Bay Cafe

I know they’ll probably close it down and replace it with some national airport chain, but this restaurant is one of the few reasons I enjoy flying out of Oakland International.
The food is so so, although it’s not as overpriced as a lot of airport fare. Depending on what their special is and how long it’s been sitting there, you might be in for a treat. But you’ll probably just be eating bland or over-​salted food.
As weird as it sounds, I love sitting near the netting and watching people wait in the security line. No, not because I’m a voyeur or even much of a people watcher; the tables I’m talking about used to overlook the baggage claim before they moved it to the new part of Terminal 2. The tables themselves are airport-​themed. Beneath the clear plastic or whatever the artificial material is, there’s a 1980’s-looking pattern of luggage tags. Apparently, before computers printed out the tags they put on your bags, there were physical pre-​printed tags with the airport codes on them. Each of these tags had a different color combination; I assume this was so that baggage handlers could more easily identify misplaced luggage.
Although I’m a nerd, I didn’t know this beforehand. I don’t even know this now. I’m just making an assumption because of the collective hours I’ve spent examining the tables here.
There’s something just weirdly relaxing about eating here. I’ve waited when there were a bunch of people below and when the airport was basically empty (just before the final flights were leaving around New Year’s).

This was a nice place to relax after I’d passed through airport security and I had 2 hours to wait for my flight.
All the bars and cafes out on the south pier were full, so I backtracked to the familiar balcony restaurant across from gate 25. There was plenty of seating, the sounds of the airport below receded to a quiet din, and the pigeon netting overhead accented the indoor-​outdoor atmosphere.
Meatloaf with steamed vegetables and rice, with a diet Coke, came to $ 13.00. The register receipt said $ 12.89, but the clerk didn’t offer me any change. I let that slide. It was great to have an uncrowded place to sit and take a break on a stressful travel day.