DC-3 Gifts & Grill aka Runway Cafe At Catalina Airport

Good food, slow service.

Had a wonderful guy named Gary show us parts of Catalina that most don’t get to see, so felt really special!
He brought us to the airport and we had lunch here. The view from up here is priceless and incomparable! How lucky we felt to be up there!
We even saw a buffalo on the way!
We went into the restaurant which is also a store that sells gifts items and interesting stuff. You order your food at the counter and they call your name when it is ready.
Tri tip tacos were good and came with chips and salsa. DC chicken sandwich was good and came with French fries. We had wine and beers.
We ate on the patio which had a breath taking view of island and mainland. It was worth it for the view.
If you come to Catalina, try to go up there, you won’t be sorry!

My significant other has flown in here a number of files over the years, but this time we took the Catalina Express and his daughter and family were with us. We took an island tour service (they get their own review), and we had a whole 30 minutes to get food.
No bison burgers if we were on the tour. Abbreviated, overpriced menu. $ 12.50 for 2 small bison street tacos with chips. $ 7.50 for a buffalo hot dog. Period. Nothing with it except onions and relish. Costco dogs are bigger. Much bigger. 3 hotdogs, 2 taco plates, 5 sodas $ 70. Had less than 10 minutes to eat. Was it worth it? Hell no. They had one speed — slow. We had about 20 people on our touring conveyance and it took 15 minutes to get all the orders taken. This was a Sunday and busy. We felt that they were inadequately staffed. My S/​O noted he had never seen so many planes parked there. He was extremely disappointed, as he has been here at least a half a dozen times and had a wonderful experience each time. This was something he had been looking forward to sharing with his daughter and her family.
When he asked me before we left the island if I could write a review, I agreed. I rarely write a negative review, but this was warranted. I cannot wholly blame the café, because time was an issue. However, I can comment on the outrageous prices for mediocre food and slow service. BTW, our sodas barely had any ice, and two of us had ice tea. Gross.
The $ 2.50 cookies highly hyped by our tour guide were decent. Filled up those that had the hot dogs.
Also, Catalina hosts between 800k and 1 million tourists every summer. It is not cheap to do or buy anything on the Island. The buffalo meat, patties or dogs can’t be from the bison they maintain on the island. The herd is kept at less than 150. It’s a very expensive marketing ploy. It’s not stated outright, but it is an allowed allusion.
I really wish we ate in Avalon at one of the places that served buffalo burgers in town. Lesson learned.

Just flew in today the gang got buffalo burgers and buffalo tacos… The food is a solid 2 stars, 3 if your generous, but the experience, 5 stars. Because of that I say this restaurant is 4 stars. If you’re coming from Avalon I would say you can skip it if you’re flying it’s worth a try…

Had lunch here on New Years Day, great food and service! Food was excellent and what a great view. Will be back in the future!

We stopped here during a 2-​hour jeep tour of the island. Our guide recommended the big, homemade cookies. We tried all three and were so happy-​they were awesome!

Charming little diner built around 1946 if it were constructed at the same time as the airport. The little annex is built in a faux Spanish Colonial style with baked red clay singles, white «adobe» walls, windows trimmed in dark rustic wood framing.
The inside has the obligatory horizontal wooden beams supporting the roof, narrow wooden paneling with framed pictures on every part of the walls. The wooden chairs look like the hand crafted «ranchero» style painted in red, green, & white like that of the Mexican flag which this part of the US was until the U.S. took it in the Mexican War of 1848. Each table has a different oil cloth table cloth which gives the place a homey down home feel.
We took the «Inland Tour» of Catalina Island & there was a 30 minute break since this was midway in tour. I knew that Runway Café was supposed to have a great Buffalo Burger when I visited the Catalina Airport previously on another trip when I rode in a single engine Cesna with a friend. However, the air turbulence & the steep approach to the runway got me air sick so I thought this was the rare opportunity to sink my teeth into their infamous Buffalo Burger.
There was a catch. Another friend & I rushed into the Café to hurry up & order before the other passengers in the Inland Tour could beat us to it. The waitress told me that she wasn’t supposed to serve any of the Inland Tour passengers since the break had to end 30 minutes sharp. Since no other passengers entered the Café, I assured the waitress that we could finish in the allotted time.
I’m glad that the waitress took pity on us since we really were starving having skipped breakfast to make it to the Inland tour. The Buffalo Burger seemed to take only about 5 minutes to make. Their buffalo meat is full of a straight on meaty Umami that was more robust than regular beef, but somehow leaner with more rugged texture.
The fixings for the hamburger were pre-​assembled so all they had to do was put the hot, sizzling buffalo patty in & it was served instantly to us. The contrast of the heat, meaty Umami, beefy texture, meaty steam coming off the patty, the cool crispness of the lettuce & light acidity of the thinly sliced tomato still makes me want to wend my way to that small, homey airstrip.
This burger may have been the best I have ever eaten. I still remember it to this day. Unfortunately, it is one of the more inaccessible burgers to obtain. Maybe part of the mystique of this Buffalo Burger is that you have to really work for it to get it. As in most things in life, the things that are worth the most are the things you have to strive & earn.
PS Open daily from 8:30am to 4:30pm. Outdoor/​indoor/​counter seating available.

Tradition!

Uh-​mazing staff (especially considering they can be slammed with the occasional grumpy/​demanding/​snooty tourists)! Delicious food! Fantastic cookies!

The Service is * * * * * AWESOME
The Food is * * * A-​OKAY!
I had the bison/​buffalo hamburger. It was good ‘tho I can’t tell much difference between that an a standard beef Cow hamburger.
The service was good, friendly and fast. The food was prepared cooked to order fresh, and didn’t take long at all, pretty efficient.
It’s a great place at the Catalina Island Airport, since it’s the only local place around without having to ride out a half hour into the local town.
It’s a pilot’s paradise, a perfect pit-​stop.

DC-​3 Grill offers a pretty good selection of sandwiches. I enjoyed the view of beautiful Catalina while eating their touted buffalo burger and fries. Maybe it’s my pallet, but the buffalo burger tasted like a beef burger to me. I’ll definitely go back and try their other selections, though.

This was our halfway stop during the inside adventure tour. They have a lovely patio overlooking the mountainous scenery. The tour guide on the bus told us this café was famous for its cookies so my party decided to get some. I got the chocolate chip oatmeal raisin cookie, which was about $ 2.50 I believe. It’s a pretty big cookie and I have to say, it really was good. Not too sweet and great balance of a crispy exterior and chewy interior. We also ordered some Arnold Palmers (lemonade with iced tea), but they were just okay. The iced tea overpowered the lemonade in my opinion.
If you ever stop by here, try the cookies!
P. S. $ 10 credit card minimum.

Great location. I ate on the patio and was able to watch bison graze on a far off hill. How many places in the world can you do that?
Kurt is a pretty fun guy I met at Luau Larry’s the night before. He recommended the Tower sandwich, which is a Tri-​Tip on sourdough — it was good. The fries were cooked in some kind of healthier type oil, so they weren’t greasy at all — real good.
I didn’t have any problems with the speed of service, but when I was there it was pretty quiet, just me and a few other people.
Free refills on the drinks. A huge plus when it’s summer hot and you have a 10 mile hike ahead of you back into town.
There is a nice little nature/vistor’s center right outside. Also a small but nice botanical garden.
Gift shop is small but nice.
If you catch the 7:45AM hiker’s special shuttle, you can ride up with the owner and chat with her.

A hot dog takes 10 – 15 minutes.
A burger takes 30 minutes.
And the waitress that served us looks like she had a long day (which it was only 11:30am) and she talks like people who is about to die (still catching the last breath kind).
Need I say more?
If you are there and super hungry?
Just get some chips and water, it will spare you a lot time.

The infamous «Buffalo Burger» was no more appealing than a big mac from good ol’ mickey D’s. This, also being doused in some real bad service offered by an older gentleman whose name I wish I wrote down before I left.
Extremely rude and cynical and very unhelpful towards other patrons.
I will never come back here unless this guy is fired, in fact, I might just buy this place so I can fire the guy.
However, I must add that the journey of flying to the majestic Catalina and the challenge of landing on the well known «Airport in the Sky» is well worth it.
As someone once said, life is about the journey, not the destination.

1600 feet above sea level atop the magical island of Santa Catalina! Loved it! We stopped here on the Extreme Adventure tour for our break before heading back down. Pretty cool to see the Hangar and air strip where private planes come in thru or the UPS guy. What I ordered:
Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies 2.25 (Huge Okay taste)
THE DC-​3 Sourdough Sandwich
Choice of burger with provolone cheese, lettuce & our spicy chipotle sauce
Hamburger ~ 9.95
The burger was fresh hot and ready! We waited about 10 minutes for our food and got to sit outside in the beautiful weather and enjoy the scenic view from the mountains. Pretty cool stop in my book and a great gift shop while you are waiting.

Stopped here with the Adventure Tour. We had only 15 minutes for all of us to eat. By the time we got the orders we had 3 minutes to eat it. We got overprices turkey cold cut sandwiches that really were not that good. Wish we waited until the tour was over and ate a real lunch in town.
The driver hyped these cookies, eh, for a $ 2.25 cookie, I didnt think it was that great. Only had a few bites. Though it was more satisfying than the sandwich.

3 Stars for the food, 5 for the prices and location– voila, 4 star rating. We walked the 11 miles uphill from Avalon to the airport, so they probably could have fed us shoeleather and we would have ate it, but the food was decent. Had the tuna melt (mediocre) and the tower, which is their tri tip and horseradish concoction (good), plus fries and a salad, washed down with a few beers. Would come back, though I would probably bike instead of walk next time, it was a bear of a hike…

We were starving when we arrived at the airport as a part of the Inland Motor Tour. The line to order was short but the wait was painfully long. It was Day 3 of my Catalina trip and my expectations for food at this point were very low.
Luckily, the Runway Café exceeded my expectations. The prices are decent, the outdoor seating is really nice, and the cookies are delicious. But since my standards had deteriorated so much, it’s still only 3 stars on the regular scale.
We ordered 1 classic hamburger and 1 tri-​tip sandwich. Honestly, I didn’t like the burger but the bf said that it was pretty good. (I don’t know if I trust his taste buds.) My tri-​tip sandwich was tasty and so was the side of cole slaw that accompanied it.
I’m not so sure about the «gifts» part of the place. I wanted a stuffed buffalo but the ones they had were expensive ($ 35) and ugly. I don’t want to be hugging an ugly buffalo in bed.

It is not often that I wake up in Altadena go visit friends in San Gabriel, hop in their plane and shoot out to Catalina, eat breakfast, enjoy the morning and come back home before noon followed by work on a Sunday morning, however that pretty much sums up my morning yesterday.
The experience was a definite 5 star!!! But the food not so much, some of it was 1 star (see pancakes… bread thing) and some was 3 star (Buffalo chili omelet although cold and I make better chili at home but still palatable) but the atmosphere being in the top of the world in Catalina is definitely a 5 star location. Would I go back? In an instant, for the food alone? No, but for the whole experience you betcha!