American Airlines Admirals Club Charlotte Food and Nutrition Review

While flying on American Airlines from Nashville, Tennessee to Savannah, Georgia I had to transit through Charlotte, North Carolina. So once at Charlotte Douglas International Airport I headed to the American Airlines Admirals Club in concourse B. There are two Admirals Clubs at Charlotte – Concourse B and Concourse C. While Concourse C is the larger of the two lounges, my flight was leaving from Concourse B and there was also renovations happening in Concourse C lounge. So I decided for ease to head to the Admirals Club in Concourse B. My flight was delayed due to a thunderstorm and so I was there over 11am where the lounge switched over from breakfast to all day dining. Here are the foods available from 11am – I had to leave the lounge just after 11am so I am unsure if they had finished bringing all the foods out or not. But here are the foods I experienced in the lounge.

What’s healthy?

• Celery sticks, carrot sticks and sliced cucumber were served with crackers and a pimento cheese dip. Fresh vegetable snacks are so important to have in an airport lounge as they can be eaten any time of they day and pack a nutrient punch. The pimento dip gave nice flavour to the vegetables sticks. The carrots were really dry though – you can see the white tinge on them.

• Two beautiful salads made their appearance on the buffet just after 11am: a baby spinach and tomato salad, and a dark green leaf salad with corn, onion and pumpkin seeds (pepitas). Steer clear of the bacon bits – these are crunchy bits of basically salty, fatty processed meat. Enjoy the lovely flavours from the salad vegetables with out the bacon bits.

• A cooked BBQ glazed grilled chicken and vegetables dish was served warm on the buffet. It was great to see so many vegetables in the dish – they weren’t just a garnish or a sprinkle of vegetables. The dish was about half vegetables including carrots, broccoli, green beans and red peppers. It was great to see the dish wasn’t swimming in sauce as can happen in other lounges. The sauce complemented the chicken and vegetables – not having a whole pot of sauce and playing find the vegetables and chicken.

• Minestone soup was available – steaming hot as you can see from this picture.

• There were cheeses available if you feel like a savoury snack. Cheese can be quite a nutritious food being a good source of protein, calcium, vitamins B2 and B12 just to name a few nutrients. However there are some varieties of cheese in the US which are highly processed, such as the slices that come wrapped in cheese. I chose to have some of the Brie/Camembert cheese as I wasn’t too sure how processed the sliced cheese was.

Not so great. Caution.

• There was a large tray of salami and prosciutto which are both processed meats. It is recommended to limit processed meats due to the association with negative affects on health. If you visit this lounge regularly and enjoy salami or prosciutto try reducing how much you eat by choosing to have some every second time you visit. That way you won’t you won’t be missing out – you can still enjoy some but you are also reducing how often you have it.

• Is it even an American Airlines Admirals Club if there aren’t large trays of cookies and brownies? The way they were lined up and how many there were made me wonder if they were prepackaged and not made fresh in the kitchen. I tried the brownie which was really sweet – too sweet for me.

• There were savoury and sweet snacks available available including corn nuts and a sweet carolina mix of honey roasted nuts, and banana chips. There was also chocolate coated snacks but I can’t remember what they were under the chocolate (sultanas, nuts, cranberries????). Either way these snacks are fairly processed with added flavours such as sugar on the nuts, or salt on the corn. They can be easy to overeat if you aren’t paying attention so be mindful not to fill the cups up – try just one small scoop.

Last word on American Airlines Admirals Club Charlotte

I’ve never had great experiences of American Airlines Admirals club food pre-covid and this was my first visit back to one post-covid, so I was interested to see what the food was like now. And while not a huge selection, I was surprised there were some nutritious dishes in the Admirals Club concourse B at Charlotte. It was great to see colourful vegetables available both for snacks and for a meal. It was possible to eat fairly well in this lounge, but the choices were limited.

NOTE: All pictures of the American Airlines Admirals Club food are my own and I review a lounge from the foods and menu I see during my visit. There may be different options available at other times.