I laughed when I entered the American Airlines Admirals Club Dallas Fort-Worth in Terminal C as I found it such a time warp. I hadn’t flown through Dallas-Fort Worth in nearly 10 years (thanks to Covid) and nothing had changed. To me it looked just the same as 10 years ago and my husband commented it looked the same when he first when in it nearly 20 years ago. So while this American Airlines Admirals Club at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport might not be the fanciest – was the food ok and did it have some nutritious options? I was surprised to be honest – it did have some nutritious breakfast options. I didn’t have the bar set very high in my head due to my previous experiences years ago in Admirals Clubs in the USA. I was expecting the food to have gone down hill since the covid years, but surprisingly I was able to have a fairly basic, nutritious breakfast which was great. Let’s take a look at what foods were on offer.
Firstly what stood out to me (how could you miss it with the giant banner) was there was a small food cart that had avocado toast available if you had a certain credit card. I was slightly devastated as I was really craving avocado on toast and it was right in front of my and I couldn’t have it.
What’s Healthy?
- Fresh fruit is such a nice sight in an airline lounge and after a long flight from Australia to the US I welcomed the fresh fruit available. There was a bowl with whole pieces of fresh fruit including bananas, mandarins and apples, along with chopped fruits (melons, pineapple and blueberries). Having both the whole fruit and the chopped fruit is great as you can easily eat either as a snack, or you can make a more substantial meal by taking the chopped fruit and adding yogurt. Fruits are sources of vitamins and bioactives which are important while travelling.
- Yogurt pots were available in a variety of flavours and what I liked about this was you could see the ingredients and nutrition information for the yogurt rather than placing it in a large bowl without any information. Yogurt is quite nutritious, especially if it contains live cultures (as this one does). However I found this yogurt hard to place as it did contain added sugar (about 1.5 teaspoons of added sugar per yogurt pot) with the second ingredient in the yogurt being sugar (behind milk). It would have been better to serve a plain yogurt as well to give people choice.
- There were two kinds of boiled eggs available in the American Airlines Admirals Club Dallas. There were cold boiled eggs available in a large bowl on the cold buffet and a boiled egg dish with diced tomatoes, basil and cracked pepper near the hot food buffet. Eggs are great to have when travelling as they are high in protein and are good sources of choline, Vitamin B12, Vitamin D (one of the few foods to contain vitamin D), folate, vitamin E, the antioxidants lutein and zeaxanthin, just to name a few. It was great to see both plain boiled eggs and boiled eggs with tomatoes and basil. Sometimes plain boiled eggs can get a bit boring in airport lounges, especially if you fly regularly. So adding delicious and fresh flavours of tomato and basil can really elevate the passenger experience, while also adding even more nutritious elements to the eggs.
- There were also omelets available on the hot buffet served with cheddar cheese, avocado, peppers and cilantro – which sounded like quite a balanced and nutritious dish. However I was a little suspicious of the omelets because looking at them they seemed very uniform – essentially they all looked exactly the same. It made me wonder if they were highly processed and were made like this, packaged and then re-heated. If this is the case then be mindful as there may be unwanted additives in the omelets which make them a less nutritious choice than if they were made freshly in the kitchen in the lounge. I have kept them here in the ‘healthy’ section because of the addition of avocado, peppers etc – however even then the dish could do with more of these ingredients. You don’t get much in a spoonful and it would be nice to have more avocado and peppers to get more flavours (and of course nutrients).
- I love chia pots for travel! Chia seeds are quite nutritious being a good source of protein, soluble fibre and omega 3 fats. These chia seed pots were labelled vegan and were mango, coconut and vanilla flavoured with maple syrup. Because they contain maple syrup these pots may be mindful about added sugar content.
- Oatmeal made with quick oats and water was also available. Oatmeal is a nutritious breakfast option with being a good source of soluble fibre. This oatmeal was described as being made with quick oats – these are usually rolled thinner than rolled oats to allow them to be cooked quicker. There was brown sugar and dried cranberries available to sprinkle on the oats.
Not so great. Caution.
- Quite a few sweet snacks available including muffins, pastries and slices of cake. There was no bread other than English muffins.
- On the hot buffet there were sausage links available. They were served sliced into small pieces in a bowl. Sausages are a processed meat which are recommended to be eaten only occasionally. Processed meats have been linked with negative effects on health. It was good to see the sausages sliced in to small pieces as this could help reduce how much people eat. If you like sausages then only take 2-3 pieces.
- There were two types of cereals available – both looked quite processed due to their shapes. Having a quick look at these cereals online the information shows that while made from wholegrains they both have added sugar with sugar listed as the second ingredient. Oatmeal was also available
Last word on American Airlines Admirals Club Dallas
The foods available in the American Airlines Admirals Club Dallas Fort Worth Terminal C were okay. There were wholefoods available which was good to see. It was disappointing though that some foods were only available if you had a certain credit card. I feel this is a step too far for an airline lounge. The lack of vegetables was disappointing as this made it harder to make more balanced meals. The intent seemed to be there with some of the hot dishes as they did have vegetables as ingredients but it would have been good to see a hot cooked vegetables dish and also more vegetables in the other dishes.
NOTE: All pictures of American Airlines Admirals Club Dallas Fort Worth are my own and I review the food from the foods available at the time I visited the lounge. There may be different options available at other times.
If you are flying out of Dallas-Fort Worth check out other lounge reviews including the American Airlines Flagship Lounge Dallas-Fort Worth and the Amex Centurion Lounge Dallas Fort Worth. If you are thinking of flying American Airlines First Class short haul within the USA then check out this review of American Airlines First Class from Dallas to Charlotte.
