Auckland, Paris airports home to some of the best food for flyers

Chef Thierry Marx was awarded the Airport Casual Dining Restaurant of the Year FAB Award for his Teppan concept in Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport. Image: AFP/Miguel Medina via AFP Relaxnews

Where is the best place to eat while waiting to board a plane? The Airport Food & Beverage Awards recently recognized the top in overall airport offerings, casual dining as well as bars and coffee spots.

According to the jury of the 2019 FAB Awards, which honors the best in airport dining, passengers in Auckland, New Zealand should not worry about going to the airport on an empty stomach. The city’s international airport was awarded the Airport Food and Beverage Offer of the Year prize, while in Europe, the distinction went to Copenhagen, Denmark; in the Americas to Minneapolis-Saint Paul; and in the Middle East/Africa/India, to Dubai Concourse B.

The highest praise for sit-down dining went to France, with Thierry Marx’s Teppan taking top honors in the Airport Casual Dining Restaurant of the Year. The chic Charles de Gaulle-Roissy Terminal 1 eatery, inaugurated in the spring of 2018, sees the Mandarin Oriental Paris’s Michelin-starred chef sharing his love for Japanese culinary culture in the terminal’s public area. In Marx’s interpretation of teppanyaki cooking, a wide array of veggies, fish and meats are cooked on a flat grill.

The restaurant is co-owned by the ADP Group and airport-retail titan Lagardère Travel Retail France, which also took home the Food Hall of the Year and Airport Smoothie or Juice Bar of the Year prizes, with its The Daily DXB  in Dubai and Natoo in Venice airports respectively.

When it comes to coffee and tea, LAX’s Urth Caffé took the top prize (Airport Coffee, Tea, Non-alcoholic Beverage Shop), and the Health-Centered or Vegan Offer award went to Mission Yoghurt’s Root Down in Denver. HM/JB

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