Maestro Pizza in the Miami airport is going viral for being a terrible circle of regret rather than anything resembling food.
Maestro Pizza – MIA Airport
byu/TheIndustrialMachine inPizza
Online reviews are about what you’d expect,
Quite possibly the worst pizza ever. It was like pizza box cardboard with melted cheese on top. It makes little Cesar’s look like 5 stars.
Only food option in this section of the airport. My kids and I had to wait about 45 minutes to get 2 small pizzas. The pizzas were already pre made and in the warmer but the line moved very slow. The staff was also not friendly.
I have to agree with everyone else’s reviews about this place. There’s really not much else around this part of the terminal. You’re stuck with eating from here.
Just don’t do it. It’s way too expensive for a flat piece of rubber with sauce and cheese on top. 4 small slices of yuck.
What’s striking is that people seem surprised by what they’re getting, but most people don’t travel often enough to develop a theory of and understanding for what they’re getting at the airport.
- Food isn’t chosen for quality. It’s chosen to feed a captive audience while earning a rate of return for the airport, for concessionaires, and for licensed brands all while covering much higher than usual labor and food costs. Airport vendor selection is often corrupt.
- And the constraints of operating inside the airport make getting a decent meal almost impossible.
An airport restaurant is likely to be bad because:
- Restaurants have to bring everything in through security they can’t do just in time delivery of food. There are limits on when things can be brought in, they can’t generally bring supplies down the concourse at peak travel times.
- They can’t work with the best vendors There are often rules about which companies can bring food through security.
- Space is limited so you can’t do much storage. In fact Tortas Frontera has a separate prep kitchen that customers can’t see, with ingredients run from that kitchen out to concourse locations.
- Electric cook tops The airport may not permit gas ovens, so everything has to get re-created using electric.
- Knives chained to the wall Security constrains your chefs, their knives frequently have to be tethered to a wall to prevent being taken (and inventoried every day).
- Employees are hard to get they need to pass security checks, and that takes time, so hiring on the spot is difficult. You often get worse employees that can pass a background check but have few less cumbersome options that don’t involve commuting to the airport.
- Lowest common denominator cooking Passengers usually choose a restaurant because it is there, they do not go to the airport because of the restaurant (Tortas Frontera is an exception which does influence some passengers’ choice of connection). People need to be served quickly, and tastes vary. The space has to be used to serve as many people as possible as quickly as possible, you even see brands that do not serve breakfast out of the airport offering breakfast items (Asian restaurants serving eggs or breakfast tacos). Rents are high so you need high volume as well.
- Despite high cost and hassle you can’t charge more many airports have street pricing rules that cap how much more items can cost in the airport (perhaps exceeding off-airport pricing by no more than 10%).
At the end of the day, concessions companies like HMSHost, Delaware North, and OTG deliver a terrible product to a lot of people who need to be served quickly.
And I don’t want to hear your protestations about One Flew South in Atlanta. There is only one airport eating spot that puts out food worth eating if you weren’t captive there: Tortas Frontera.
It’s a standout because name chef Rick Bayless cared more about the product than about his take, and he had the juice to get it done.
- Getting his own purveyor licensed to access the airport, with local suppliers using that purveyor
- He actually tweaked recipes based on testing having them sit in to-go boxes for an hour (since people takeaway the food, go to their gates and board and often eat them once ensconced at their seat) – the food is actually optimized for how people will experience it
- Refusing to premake the food, and declining HMSHost’s advice to eschew spice
- Insisting on a separate prep kitchen supplying restaurants to overcome space constraints
I’ve actually chosen to connect through O’Hare, knowing that I can have a Tortas Frontera sandwich rather than the options served elsewhere. And I’ll pick one of these up, instead of eating in the American Airlines Admirals Club and skipping a meal in first class on my next flight. There’s no other airport eatery in the country where I’d say the same thing, and indeed no other airport venue outside of Asia where that’s true.
@ Gary — This resembles one of the dinner options for my upcoming Polaris international flight.
Gary – Rather than pizza on next pass through MIA, have Cuban food in any of the D Concourse Cuban restaurants. They are well recognized names and have amazing food. I lived in Chicago for 13 years and loved it when Tortas Frontera opened at United’s ORD B gates. (an Asian restaurant serving sushi opened between UA terminals that was also excellent) MIA’s Cuban food competes well with Rick Bayless’s. There’s more at MIA that is delicious but let’s start there.
I have had pretty good meals at the Anchor Bar located airside at BUF. Mind you that they aren’t exactly cheap. I have ate both airside and streetside at LAX and have had good meals at each. Probably the Tom Bradley terminal is best for that. There are airports that I have had bad meals at. I don’t like O’Hare but there is some really good food in Chicago and even at a reasonable price, so if the fare is bad at O’Hare it is because of tolerating poor standards there. I have only been to Miami Airport during one trip and did not need to eat there. It is always good to have some snacks with you if you are not familiar with the airport.
Brandon is bringing in all the future airport cooks across the southern border , and Camel-a is in charge, laughing hysterically .
@ Alert — You appear to be a typical low-education Dump voter. They have GED programs for people like you.
I have flown through Miami multiple times ( Terminal D) and I have found ample decent food choices including Pizza. Looking at a directory one time I counted 44 food locations in D alone. At the time I thought of it as a restaurant row that happens to have planes flying in and out of it. The food is certainly not gourmet at MIA but I have found it to be more than serviceable for airport food.
Gary,
I have had good meals at the Pappadeaux and Pappasitos in DFW. IMHO very similar quality as their non-airport locations. Wouldn’t connect through DFW just to eat there but if connecting would likely visit instead of going to Terminal D for Centurion Lounge.
There is good Cuban food in Miami Airport. Go to Ku-Va Restaurant, it is excellent and not overpriced.
Come on. Frontera is trash Chicago food. Terrible stuff. ORD has no good food options. Sure that’s the best of the garbage. SFO’s Urban Tortilla is good and LAX TBIT has some decent choices. I find people from Chicago have no idea what actual good food is. It’s all over marketed trough food there like Frontera.
And yes Gene, Polaris food blows. Everyone on the planet knows that already. But keep beating that drum. Maybe some day UA will give a damn. I’m not holding my breath.
Did a volunteer event at a NJ food bank. Our task was to make premade croissant sandwiches. Where were those sandwiches going? They were to be sold at the old EWR terminal A Hudson News.
Have not bought premade at an airport since.
It’s like going to Paris and complaining about Billy Bob BBQ. While in MIA, Cuban all the way.
Seems like many passengers at MIA are forgoing the food these days and going straight for the assault and battery instead.
After a few disappointments in food selection at MIA airport I have gone the route of picking up a tasty sub or wrap at a Publix and enjoying a much better meal, at a lower price, at the airport.
@Gabe,
Agree! The fried chicken from Publix is also perfect for the occasional guilty pleasure.
MIA actually has some decent sit down restaurants with fresh quite good food. Mostly Cuban food and it’s worth getting to the airport a bit earlier to have a nice meal. MIA is one of those rare exceptions with decent food choices. There is garbage/fast food, but also good quality food at nice restaurants. That is not the typical airport experience. Contrast that with most other airports and this place tends to be a stand out. Next time in MIA, Terminal D, check out Cafe Kuva.
Sushi Maki and MIA is passable. Matsutake Sushi at DCA is better than most casual sushi joints in DMV area.
Bad food aside, my biggest annoyance with airport restaurants is when the staff seems genuinely surprised that all these people have shown up expecting to eat. So many airport restaurants are routinely understaffed, so that they cannot handle the demand in a timely manner. On a recent trip through MSP my wife and I wanted a quick bite during a short layover. There were two choices close enough to our gate to possibly work. At one, the line was snaking out into the terminal and was obviously going to be a much longer wait than we could afford. The second place next door had no line, but the cashier told us they only had one person in the kitchen, so it would be a 30 minute wait for our food to come out. Bottom line: Off we went to board our plane, hungry.
The thing is, unlike restaurants outside the airport environment, the places in the airport know how many people are going to be passing through their terminals each day, and roughly when that is going to happen. They know the flight schedules. So how can they be understaffed at the times when everyone knows it is going to be busy? Or more accurately, how can airport management allow this to go on?
I’d love to be able to read a travel blog (or anything) without people mistaking it for thier polital stage. Why aren’t sites moderated for relevance and lack of intelligence. People just like to stir things up – I guess that says something about their quality of life.
Alert – “laughing hysterically”-? It seems that you are easily amused. Until recently I had thought only 6 year olds got so much joy from making fun of people’s names.
Gene – You’re no better. Way to lump a big portion of the population into an uninformed stereotype.
I look back fondly on the days that people could amicably have a difference of opinion without each side thinking the other must be stupid and telling them so.
I’m with you Carl.
The new Louis Armstrong Terminal in New Orleans is HANDS DOWN the BEST of any airport in the United States. From Café du Monde to Emeril’s (whose bacon egg and cheese on a Brioche roll with Roumelade sauce is the best I have ever had at an airport,) there something for everyone and it’s VERY GOOD! Granted, it is a bit pricey but it’s a new terminal and I’m sure the rent is high so the passengers pay for it. Regardless, the food quality is very good.
My favorite airport restaurant by far is Root Down in the Southwest C Gates section of the Denver airport. I happened to be in Denver and ate at their main location and they were telling me they were opening at the airport that Saturday, which happened to be the day I was flying out. So, I ate there on the first day they opened in the airport, and it was just as good as their main location, just a more limited menu.
Now, anytime I am flying to the west coast, I try to use Southwest and connect through Denver just so I can eat there. I highly recommend the Beat Salad, the Lamb Sliders, and a Don Draper, their version of an Old Fashioned.
I’ve flown through MIA alot and I know the “restaurant” this article refers to. As one would expect it’s in terminal G where Spirit and Southwest fly out of. What a surprise! (Sarcasm). Terminal D is the only terminal at MIA with a couple of decent food and drink options. MIA in general is a terrible airport, there’s not a single bathroom on the entire check-in level, you have to either go down to baggage claim or go through security to access a toilet.