Restaurant Review - The Landings - Carlsbad, CA

I've been to Carlsbad (or CRQ in aviation acronym world) a few times since I've been flying in Los Angeles.  It's one of my favorite places to visit.  The ocean is close, the temps are usually cool, the scenery is beautiful, plenty of planes and plenty of great places to eat.  On one of my previous flights the FBO told us about a new restaurant that opened at the airport called "The Landings".  My copilot and I went there for breakfast and it was very good.  We had a trip this past week with a stop in CRQ to pickup some passengers.  When we pick up passengers we arrive at least an hour ahead of time, usually earlier.  We usually don't have much time to eat when picking up passengers and don't even think about it.  We got word soon after we arrived in Carlsbad that our passenger would be about an hour late.  It was good and bad news since we now added an extra hour to our day but that meant we were able to get some lunch.  I knew exactly where I wanted to go.

Scott, my copilot, and I walked over to "The Landings" from Western Flight Services, our FBO at CRQ today.  The walk was a short couple of minutes and we had landed at a table with a beautiful view of the runway.  The restaurant was quiet, maybe three tables were occupied.  It was 4pm so I wasn't expecting a huge crowd.  The restaurant has indoor, outdoor seating and a bar.  We chose to sit outside under the umbrella and enjoy the nice weather.  It has been in the upper 90s lately in LA so it was nice to get to CRQ where the temps were in the 70s.  

If you tell someone that you're eating at a restaurant at an airport their initial thought is that it's probably nothing special.  People think, it'll be loud with planes and people.  Either a lot of travelers or pilots hanging around and the food probably won't be that good.  This place was far from that experience.  The ambience here is very nice, in fact I rate it eight spatulas.  The inside and outside is simple and a clean design.  Wooden tables outside with umbrellas and nice tables inside with a nice color scheme.  There were tall glass barriers outside to separate the airport movement area and the restaurant, which also acted like a sound barrier.  The ambience was 7 spatulas.

The staff was very nice and helpful.  Our waitress was a nice lady with what I believe was a British accent.  We sat ourselves and she basically followed us to our table to get our drink order.  She was very happy, easy-going, polite and knowledgable.  She gave us a few minutes to look over the menu and came back almost at the perfect time to take our order.  There is a delicate balance for waiting staff between bothering me and ignoring me.  I don't need to be checked on every two minutes, but maybe every ten minutes depending on the meal.  I don't want to come off as a snob.  I'm very tolerable and don't get vocally upset if a waiter takes 15 minutes before they even say hi.  I'm more interested and curious about how they act and treat customers.  It's interesting to see what kind of staff a restaurant has, tells a lot about the manager and the restaurant.  Although I only met one person of the staff, I rate her nine spatulas. 

The food was delicious!  Everything at the restaurant sounded good.  After looking over the menu, I found myself debating between a couple of items.  A burger always sounds good, a salad or maybe some fish.  But I wanted something a little healthy so decided on the chicken caesar lettuce wraps.  The wraps were very good.  They were nicely packed and the lettuce and chicken tasted fresh.  The tortilla was very soft and there was no overwhelming flavor from any one ingredient.  There wasn't a lot of dressing/sauce, so the wraps weren't soggy and did not have juice flying out as I ate them.  The fries were not as hot as I would've preferred but their flavor was still good.  I give the overall food seven spatulas.

My overall rating of "The Landings" was an 8 out of 10 spatulas.  In my opinion, airport food as a whole doesn't have a great reputation.  Airports attract a lot of different clientele.  A lot depends on where the airport is located.  Carlsbad is definitely a unique, higher end airport.  Therefore the better the clientele, the more appeal a nice restaurant/chef would have in being at the airport.  When visiting a small airport with no commercial airline flying in and out the clientele is a lot different.  Less foot traffic, probably less money coming into the airport and less appeal.  When you spend most of your job at airports you will find that some small airports hide some amazing cooks.  Finding a hole in the wall cafe or diner is some of my happiest moments as a pilot and food enthusiast.  After you've visited a few airport restaurants, you begin to understand that there are some amazing airport restaurants out there.  It seems there are two kinds: one, where you realize after the meal that you are in fact at an airport restaurant and that's the caliber of meal you expected, or two, where you finish a wonderful meal and feel surprised to be sitting at an airport.