The Local at JFK

My first review on Unilocal!Sitting here drinking a $ 11 beer and staff all screaming and shouting at each other! Complete and utter chaos! I wouldn’t dare order anything from the food menu, it looks dreadful!

If I could give half of a star I would… I ordered a NY Rueben for $ 15.99 it had two or three slices of Pastrami. I sent it back as it was embarrassing to be served something as such here NYC. Even if you are starving don’t eat at this place. They deserve to be closed down!!!

The worst. Service is bad. Everyone knows they’re bad, including the servers. Unfortunately this is pretty much the only sit down place in Terminal 1 so you don’t really have a choice, but to endure the terribleness. JFK needs to get more bars/​restaurants in this terminal to increase competition, which will hopefully lead to respectable service

The «Philly cheese fondue» is Cheez Whiz. $ 11.99 for Cheez Whiz and two soggy pretzel sticks. Warm beer. Once the food and drinks were dropped off the waiter never checked on us once he dropped off our food and drinks. I am disgusted. Burger King would be infinitely better than this.

I have never had worse airport food in my life. Beer was also warm. Service okay but dude I get you are end of shift– but ask if you don’t mind if we close out don’t just throw the tabs down. Also, good thing the bathroom is right next door because you are going to need it after eating any of the food served here which I am convinced is just microwaved in the back. Get a bag of chips and an apple and starve yourself u til you get to wherever you are travelling. Avoid like plague.

I am sitting here eating what is probably the worst hamburger I have eaten in at least a year. And I eat in a lot of airports. And I paid $ 17 for the privilege. I know Terminal 1 is a culinary wasteland but this really is just beyond the pale. I think it’s a Bubba Burger or some other kind of soy-​based pre-​fab frozen substitute with some lettuce and limp bacon thrown on the grill. Took 25 minutes too.
I was debating eating in McDonald’s pre-​security. Woe, woe, woe is me! I shoulda had the Quarter Pounder.
Nice staff here for a drink, but skip the food.

The only reason they are getting a star at all is because they gave up no fight to take the food off of our check. The burgers was atrocious inedible, the flat breads are edible but obviously microwaved and not worth with price. And we had to wait over 40 minutes to even get the terrible food. Never again.

What kind of airport restaurant doesn’t do take out orders??? And they seem to be so proud of it…

It is what it is… a below average airport bar. You get what you expect, terrible food at high prices, over priced drinks and worst off all, horrible and slow service. Sadly, there aren’t really many other options.

This is the worst airport restaurant I’ve ever eaten at. Service was glacially slow, and the prices are extortionate by both New York and airport restaurant standards. The food might as well have been microwaved frozen meals.
A hamburger with cheese and bacon, including a token piece of soon-​to-​be spoiled lettuce and a tomato slice, served with soggy chips, cost $ 18.
Save the money and eat on the plane (since there are no good options in Terminal 1), it will invariably be far better, and a better deal.

Average food and Average airport prices! $ 15 – 20 for a buffalo chicken sandwich.
The service is not that great, they’re not attentive at all. Once they take your order, they won’t come back and you have to flag them down to pay.
There weren’t many other food options in this terminal so we decided to just eat here. Just don’t come in with high expectations… if you’re super hungry and desperate then come here. I mean it will get you full…

I would definitely recommend avoiding this place if at all possible. It’s the nicest looking option in the terminal, but once you get sat down and get a vibe of the place, you realize what a mistake you’ve made. I made a grave error by not checking Unilocal before eating here… hopefully this saves someone!
First off, I’m glad we had a long layover at JFK or else we would have missed our flight due solely to this place. It literally took 2 hours to order food and get out. It wasn’t particularly crowded either, which is just salt in the wound at this point. Just awful. Definitely don’t come here if you’re on a tight timeline for your next flight.
Food wasn’t awful, but it’s overpriced and comparable to the stuff you can get at the airport deli for half the price and without the 2 hour wait. They were out of several items when we got there at around 11 for lunch. I shudder to think how many things they’d be out later in the lunch rush.
Service was slow. There were two waiters working and one wasn’t doing anything and so our waitress was covering his ass and was demonstratively stressed out. Getting the bill and signing the check took 45 minutes in and of itself.
Basically, don’t do it. Any other place in the terminal with food will be a better choice.

The menu is worthless. More than half the items were not available, to include beers and mixed drinks. Per my wife,“This is the worst airport restaurant”. They even ran out of Ketchup!
Bad food with attitude

Fine food my Ass! This place would be better if they remove «fine food» from their name!

Ok Then?! What DO You Have to Drink?
Overall: .5 Stars
After passing through the annoying TSA you enter the gates of Terminal 1. Located near Gate 5 is a watering hole known as «The Local.» Knowing the booze on your International flight will suck you stop by for an overpriced drink. It states to wait to be seated, but the servers just say sit anywhere. Everything is overpriced on the wine list with the cheapest being a 6oz glass of wine. You order your wine and they don’t have it. Order a different one. Don’t have it either. Well what do you have? Of a list of about 12 wines, they have about 4 available. Reading the other reviews well tell you this is a rather common occurrence.
The wine doesn’t look appealing in the glass. It looks as though the suds from remaining soap are still in the glass.
Flight is boarding, chug it down and wave down the server to pay your check. You notice that most of the servers are wearing filthy stained clothes and seem rather unkempt. You wonder how they remain open after a health department inspection as you leave a 10% tip on the table and walk away.
Avoid this Place!

All one star reviews are right. That’s what happens when there’s no competition.
The place is super nicely designed, but they didn’t have half of the items and food tastes like a product of digestion.
But who cares about Unilocal reviews if you are stuck in the terminal and there’s no other place to eat there!

I really really wish I had checked the reviews on Unilocal before stopping to eat here. Stopped here for a quick bite before my flight and omg the worst decision ever. The food was not good. We ordered chicken wings and those were the skimpiest wings I’ve ever seen. They looked shriveled and dry. And we got a salads. The salads are just okay. We also got mojitos which were, eh. It was edible but please don’t eat here.

If this place didn’t have booze we would have left. My standards aren’t very high for airport restaurants, but this was really disappointing. I’m hoping they just came under new management because ²⁄₃ of what was on the menu they said they don’t have. Not because they ran out, they just no longer serve them and they «haven’t had time to scratch it out yet.» Some things they said they «never had its just on the menu.»
The burger, which is $ 16, says in the menu it comes with waffle fries and apples. In fact, it comes with chips. Not because they’re out of waffle fries, but because they don’t serve it with fries anymore. Yet it’s still $ 16.
We were sitting for at least 15 minutes before anyone acknowledged us. The food took 8 years to come out. The taste was lower than sub-​par.

Waited in line for at least 20 minutes and then they ran out of food before we were even seated. The food I saw on tables was very substandard. Even at its best, this place will make you wish you were somewhere else.
I’ve had passable airport food. I’ve had extremely good airport food. This is the worst of the worst.

I wish I was able to give 0 stars on Unilocal and had checked the reviews before sitting down here. This is the most incompetent restaurant I have ever had the displeasure of eating at. The only reason they even get business is because they’re the only sit down restaurant in jfk terminal 1. The waitresses avoid your stares on purpose to not serve you. I waited about 20 minutes just to be served. This alone should have been enough for me to leave. Thankfully I realized something was fishy and only ordered a chicken soup… and waited 20 minutes for it. For a soup. They’re not making anything fresh so I don’t know why it takes so long to pour soup into a bowl and bring it out. Furthermore, it was the size of my cats food bowl and cost $ 6 for a mediocre-​tasting chicken soup. What a rip off. Do not come here, ever.