Top Airport Restaurants for Local Flavor

There's a 95 percent chance Senior Editor Christine Sarkis is thinking about travel right now. Follow her on Instagram @postcartography and Twitter @ChristineSarkis.

Christine Sarkis is an SATW-award-winning journalist and executive editor at SmarterTravel. Her stories have also appeared on USA Today, Conde Nast Traveler, Huffington Post, and Business Insider. Her advice has been featured in dozens of print and online publications including The New York Times, Conde Nast Traveler, and People magazine. She has also shared travel tips on television and radio shows including Good Morning America, Marketplace, and Here & Now. Her work has been published in the anthologies Spain from a Backpack and The Best Women's Travel Writing 2008. She is currently working on a travel memoir.

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Looking for an airport dining experience where you won’t hear, “Do you want fries with that?” Airports around the world are offering their captive audiences increasingly better options.

One trend in particular has brightened culinary horizons at the airport. More local restaurants and chefs are opening airport locations to bring regional favorites to travelers. Some cities even add a bit of glamour with airport locations of celebrity-chef-run restaurants.

Airports tend to be proud of their local outposts, so they’re often pretty easy to spot. For instance, I was in the international terminal at San Francisco International the other day and stopped to read a large poster detailing all the local options on offer, including local sushi favorite Ebisu. And unlike the restaurant in San Francisco’s Sunset District, you won’t have to wait an hour for a table at the airport location.

Not ready to leave Paris behind quite yet? With the Brasserie Flo location at Charles de Gaulle Airport, you don’t have to. You’ll get rapid service and cloth napkins, and can have one last steak tartare or creme brulee before jetting home.

Barbecue joint The Salt Lick at Austin-Bergstrom International is just one of the many local flavors available while you’re waiting for a flight. Portland, Oregon’s PDX airport has a “Uniquely Oregon” theme that delivers locally made coffee and beer, among other treats.

Looking for a celebrity-chef-inspired experience? Check out Gordon Ramsay’s Plane Food at London Heathrow, or Todd English’s Bonfire Restaurant at either New York-JFK or Boston Logan. And, New York’s JFK has other offerings from well-known local restaurateurs.

If you’re not looking to spend much on your airport snack, there are still plenty of ways to enjoy local offerings. Chicago chain Gold Coast Dogs serves up hot dogs and sausages at both O’Hare and Midway. And at Minneapolis’ MSP, you can grab salads and sandwiches from the local organic bakery French Meadow.

There are so many more to mention, so I’ll turn it over to you. What are your favorite airport outposts of local restaurants?

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