The Medalist Bar

TL;DR CLOSED???
I think this place is closed forever. I hope so cause Terminal 1 really needs to have better options. It was the only «restaurant» in the terminal after security check, so hopefully this becomes something better. Seriously I would welcome a Mcdonalds.

This is hands down the shadiest bar I’ve ever been to, and I’ve lived in some shady places. Like most things JFK, the waitstaff were aggressively rude at worst and apathetic at best. The bartender blatantly tried to rip me off when she thought I was good and drunk. «Excuse me, miss, but normally the tip is 30% of the bill.» «According to who?» «…have a good evening, miss.» I can’t say I’m shocked to find this scam at the sketch-​tacular JFK, but this level of obviousness is surprising.

This place is dog shit. but packed cause it’s this place or the walk up panini place. Surprised there isn’t atleast one other sit down restaurant. DONT GET THE PIZZA. Imagine if Costco couldn’t sell their 1 $ frozen pizzas n Ross, Marshalls or TJ MAX, bought them for 10 cents each. Then sold them for 12.99. Straight up Jail food for airport patrons. Atleast the beer is served in gallon jugs.

Service: Terrible. the waiter could care less about the customer. Not even once he came to check on our table. If you have a full dining room and you still have time to stand around, something is wrong.
Food: We had the wings. all sauces were on the side regardless of what you get but it was ok. We ordered the Brisket Sandwich. It was literally 2 slices of beef. The quality was really poor.
Overall: It can do if its the only place available but I personally wont come back here.

All right. Let’s be honest here, it’s an airport bar. The food is not great, drinks are overpriced, even the TVs are kinda fuzzy…
But all that said, I just walked through every nook and cranny of Terminal 1 at JFK, and there is definitely no better place to eat than here. The other options are Panini Express and their affiliated Martini Bar, which are equally if not even more terrible.
Panini Express foods are all premade and refrigerated or left out buffet style for hours on end, and then reheated. At least at Medalist, they try to cook it up «fresh.» I’ll also say that while the service was just okay, I didn’t have any of the horror stories the rest of the reviews mention.
Overall not a great place, but probably one of the better choices on the block.

Rarely do I eat somewhere so bad that I am compelled to write a review about how bad it is. Staff could care less. Waited 10 minutes until i had to stand up and find a server to ask to order, even though 3 had repeatedly walked by me sitting at a table. ‘Nachos’ for $ 12 are cold velveeta on grocery store chips.
Eat anywhere else in this terminal.

The worst place I’ve ever eaten in an airport. No – actually, the worst place I’ve ever eaten. I’d rather dumpster dive at Burger King. Don’t do this, even if you have to beg for food elsewhere. Their Rueben (yes, they called it that) is probably a effect example why food «protection» laws exist; you should not be able to buy a Rueben of this quality within the city limits of New York. I’m pretty sure someone just flings a small meat pile at some rock hard toast (pre-​slathered in cheesy dressing goo), and maybe occasionally bothers to dump some kraut on maybe half of this mess. Yeah, it’s terrible. You’d be better off eating out of a toilet. Oh… and the world’s most terrible sandwhixhes? 13.00

Infamous Infamous Infamous Infamous Infamous Infamous Infamous Infamous … And Infamous.

Deserves ZERO stars! Service is non-​existant. You may sit for 20 mins before you even get a menu, let alone can order. The worst I’ve seen… even by airports standards!

If I had a choice to eat at this place or to insert my head inside a horses rectum, I would rather choose the second option because I would be left more satisfied.
That’s all you need to know.

Not much to say except poor customer service, terrible stale nachos. The wings were good though. I got naked wings with sauces on the side.

I would give this no stars if I could. We sat down in a packed restaurant at the only empty table. The waitress hustled over, but didn’t greet us, she was scouring the table for her tip from the last group. My father greeted her and she looked at him, said nothing, and left. She then disappeared for 10 minutes. In that time, nobody else came over or cleaned our table. We finally just… left. We told the manager on our way out and he simply shrugged us off.
I have low standards for an airport restaurant, but this was horrendous.

Horrible. Fruit flies broken plastic fork. Burger over cooked for $ 14. Can’t understand the bartender. Avoid. Worst I have had

Friendly service and good place to grab a beer and catch the game while waiting for a flight. The food is horrible. Thankfully we got a preview of the food from people around us. After learning half of the food wasn’t available we decided to share a pizza which made McDonald’s pizza taste good. Everything is basically frozen food. If you’re staving like we were, the cheese pizza is edible. Just don’t expect anything more.

Most depressing bar in the most depressing terminal at JFK. I almost feel sorry for the staff — except they’re so depressed.

Summary: Figure out something else for food. Drinks are fine.
Atmosphere: It’s an airport bar and one of the only sit down places in Terminal 1. It looks like a diner next to a bar with TVs.
Service: They are exhausted if the airport is busy, but the place is run well enough that others kick in with ambiguous roles of server/​barkeep/​chef/​busboy step in and help. It can be hard to get staff’s attention if it’ extremely busy. They weren’t bad though, so much as overwhelmed. The 1 star goes for the food and the general vibe.
Food: I met the loveliest people while reacting to the simple requests they had for food.
Question: «Could I get my burger medium rare?»
Answer: The burgers are pre-​cooked, so medium or well done.
Question: What about a salad?
Answer: We’re out of that. When it’s busy we really only have the following items remaining (wings, burger, pulled pork sandwich)
Question: oh ok, I’ll have the pulled pork sandwich. (His friend had the burger).
I got the wings. Here’s how it turned out:
1) The burger: Edible to a chosen few. The meat looked odd, like a larger version of McDonald’s hamburger meat but without the charm. The bun was wilted (?).
2) The Wings: I got the honey sauce. Whether you chose buffalo or honey, the sauce comes on the side. Having finished my mid-​weak run, I saw the wing as a source of protein. But if you were looking for wings and not drinking, I might skip this.
3) The Pulled Pork Sandwich: While it looks approximately correct, the gentleman I met had the following feedback, «I think you actually have to try to make something taste this bad.»
Expectations are definitely everything. Mine were low and this met them. I would likely try the Turkish place across the way, though there is no table service.

This restaurant has, by far, the rudest and most incompetent and inept staff I’ve ever encountered at a food establishment. Last year, I visited the Medalist Bar and waited over 20 minutes to even receive a menu. We almost left after waiting an additional 45 minutes after placing our order for simple turkey sandwiches. This restaurant is in an airport and people have flights to catch; such extensive delays are unwarranted especially when the staff exacerbates the problem by failing to present menus in a timely fashion and taking extended periods of time for simple rudimentary orders.
Unfortunately, I had an even worse experience this year. After waiting for 20 minutes again for a menu, I decided to take a bag of chips out of my carry on bag out of dire hunger. Only then did the wait staff realize that we were waiting for a menu and proceeded to reprimand us for eating outside food. I said that I would throw it out.
The waiter proceeded to raise his voice in a boisterous and disorderly fashion even after I agreed to discard the bag of chips. I requested the manager who I was told was unavailable.
Not surprisingly, I overheard two other heated arguments between patrons and the wait staff. It comes as little surprise that this restaurant has a ¹⁄₅ on Unilocal

Don’t get the wings. I think they’re made from NYC pigeons cuz that’s how small they are. Wings were overdone, dry.
The crackers were waaayyyyy toooo salty.
My friends enjoyed their salad though.
The only redeeming part was the «patio» seating somewhat close to the charging station and good for people watching.
As aspected for airport food.

Airport bar, so don’t expect too much. Drinks are good and service is attentive. They also offer deals on drinks, which is just what a weary traveler needs.

Very boring airport bar & «restaurant»…beer was just beer, no special selection. What gives this place one star is when I asked for my burger to be cooked medium well, their response was «we just heat it up, its a pre made patty» AKA reminiscent of low grade government produced elementary lunch meat. I would be ashamed to offer that meat in my business. I say grab a beer and catch your flight.