Culinary Highlights: 10 of the Best Airport Restaurants Worldwide

Tired of the usual airport fast food? At ​London Heathrow’s Terminal 2, Louis Vuitton’s Le Café Cyril Lignac offers a refreshing alternative to sandwiches and wraps. In a futuristic pavilion located right next to a Louis Vuitton boutique, the croque monsieur and Caesar salad almost make you forget you’re at an airport.

The branch of ​Hong Kong’s Michelin-starred restaurant Duddell’s in Terminal 1 is consistently voted one of the best airport restaurants in the world. The menu features Cantonese delicacies from chef and former boxing champion Chan Yau Leung, such as dim sum, wok-fried specialties, and sweet sesame soup.

Award-winning Spanish chef Dabiz Muñoz spends a lot of time at airports and has long thought about how to improve the culinary offerings there. The result is his upscale fast-food restaurant, Hungry Club, in Terminal 3 of Costa del Sol Airport, where you can eat quickly – but above all, well. For example, soups (ramen or laksa), pizzas with unusual ingredients like kimchi, or special baked goods like cookies with caramelized popcorn.

Airports are often noisy and crowded. This makes the tranquility at the I love Paris restaurant by Michelin-starred chef Guy Martin in Terminal 2E at Charles de Gaulle Airport all the more surprising. There, food lovers can savor beef entrecôte and crème brûlée in a refined atmosphere beneath chandeliers, while planes take off and land seemingly silently outside the window.

Salmon sashimi, bluefin tuna sushi, and black sesame ice cream for dessert: at Sushi Kyotatsu in Terminal 1 of Narita Airport in ​Tokyo, you can enjoy Japan’s excellent cuisine one last time before heading home. All dishes are prepared with fresh ingredients from Tokyo’s world-famous Toyosu Fish Market – and you can really taste the difference!

The best beer at an airport is, of course, available at ​Munich’s Airbräu, the world’s first airport brewery. Pair it with pork knuckle, white sausages, and hearty vegetarian and vegan delicacies, which lovers of hearty cuisine can enjoy either in Europe’s largest covered beer garden or in the restaurant surrounded by gleaming brewing kettles.

Turkish celebrity chef and entrepreneur Nusret Gökçe opened the first branch of his Saltbae Burger restaurant at ​Istanbul International Airport in late 2023. There, people from all over the world sink their teeth into juicy burgers with and without meat before scattering in all directions. For example, the Saltbae Burger with Wagyu beef, cheddar cheese, and caramelized onions, or the Gold Burger topped with gold leaf

Tim Mälzer has already been a guest, as has the Norwegian top chef Sven Erik Renaa: at Ikarus in Hangar 7 at Salzburg Airport, the world’s most successful top chefs take turns behind the stove each month, surprising their guests with everything from experimental molecular cuisine to classic French haute cuisine.

The Vietnamese restaurant Bun Mee at ​San Francisco Airport was named one of the ten best airport restaurants worldwide by financial data firm Bloomberg in 2025. The gourmet banh mi sandwiches and rice dishes served at the counter in the Harvey Milk Terminal are truly packed with flavor and are the best proof that airport food doesn’t have to be bland.

If you don’t want to go home after your vacation in Thailand, you can at least sweeten the wait for your return flight with a dessert at the LukKaiThong restaurant in ​Bangkok Airport. The spot at Gate F is famous for “Pang Cha,” a dessert made with Thai milk tea, flavored shaved ice, tapioca pearls, whipped cream, toasted almonds, and toast soaked in syrup. The Michelin Guide Thailand also praises the restaurant’s high-quality Thai cuisine.