ACC American Cafe

Its rare to be able to find decent, healthy, and reasonably-​priced food anywhere — let alone in an airport! Raleigh-​Durham has such restaurant in ACC, as I found out after having a nice lunch there.
I ordered the pan-​seared tilapia with almonds, veggies (spinach, red pepper) and lemon penne pasta. Fish was cooked perfectly, had good acidity, and well seasoned. Pasta was a bit softer than I like but still pretty good — the lemony broth and veggies almost gives a Mediterranean twist to this dish.
What was more surprising is their small kale salad for an extra $ 2. Its definitely one of the best kale salads I’ve had — with soft, creamy cheese and a good amount of dried berries, seeds for crunchiness, and just enough dressing to bring it all together.
4 stars!

Bottom Décor: Cute décor, average food and average staff this is probably as good as it gets for RDU airport.
ACC American Café isn’t anything special but if you want a sit down meal at the airport this is probably the best you will find at the small Raleigh Durham Airport. The menu was American fair as the restaurant name implies — salads, sandwiches, burgers, fries, etc. They have a few TVs but with «ACC» in the name I was expecting more. I thought the décor was cute and service was prompt but not overly engaging.

Dink prices … Ouch! Very good food (especially for an airport) and very nice staff. WARNING: be sure to ask the price of any item, especially drinks that don’t list a price. $ 17.50 for a gin and ginger … Really?!

GOOD PLACE FOR A QUICK BITE AND A COLD DRINK. Not many other options here at terminal 1 if you have some time to kill. Wine is overpriced… but they have a corner on the market. The Kale salad is quite good as is the hummus platter. The clam chowder was OK. I would go again but probably try the beers and either the burger or a sandwich. The hummus platter will be a standby terminal 1 airport snack from now on. It was quite tasty. We had to ask for extra pita bread though. They did not provide enough bread to use all the hummus. I don’t recall if they charged extra for the additional pita.

As far as airport bars go, this one isn’t too bad. RDU could do worse.
Drinks are a wee overpriced, especially if you order the cocktails. Stick to wine or beer, and your tab will be much better off. A few local beers are kept on tap, which is a huge plus if you need a break from your bros Bud and Miller. The food is decent – I’ve had breakfast here for an early flight as well as their fried green tomatoes appetizer. Both meals were enjoyable, but not spectacular. The toppings (arugula and goat cheese om nom nooommmm) on the fried green tomatoes were better than the tomatoes themselves, for example.
The space is very airy, and the bar is not closed in by walls. You can see out into the A7 and A8 gates from the bar, which definitely highlights the ambiance of busy-​ness as travelers go to and fro. If you end up in the seating area, you have a good view of the runways as well.
Unless Starbucks started sneaking Bailey’s in their coffee, ACC is the only way to go if you’re boozy traveler! It’s the only bar in this terminal.

Very grumpy employees who have a hard time with English.
Bad service accompanied with overpriced food that tastes decent at best. You can do better, RDU…

Being the only bar in this terminal and 4 hours to kill before my flight, I gratefully sidled up to the bar.
They have an abundance of power outlets which is almost an automatic 4 stars for me, and the food menu seemed pretty decent. Being absolutely famished, I ordered the Kobe burger with sweet potato fries. As most places way over-​cook their burgers, I’m accustomed to ordering down. However, my medium-​rare burger most definitely came out medium-​rare much to my amazement (?). Too red for my normal burger tastes, as I ordered it expecting to receive my burger medium, I couldn’t exactly send it back as it was exactly as ordered!
The onion relish was pretty good, and i was very happy with the brioche bun it was served with. Even their sweet potato fries were impressively crispy and well seasoned without being too salty.
Next time I find myself at the southwest terminal of RDU, I’ll likely come back to this bar and try one of the NC beers they have on tap!

Actually one of the better airport bars. Food is decent. Bartenders are always good. And I love that they have hooks and outlets to share under the bar too for every two bar stools. Drink prices are good, and like all bars want to up sell to the monster size, but frequ

I ordered the Carolina (pulled pork) sandwich and it was decent. However, I was a little shocked by the price of the draft beer. No wonder they don’t state the price on the menu — it was $ 8.70. Seems a bit steep even for an airport bar/​restaurant. The service was good.

Food was good for airport food, I had breakfast and it was filling and tasting very good! I would recommend if your in the airport

The Power salad lived up to its name. It’s not easy finding a vegan salad with plant based protein. It was phenomenal and less than $ 10.

For an airport bar, it’s decent.
For being the ONLY bar in this terminal — it will work JUST FINE.
A few alarming details:
+ they had a keg on tap in March that they had originally tapped in December… and told me this AFTER I ordered a pint
+ I was one of 3 people at a bar setup for 30 and the service was less than average
I was there on another occasion when they were quite busy and the service was decent. I can’t comment on the food, but you can get local NC beers here. Just don’t expect them to be fresh.

Service is slow and non-​attentive. Seated myself. Took 10 minutes to get an omelet. I never saw my server again. I had to flag down another server to get my check, as my flight was boarding. $ 11.26 for a veggie omelet, the smallest and closest to inedible side of berries I’ve ever seen, and some oily home fries. I actually love flying Southwest, but this terminal really needs to get some better food options!

This place was pretty good for an airport. We had lunch here last Saturday while waiting on a flight. I recommend eating here if you are in Terminal A of RDU and need to eat.
The food was good. They have an interesting selection that is a nice change from the typical sports bar/​chain restaurant.
The service was ok. Though the place was empty when we arrived, we had to track down someone to seat us. Then, the waitress spilled a drink on the table. Otherwise, they were friendly and the food was quickly delivered.
The décor was nice.
The place was not clean. The menus were sticky, one of the tables was not cleaned, the chairs had crumbs on them. This was inexcusable, as the place was empty and there were many wait staff sitting around.
The wine prices are outrageously high — even by airport standards.

Good layover place to grab better than average pub food.
A little on the pricey side but that’s to be expected.
Service was good as was the wait to be seated.

The best of the choices. But that is not saying much.
Random observations…
Hearing a manager and the waitresses haggling over table assignments is not relaxing.
Cesar salad is defined by Romaine TOSSED in the dressing, not dressing glopped on half a heart.
Tortilla chips left in the guacamole as a pre-​prep means soggy chip pieces as I try to scoop up the guac.
The salmon was tasty.

Restaurants at the airport are expensive. It’s an unavoidable curse of traveling. But I don’t like to waste time or money on food that may come back to bother you on the flight. But not eating isn’t smart either, you may starve on that flight! That’s my rationale, at least.
The ACC American Café was in our terminal in the Raleigh Airport, so we decided to give it a try. We sat at the bar and ordered the buffalo burger, a bit healthier than a regular burger, but the bartender said it had a good flavor, which it did. My boyfriend and I split the burger and fries and it was the perfect amount of food to hold us over on our flight. The bartender did try to up-​sell us on every aspect of the order and it did get a bit annoying. I’m sure this is part of their training, but it’s not what a customer wants to hear when they may already be spending more than they wanted on a meal. But I think for us splitting the meal, it was fine and I’m actually wishing I have a buffalo burger again right now!

I can recommend the buffalo power burger which was awesome — perfectly cooked, flavorful, with an amazing onion jam and toppings. The sweet potato fries were also good. I also recommwnd the kale salad with goat cheese, cranberries, and a delicious dressing.
The servicr was rather slow which meant I had to eat really fast once ifinally got my food, and my server seemed to think that I had all the time in the world. I didn’t. I was at the airport and I had a plane to catch. I spoke to the manager who was genuinely concerned and promised to handle the service issue. Be sure to tell your server that you are on a schedule so they don’t dawdle. Otherwise, the food was great and I recommend this place.

Bosi was one of the best servers one could ask for not just for an airport but hands down just a fantastic guy. He was very prompt with requests and offered very fitting suggestions for our order. I had the flatbread with goat cheese, vinaigrette, spinach and fresh strawberries. He knew the menu well and could pick out something tasty based on our likes without even speaking! He was very thoughtful and helpful. We loved our short pit stop after such a hectic last two weeks of touring in a different city each night. Kudos for this hire! I see him managing this establishment soon! Thank you!

Food: I ordered the Kobe burger and glass of Cabernet Sauvignon. Both the burger and the glass of wine were good, but my order was a bit messed up. I ordered the burger with brioche buns, but they brought it out with a whole grain bun. As for the wine, instead of bringing me what I ordered, they brought out a Chardonnay.
Service: Service was pretty decent, but it seemed like everybody was new. I’m guessing it’s because the terminal had been recently renovated and had just reopened. My waiter put in the correct order for both my wine and burger, but brought out the wrong drink and the wrong kind of bun was used for my burger. I’m pretty adventurous with my foods, so I decided to give it a try and not send either back.
Location: In the airport terminal.