WASHINGTON — While airports may not be the first place you think of to get your favorite meals, those traveling to and from Baltimore are in luck: BWI airport has some of the best airport food in the country, according to a new study.
Out of the 50 busiest airports in the nation, Baltimore's cuisine ranked in the top 10 at #8, even beating Miami.
Travel site Wanderu, who conducted the study, based the rankings off these factors:
- The top 50 busiest airports in the country (based off the most recent data from the Federal Aviation Administration)
- The total amount of restaurants in each of the 50 airports
- From there, the total number of restaurants that scored a 3 or higher star rating on Yelp (out of possible 5)
- The top-ranked restaurant for each airport
The airports with the largest total number of high ranking restaurants were then sorted, creating the final rankings. For airports whose rankings were tied, Wanderu stated they gave a slight edge to those with fewer restaurants. BWI had 28 different restaurants to choose from, and 12 of them met the high-rated criteria.
And if you're thinking airport food is mostly packaged sandwiches and snack bags from kiosks, guess again -- the highest-ranking restaurant at BWI is actually sushi. Yep, Gachi House of Sushi topped the BWI ratings at #1.
BWI also enforces street pricing on all of their dining places, meaning they won't add premium prices simply for being located in the airport. From pretzels to Potbellys to diners and seafood, here's a comprehensive list of all the grub options the airport has to offer.
The airport with the best food was Denver International, according to the study.
Phoenix, Boston, Dallas and Atlanta were also in the top 10, as well as San Francisco.
The bottom of the list? Nashville International Airport, with just 16 options to choose from, and none of them in Wanderu's 'high-ranking.'
If you don't want to make the treck to BWI (who does?) but still want some solid options to eat before your trip, you're in luck: Dulles also made the list at #16. Now we're just waiting on Reagan National.
