamped to have some good offerings, but B and A are still stuck in the last decade. Having more decent coffee options (even just more Starbucks) would make a huge improvement over the overly-sugary Caribous that are everywhere and "I Can't Believe It's Not Seattle's Best."

DEN is not the worst, but I would never think it's the best when it comes to food.

SFO prices make DEN seem like they're giving it away.

I fly out of both SFO and OAK several times per year. I agree that food at SFO is expensive, but, to me, it's more in line with the prices you would see in the city. As far as DEN is concerned, I remember having a burrito at a restaurant in Concourse B that cost about the same as Chipotle, but was (in my opinion) a lot better. Combined with a milk stout from Left Hand Brewing, it was a very tasty meal!

Always got a good breakfast at ATL with friendly serving staff, going back a bit now though.
Best breakfast of all YYZ! I know it`s not a hub......I also know it`s in Canada

PDX and SEA are my favorites that I transit regularly. Pricing is good, it's healthy if you want, and it's reasonably quick. Phoenix is great in areas (D for sure!), but the $5 4.0 oz coffee from Cartel is downright cruel. I wish Lola was inside security.

My absolute favorite airport restaurant is Ecco in Atlanta. It's over in F. Delicious. When I'd fly thru ATL, I'd purposely schedule long layovers to get lunch or dinner there. Everything else about ATL sucks, except that place.

Everything about the domestic side of ORD sucks. SFO is awful (I get dinner in the CX lounge now). LAS is just awful and charges stupid prices.

intotheair wrote:

Jshank83 wrote:

OSUk1d wrote:

SFO prices make DEN seem like they're giving it away.

I think it also depends on the terminal/concourse. The WN concourse at SFO is lacking on food options. Then again WN isn't a hub/focus city at SFO so many its area for this doesn't count.

I think all airport food is overpriced. They have a captive audience, so they can charge whatever they want.

Not in Portland. Restaurants are not allowed to charge more than what they would outside of the airport. It's part of the deal.

In the East, my vote goes to CLT

intotheair wrote:

FAKE NEWS!

But seriously, as a DEN native and as someone who loves DEN as an airport, I would never say it has the best food in the US. At least in the west, I think SFO is best, or LAX TBIT, with PDX being second. DEN Concourse C has been revamped to have some good offerings, but B and A are still stuck in the last decade. Having more decent coffee options (even just more Starbucks) would make a huge improvement over the overly-sugary Caribous that are everywhere and "I Can't Believe It's Not Seattle's Best."

DEN is not the worst, but I would never think it's the best when it comes to food.

Everybody's taste is different, I guess.

But I've walked the full length of B Concourse in order to get a sandwich at Heidi's Delicatessen (near gate 85) of beef with string beans at City Wok (upstairs in the central food court).

PHX and CLT are the best. reasonable and the selections are great.

on the affordable side, IAH has whataburger and blaze pizza so that's a big advantage

Whataburger and Bullrito's at IAH are awesome.

Five Guys at RDU is great.

Not a big fan of SJC's options.