The best airports to eat at (and ones you should avoid)

lifestyle shot of young woman inside airport eating croissant and drinking tea, looking on the window.ready for leaving.photo taken inside airport.

You get off the plane for your five-hour stopover, and all you want is food that doesn’t come out of a foil packet.

Except the airport you’re at doesn’t have any food options. At all. Leading to you sitting around for five hours hating your life.

Okay, you got us. Almost every airport has some food options. But some are better than others.

Lucky for you, they’ve been ranked.

Today, RewardExpert released findings of its RewardExpert 2018 International Dining Scorecard; a data-driven report ranking the 15 most trafficked airports outside of the United States based on their dining options.

A ranking system based on food is our kind of ranking.

Roman Shteyn, RewardExpert CEO and co-founder, said that food can either make or break a layover or stopover.

“International travel can be a hassle. Long lines at customs, serious cases of jet lag, and tens of hours in the air followed by a lengthy wait at gate for your connection can suck the joy out of even the most long-awaited overseas trip,” he said.

“Having an exciting culinary experience can turn a long, tedious layover from a time suck to an unexpected travel adventure.”

The final rankings were determined using three indicators: quality, price and cuisine diversity.

Quality rankings were determined with a weighted average of Yelp and TripAdvisor scores for each airport’s restaurants, price scores were calculated using Yelp pricing data and cuisine diversity was evaluated using the primary cuisine categories noted in Yelp Reviews.

So which airports have the best food?

Airports throughout Asia scored higher in the list, and are typically the most well-rounded airports for top dining experiences. Four of the top five airports on the ranking are located in Asia. The quality and low price of the food at these airports definitely make being in an airport more enjoyable.

Japan’s Narita International Airport is the undisputed restaurant champion. Number one in the rankings for both taste and price, this Tokyo transportation hub is a great place to have a bite to eat. The diversity in options is middle of the pack, but the airport is chock full of Japanese varieties, like sushi, udon and onigiri.

Behind Narita is Taoyuan International Airport, Taiwan and the Hong Kong International Airport, both of which have some pretty amazing food options. See below.

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Shteyn said that the this year is the first that RewardExpert has considered quality, price and variety in it’s Dining Scorecard.

“In 2017, we analysed food options available to travellers in domestic airports in our RewardExpert 2017 Airport Dining Scorecard,” he said.

“This year we widened the lens by analysing thousands of reviews, menus and pricing data from the busiest hubs outside of the United States to determine the best international airports in terms of overall restaurant quality, price and variety to help travellers find culinary refuge from their long layovers overseas.”

Somewhat surprisingly, European airports tend to be pretty undesirable spots to grab some food during a layover. Except if you want pizza and pasta, in the case of the lowest scoring airport.

Rome’s Leonardo Da Vinci-Fuimicino Airport, scored last place in the ranking because of its low diversity in choice. This airport also scored low for quality in the areas outside of Italian cuisine. For those looking to get a burger, don’t do it. If pasta or pizza is the goal, go wild here.

But overall, European airports generally lack quality, price and cuisine choice – with four of the bottom five airports on the rankings being European. So we know which airports we’ll avoid stopping in.

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Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au

2018 International Dining Scorecard Japan’s Narita International Airport Leonardo Da Vinci-Fuimicino Airport RewardExpert