Got a wicked long layover here - 5 hours. 
Anything worth going out of my way for while I’m here for lunch?
Anything worth going out of my way for while I’m here for lunch?
Best place to eat lunch @ DFW airport? (By Noon Central Time on 4/25)
- Thread starter LesClaypool
- Start date
The Reata Grill has a decent Yelp rating if you're in the mood for Tex-Mex and not worried about gassing your fellow passengers.Got a wicked long layover here - 5 hours.
Anything worth going out of my way for while I’m here for lunch?
https://www.yelp.com/biz/reata-grill-dallas?osq=reata
DFW has a lot of good food choices and great eye candy as well (depending on the weather).
Pappadeaux for seafood, Pappasito's for Tex-Mex. Reata grill looks good, but never eaten there so I cannot vouch for it.
While there are decent BBQ options at the airport, I find that BBQ makes people stinkier when flying that most other foods so I tend to avoid when traveling.
Pappadeaux for seafood, Pappasito's for Tex-Mex. Reata grill looks good, but never eaten there so I cannot vouch for it.
While there are decent BBQ options at the airport, I find that BBQ makes people stinkier when flying that most other foods so I tend to avoid when traveling.
I've eaten at the original Reata at Sundance Square in Fort Worth, but I'd bet the two aren't the same.
Which terminal are you in? Presuming you're in A, C or E since those are the predominant domestics... A or C if you're flying American. Crappy I have calls for the next couple hours or I'd drive out!
Pappasitos would be my choice. Or there's a Cantina Laredo in terminal D that would be good.
I’m in Termnial B, but happy to go to any of the others for the right place. I’m at Cantina Laredo now. Had breakfast here @ 8. Fly out @ 1:15.
Regardless of what NotTribe says, Salt Lick is good Q. Either of the Papa's joints will leave you satisfied... hop the link over to Terminal A sir.
Got a wicked long layover here - 5 hours.
Anything worth going out of my way for while I’m here for lunch?
Honestly I’ve been underwhelmed every time I’ve eaten at the Dallas airport and I’ve eaten at all of the “highly rec’d“ spots. There’s no “must eats” that are actually good compared to if you could freely go somewhere and something to look forward to unlike One Flew South, Grindhouse Killer Burger’s, and Ludacris’ Chicken + Beer in Atlanta, La Carretas in Miami, etc...
Reata is standard Texican cuisine (grilled steaks, chicken fried steaks, tamales, tacos, burritos etc) and is highly rec’d but I found it mediocre at best and quite pricey for what it is. Cantina Laredo and Pappasitos were basically the same but ever so slightly more TexMEX less TEXmex than Reata. Same overpriced for mediocre quality food though. I’ve tried all four of the airport bbq places and the best was Saltlick (nowhere near as good as its real location which is only middle of the pack for Central Texas “bbq”) followed closely by Stampede but none are as good as you would probably find in the city. So it’s only worth stopping if you’re jonesing for overcooked and dry beef bbq with a Lonestar beer (and maybe you are). Whitetail tried to be a Dallas ripoff of One Flew South (ie fancy foodie fusion with local ingredients so you get things like quail biscuits) but I did not find it anywhere as fast in service or as good as One Flew South. So only go if you’ve got a 2+ hour wait. Pappadeux is a Dallas favourite.....that’s worse than Cooshe’s or Harry’s in Tallahassee at twice or three times the price and NOWHERE what you can get in Louisiana or even downtown Houston or Biloxi, I do NOT recommend. Surprisingly, one option that’s not terrible is Tigin Irish Pub, if you like Limey and Irish pub food favorites (bangers and mash, shepherds pie, corned beef and cabbage) it’s not bad. I’ve had better but it’s on par with what you’ll get at Universal Studios which is a good benchmark for airport food or to put another way Tigins is better Irish Pub Food than Reata’s is TexMex, Saltlick is Central Texas “BBQ”, Pappadeuxs is Cajun, or Whitetail is foodie fusion, but if you don’t already like Irish food it’s not going to make you a convert.
That’s pretty much it. I pulled up the map and my real recs would be to just go to Popeyes. I haven’t been to the chain Bahn Shop but its menu looks decent, I can’t vouch for it as I’ve never been but that’s the other place I would try whenever I’m stuck in Dallas again.
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FYI in case you're ever looking for restaurant options at airports (or anything to do with airports [ie gate maps, restrooms, etc...]) download the GateGuru app.
TripAdvisor bought then a couple years ago but hasn't really improved the product - still handy to have though.
TripAdvisor bought then a couple years ago but hasn't really improved the product - still handy to have though.
Had that a few months back, was THOROUGHLY underwhelmed, esp considering the line that clown show had.
It is what you would picture when you think "mediocre airport bbq", so perhaps I should have known better.
Think about this for a minute folks...how are you going to get FRESH BBQ at an airport?
Raise your hand if you didn't see this thing coming.
Get better food and I won’t complain. Airport food doesn’t have to suck. Atlanta, Denver, Miami, Tampa, NYC, Chicago, Philly, San Fran, LAX and DC have a couple of good food options. Charlotte, Dallas, Houston, and Ft Lauderdale don’t. I hate getting stuck in Dallas or Houston but coming out of Tally going West the odds are I’m forced into one of those two airports so I’ve eaten at both a lot and never found a great option.
100% true, but I also agree it’s the best option in the airport for bbq. The real location is honestly better for the experience than the actual food anyways as it’s nowhere as good as Kreuz or some of the other famous locations, but it’s a nice drive and a chance to get a good local wine along the way.
Curious what are your fav food options at the NYC airports?
Ever since Cibo started taking over, food options have gone in the crapper. Jetblue terminal 5 at JFK has some decent stuff but generally overrated. I believe there's a Shake Shack in the AA terminal, but a greasy burger before getting on a long flight is hardly appealing. LGA has gone to crap #ThanksCibo. I don't fly out of EWR very often but they also seem to have a number of generic choices branded as "beer gardens".
Amex Centurion Lounge at LGA is def quality though. And the 5 Guys, which I'll hit up if just taking a 2 hour flight.
I've been to the original outside Austin and the Austin AP's several times and always enjoyed it. Guess the quality control isn't good at DFW.
Clearly the answer is that you should rent a car and drive to Austin for BBQ at Franklin's.
This. They're not smoking it in the airport, so it's being cooked somewhere else, then driven in. Not going to be as good as the outside retail location.
It’s been a year since I’ve been so if they’ve started closing up spots then maybe my info is out of date. But when I was last there, they still had Artichoke Pizza, Custom Burgers, and Tagliere at Laguardia. Not five stars, but four star options and perfectly fine for your airport stay. JFK I was last there probably two or three years but they had Shake Shak as you mentioned, plus Shiso is/was connected to Morimoto and was the absolute best you could hope for out of a Japanese restaurant in an airport.
I will grant you other than Shiso, all of the options I mentioned in NYC are “low end”, but that’s how I think of NYC food anyways. Lots of great low end food items like hot dogs, pizza, bagels etc mixed in with some ultra high end options so it’s not a surprise to me that’s what the airports reflect.
But any of the NYC options I mentioned I would take in a heartbeat over what’s available at the Dallas, Houston or Charlotte airports.
I guess it might have been. Too late now. I just got off of an overnight flight where I didn’t sleep at all. Then into a 5 hour layover...
I’m just trying to make it through the day man.
Then there are several bars to handle your needs with some variation of the burger situation.
It's crazy how fast a 5 hour layover goes by. Last month missed a connecting flight in Miami and had to fly standby, 5 hour layover and it flew by. Got a lot of work done, thankfully wifi works well in MIA.
I was in JFK a couple weeks ago on 5-hour layover for work trip to Bermuda and my sister came to pick me up and get some food and visit. Barely made it back in time, Terminal 8 was packed that day, for some reason. I did miss getting my 1st class upgrade though, as they were boarding when I got to the gate. If I didn't have TSA Pre Check, probably would have missed my flight all together.
Oh, you call what you are doing work. That is special.
Hard work, sir! Tough job, but somebody has to do it.
Can I like this 1000 times?Raise your hand if you didn't see this thing coming.
One thing I did learn from this thread, and not sure I really needed to know, is somehow there is a difference between TexMex and TexMex.
I used TEXmex which is grilled steaks, country fried steaks and white people bland tacos, burritos etc... and texMEX which is white people tacos, burritos etc with slightly more spices. Neither usually have authentic Mexican dishes. I’m sure there’s some actual authentic Mexican places in Dallas but you’re not getting that in an airport. You’re getting Raeta’s TEXmex or Laredo’s texMEX.
I had no idea country fried steak was any kind of Mex. While I did live in Dallas for 3 years I was only under the impression that TexMex was a mixture of the two and never mistaken for authentic Mexican food. And yes there are plenty of authentic Mexican food in Dallas.
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